Aravind Karanam: Plant Physiology First Author

Aravind Rao Karanam, co-first author of “Boolink: a Graphical Interface for Open Access Boolean Network Simulations and Use in Guard Cell CO2 Signaling”

Current Position: PhD Student, Dept of Physics, UC San Diego

Education: BS, MS in physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Non-scientific Interests: Long distance running, Cricket, History, Learning languages

Brief bio: I grew up in Anantapur, a small town in southern India. During my undergraduate studies at IISc, I was inspired by exciting research there and in other research centers in Bangalore, namely NCBS and JNCASR, in soft matter, ecology, and biophysics, all led by physicists. I did my bachelor’s and master’s thesis in the research group of Prof Srikanth Sastry at JNCASR, investigating particle displacements during yielding in soft materials using computer modeling. After graduating with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in science in 2017, I joined the physics PhD program in UC San Diego and have been in Dr Wouter-Jan Rappel’s research group for more than three years. My other research interests include understanding the reaction pathways involved in Chemotaxis in Dictyostelium slime molds. I am also greatly interested in improving how science is taught in the university and communicated to the public at large.