Room 019, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Central Campus
Ahmedabad University
Professor Shannon Olsson is a scientist, chemical ecologist, and educator. Born in rural New York State, Professor Olsson has dedicated the last 22 years of her life to listening to nature and the last eight years to laying the foundation for a sustainable India. She did her PhD at Cornell University and later started her academic career as a project leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Following this, she became a faculty member at the National Centre for Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India. Professor Olsson is an international leader who brings her unique approach of merging her science background with non-science communities in multiple countries and sectors. Professor Olsson has also served as a science consultant, sustainability identity advisor, and international speaker, helping organisations, companies, institutes, and governments across the globe to implement emphatic science into their climate action and sustainability planning efforts. A Fulbright Scholar, Ramanujan, and INK Fellow, Professor Olsson’s research has been featured by CNN, Nature, Science, Inverse, Cosmos, TEDx, Dublin Science Gallery, V&A London, Chemical and Engineering News, and the DST Science Express Train. Professor Olsson is a co-PI in the Biodiversity Collaborative and a founding member of ECOBARI (Ecosystem-based Adaptation for Resilient Incomes). With the advice and encouragement of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, she started the Echo Network, an international social innovation partnership focusing on increasing scientific awareness, engagement, and insight for sustaining India's human and environmental ecosystems.
Professor Tanavde is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences in Biological & Life Sciences division, and the Associate Dean of the Undergraduate College at Ahmedabad University. Professor Tanavde obtained his PhD in Applied Biology from the Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai (1999). From 1999 to 2002, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr Curt Civin at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, working on the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood and mobilised peripheral blood. Professor Tanavde’s current area of Research focuses on developing saliva-based diagnostics for cancer.
