About me

I am an Assistant Professor at IIT Madras. My group will focus on mathematical modeling of the brain, and using the models to understand diseases, brain states, and neurotechnologies.

Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Brain Networks Laboratory at the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). My PI was Dr. Ashish Raj, who specializes in using graph theory techniques to investigate the whole brain connectome. You can follow our lab’s twitter handle for updates on our work. I was also funded by the Alzheimer’s Association via a mentored postdoc fellowship grant to work on investigating brain dynamic functional activity in Alzheimer’s disease, in collaboration with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

I obtained my doctorate degree from the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. I have been fortunate to be advised by Dr. Doraiswami Ramkrishna, who specializes in mathematical modeling, in particular in using population balance modeling and cybernetic modeling. You can find the details of my disseration here.

My thesis work was on predicting and understanding the mechanism of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: a side-effect which manifests itself as a painful, numbing and tingling sensation felt in palm and feet. I also worked on pain sensation, and investigated how some genetic mutations can shift pain sensation threshold. I used bifurcation theory, mathematical modeling, and machine learning for my work. Please check out a news release on our work at Purdue Research Foundation news, Medical Xpress, and HealthCanal. Here is my researchgate profile.

Before joining Purdue, I obtained my Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay. There, I carried out a research project on moment closure methods for TNF-alpha signaling model with Dr. Ganesh Viswanathan.

Contact me at [my-first-name] v @ iitm [dot] ac [dot] in.