Chena Desai is a doctoral candidate in the Ecology and Environment Lab. She joined the Lab as a master's thesis student in 2019 and as a PhD student in 2020. She has completed her Integrated Master Of Science in Life Sciences from Ahmedabad University. For her PhD dissertation, she is studying the causal relationship between environmental stimuli and ecological processes, in terms of niche occupancy and species interactions, using two congeneric, cichlid species (Etroplus maculatus and Etroplus suratensis) under manipulative, laboratory conditions.