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I
am presently a fifth year Ph.D student in the Computer
Science Department at Stanford University.
I am a Stanford Graduate Fellow. I recently defended my thesis.
My area of interest is Human Evolutionary Genetics, and I am fascinated by the inter-relationship between genetics, archaeology and
linguistics, and the ability to extract our ancient history from our DNA. My advisor
is Prof.Serafim Batzoglou. I am currently working with
Prof. Luca Cavalli-Sforza
on using simulations to build and test models for ancient human migrations. Our research on the origins of anatomically and
behaviorally modern humans supports a Serial Founder Effect out of Africa. I am also working with Deborah Rogers on
simulations of egalitarian and hierarchical artificial-societies. The cultural shift from egalitarian, hunter-gatherer societies to the
hierarchical, agricultural societies (which started around 10,000 years ago) had important effects on human demography, fitness and the
selective environment, and we are trying to understand to what extent cultural evolution could have influenced the selection of
genetic traits by focussing on this specific and important cultural choice.
I have also worked on some problems in Optical Networking with my wife Smita Rai.
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I completed my undergraduation in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2002 and Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2005. | |
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Other interests: I am also very interested in the philosophical traditions of ancient and medieval India, and their interpretations of the "prasthAna-traya" of VedAnta. |