Vandana Prasad
Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences
Dr Vandana Prasad is an Evolutionary biologist interested in the early history of grasses, high resolution biostratigraphy, biotic turnover, paleo-environment and relative sea level change during Late Cretaceous-early Palaeogene. She was a Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Geology, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France in 1998, was selected to attend 1st In-House Science Meet of the Autonomous Institutions under DST to present outstanding contribution in Paleoboatny held at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advance Scientific Research, Bangalore, September 23-24, 2006, and she was invited to be a member of the Indian delegation team of young scientist to participate in the 2nd Indo-American frontiers of Science symposium organized by Indo-U.S Science and Technology Forum in partnership with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to present outstanding contribution Irvine, California, January 2007. She was awarded the “Diamond Jubilee Medal-2006 & Citation” by the BSIP for publishing papers of high quality in Refereed Journals, and the Smithsonian Fellowship to undertake “comparative study of low latitude Palaeogene flora of India and South American subcontinents” at Smithsonian tropical Research institute, Panama, May- June, 2007. She was a nodal person in conducting the International Earth Science Olympiad entrance exam for college students in Lucknow in 2010. She served as an Expert member in the DST Earth Science Fast Track programme for Young Scientist between 2012 and 2015, and was nominated as guide for Summer Research Fellowship Programme (Inspire/KVPY) 2012, jointly sponsored by the three national science Academies of the country. Her research paper was awarded the Prof S. K Singh Memorial Gold Medal for Best paper published in the journal of Paleontological Society, India for 2012. She was a member in the Indian delegation team to attend Indo-German workshop on ‘Environmental challenges in Asia at GeoForschungs Zentrum Potsdam, 14-17 January, 2013, sponsored by DST and DFG. She is a Life member of the Paleobotanical Society of India and the Palaeontological Society of India, and a Member of NECLIME (Neogene Climate Evolution in Eurasia).