India News | DU Researcher Wins EO Wilson Fellowship to Study at Harvard

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) A Delhi University researcher has been awarded the Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Postdoctoral fellowship to work at Harvard University, the varsity said on Friday.

Sonali Garg was awarded the fellowship last week.

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Garg holds the distinction of discovering 50 new frog species, and is probably the first Indian woman to achieve this feat, according to a statement by the varsity's Department of Environmental Studies.

At Harvard, she will work at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in affiliation with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, said the statement.

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The Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) was founded in 1859.

The MCZ is a centre for research and education focused on the comparative relationships of animal life. Through this fellowship, Garg will further her quest for the discovery of earth's animal species, the statement said.

She took her PhD from the Department of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, under Professor SD Biju, it said.

According to the statement, Garg has studied frogs across India and outside India. Her extensive field expeditions have carried her into remote forests of the Western Ghats, Northeast India, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Outside India, her scientific forays took her to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand. A discovery from Indonesia is of one of smallest frogs found there, read the statement.

Apart from new species, Garg has described three new genera and resolved numerous century-old taxonomic puzzles.

“Her research largely focuses on unravelling the unique diversity of frogs, study of their evolutionary relationships using DNA, and biogeography to decipher patterns of historical and present-day distributions,” read the statement.

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