Himani's CV
Education
2014
2007
Ph.D. and MSc., Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai: Aggregation-Fragmentation Models for Transport in a Biological System.
BSc. (Hons), Physics, St. Stephen's College (University of Delhi)
Academic and Research Appointments
since 2020
2017 - 2019
2015 - 2017
University assistant (senior postdoc) at the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna
Postdoctoral fellow at the IST Austria (Barton group)
ISTFELLOW Postdoctoral fellow at the IST Austria (Academic host: Nick Barton)
Fundings and scholarships
since 2024
2017
2015 - 2017
Can the infinitesimal model reconcile observations from Genome-Wide Association Studies and Evolve & Resequence?
Part of FWF SFB grant Polygenic Adaptation
(Funding for individual project € 334K, total funding for consortium € 3,9M)
ESEB Outreach Initiative Funds for organising a correspondence course and competition Selected Topics in Evolutionary Biology for high school students (jointly with B. Trubenová).
ISTFELLOW postdoctoral fellowship for Theoretical Study of Speciation in Variable Environments, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Co-Fund program
Research Interests
I use mathematical and computational approaches to investigate the effects of polygenic selection on adaptive response within populations and adaptive differentiation between populations.
Specific research projects relate to understanding a) the effects of linkage during polygenic adaptation, b) the evolutionary interplay between adaptive architecture and mating system, c) the effects of polygenic adaptation on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of sub-divided and marginal populations.
Teaching Experience
2020 - 2023
2022
2023
Co-instructor for various annual Master courses including Population Genetics, Exercises in Population Genetics, Molecular Population Genetics: Making Sense of Sequence Data and Mathematical Modeling in Evolution, Ecology and Epidemiology (since 2022), University of Vienna
Course co-ordinator for Molecular Population Genetics: Making Sense of Sequence Data
Co-instructor in Introductory PhD Course at Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics
Invited Talks (selected)
2024
2023
2022
2021
2019
2018
2017
Speaker at ICTS Program on polygenic adaptation, Bengaluru, India.
Seminar at Institute of Biodiversity and Eco-system Dynamics, University of Amsterdam: Modeling Polygenic Barriers to Gene Flow between Species.
Speaker at workshop on Mathematical Models in Ecology and Evolution (IHP, Paris): Polygenic local adaptation in sub-divided populations: effects of linkage disequilibria and genetic drift.
Speaker at workshop on Evolution of Species Ranges (online): Genetic load and extinction in peripheral populations: the role of migration, drift and demography.
Speaker at Vetmeduni (Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics seminar series), Vienna (Austria): The role of weakly selected, linked genetic variants during polygenic adaptation.
Early Career Speaker at the Fisher Centenary Meeting, Edinburgh (UK): Introgression under the infinitesimal model with linkage.
Seminar at the TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hyderabad (India): How intermixing populations evolve into distinct biological species: insights from a theoretical model.
Other Experience
Supervision of
Peer reviewer for
Lisa Mentgen, Masters (2023); biomaths track, University of Vienna.
Lisa Sonnleitner, Masters (expected 2024); biomaths track, University of Vienna.
Oluwafunmiola Olusanya, PhD (2023); IST Austria (co-supervised with N Barton & J Polechová).
Arthur Zwaenepoel, postdoc (since 2022); University of Lille (co-supervised with C. Fraïsse).
Li Juan, postdoc (starting Feb 2024); University of Vienna, funded by my SFB grant.
Eniko Szép, PhD project (PhD completed in 2020); IST Austria (co-supervision).
Parvathy Surendranadh, PhD project (ongoing); IST Austria.
2nd supervisor (on thesis committee) of 2 PhD students at Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics.
Genetics, Evolution, Molecular Ecology, eLife, PLoS Genetics, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, The American Naturalist, Philosophical Transactions B, Heredity, PCIEvolBiol, Theoretical Population Biology and EPL