Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
virajtorsekar.bsky.social
Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
@virajtorsekar.bsky.social
Ecologist | Researches species interactions in the wild | Sometimes in the lab | Mostly in the head

#NewPI at GITAM, India | Past at Indian Institute of Science and Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem | Enjoys frisbee, cooking and geopolitics

https://torsekar.in/
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
An engineer wanted to make a quiet high-speed train. “The question then occurred to me — is there some living thing that manages sudden changes in air resistance as a part of daily life?” The answer: the kingfisher. See my story today for more tales of bioinspiration. Gift link: nyti.ms/4otNQyl
November 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Today, join #MVIF 43!

We will discuss the new bioinformatics approaches, latest findings in drug development, cancer studies and more!

There's still time to register: cassyni.com/s/mvif-43
🆕 #MVIF 43 program is out!

Free registration: cassyni.com/s/mvif-43

⭐️ Highlights:
🇵🇰 Muhammad Faheem Raziq
🇺🇸 Fuqing Wu

⭐️ Keynote:
🇮🇳 Deepa Agashe @deepaagashe.bsky.social

⭐️ Talks:
🇺🇸 Lukas Bethlehem
🇵🇱 Kinga Zielinska
🇸🇪 Eran Elhaik
November 12, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Meet our plenary speaker Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

Director of the India Program for the Snow Leopard Trust working on snow leopards and human-wildlife coexistence in the high Himalaya. His work focuses on the interactions between large carnivores, their wild prey, and farming communities.
October 28, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Many firsts for the lab at the @Behaviour2025 conference in Kolkata last week! 🎉

Two of our new PhD students (Shivam Shinde and Dhwani Dave) attended their very first Behaviour conference, and had an absolutely great time engaging with the community.

#Behaviour2025
1/5
September 3, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Animals don’t just live in their environments—they transform them. And in doing so, they may also shape their own evolutionary trajectories. Our new paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution introduces a framework for zoogeochemical niche construction. A thread 👇
August 21, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
When botanist Richard Deakin examined Rome’s Colosseum in the 1850s, he found 420 species of plant growing in the ruins: cypresses and ilex, pea plants and more than 50 types of grasses.

But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
November 8, 2024 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Since we've moved platforms, I thought I'd make a new explainer thread for our (Aamir Sadiq, @vishuguttal.bsky.social, Rohini Balakrishnan, and I) recent paper on tree crickets.

Meet Oecanthus henryi. Like in many cricket species, O. henryi males call to attract mates.

#science #evobio 🌍 🧬
April 17, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
To avoid predation by an invasive parasitoid fly, crickets on Hawaii are remixing their love songs for females but these escape plans might not be foolproof, at least not yet.
My latest for @thehindu.com is on an evolutionary arms race in real time.

www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/sci...
Scientists have found a cricket evolving rapidly to beat a new threat
Pacific field crickets in Hawaii evolved quieter songs to evade invasive flies, but flies adapted, illustrating a rapid evolutionary arms race driven by climate change.
www.thehindu.com
May 14, 2025 at 5:50 AM
🚨 PhD in Ecology 🚨

We’re looking for up to 2 PhD students to join our lab!
If you’re curious about behavioural ecology & species interactions, this is for you!

🌐 More info: torsekar.in
📅 Deadline for Univ PhD entrance exam: 12 May '25
🔗 Apply: tinyurl.com/23ubx89z
#PhDOpportunity #Ecology
Hello and welcome! We study how animals navigate an extraordinarily complex world, where interactions with both conspecifics and heterospecifics influence their survival and reproduction. At the heart of our research is a central question: Can organisms shape their own evolutionary trajectories through behaviour? To explore this, we focus on how animals manage predation risk—and how…
torsekar.in
April 16, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Thrilled to announce our symposium on the 'mechanisms of collective behaviours: theory, empiricism, and applications' as a part of the Behaviour 2025 conference scheduled August 25-30 in Kolkata, India.

Send in your abstracts and come join the discussion!
February 10, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Excited to announce our symposium on the 'maintenance of trait variation under sexual selection' as a part of the Behaviour 2025 conference scheduled August 25-30 in Kolkata, India.

Send in your abstracts!
1/2
February 9, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Exciting News! 🎉 Behaviour 2025 symposia are finalized! 🌍🐾

Join thought-provoking discussions on behaviour variation, evolution, neuroethology, comparative research & AI.

Visit our website for details & plan your trip to Kolkata for an unforgettable experience! ✨
February 1, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Registration is now open for the IISER Kolkata outreach event. 40 seats only! Thanks @abhadra7.bsky.social and others for organizing, this looks great!
December 2, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
Big day today! I've written a book on overconfidence and it's out in India! Equal parts nervous and excited 😊

Out in bookstores and online. Have a read and tell me what you think!
October 8, 2024 at 8:58 AM
"One Nation One Subscription will provide country-wide access (in India) to research articles all Higher Education Institutions managed by the central and state govts. It will benefit 1.8 crore students, faculty, researchers and scientists"
I wonder if this will work
www.livemint.com/education/ne...
www.livemint.com
November 26, 2024 at 4:25 AM
Reposted by Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर
I am at UCLA this week, giving an invited talk on our lab's work on collective animal motion at the Workshop: Modeling Multi-Scale Collective Intelligences!

www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/wor...
Workshop IV: Modeling Multi-Scale Collective Intelligences - IPAM
Workshop IV: Modeling Multi-Scale Collective Intelligences
www.ipam.ucla.edu
November 18, 2024 at 2:37 PM
That's me! Thanks Kate!
What a great conference that was.

If anyone's interested here are the papers I spoke about at #ISBE2024 -
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
and
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
November 12, 2024 at 3:15 PM
And I am gladly joining in
November 12, 2024 at 2:58 PM
That feeling when a paper cites your work in the appropriate context
Nod Nodding GIF
ALT: Nod Nodding GIF
media.tenor.com
May 28, 2024 at 4:48 AM