Diacamma indicum is an queenless ponerine ant that is found from East India, South India and Sri Lanka. They form colonies in which the eggs are laid by a mated worker called the gamergate. Nests provide an organism protection from predators and shelter from adverse changes in the environment.

Colony cohesion and cooperation are essential for colonies to procure food acquisition through efficient foraging, building nests, rearing of juveniles, survival in adverse conditions, group defence and protection from predation. However, colony cohesion is disrupted when nests get destroyed and colonies are left exposed and vulnerable. Thus, ant colonies need to relocate to a different nest for their survival.

Relocation is a costly process in terms of time and energy and involves risks, such as predation, loss of resources, and colony fragmentation. Diacamma indicum colonies split into multiple temporary fragments before reuniting to a single site during the relocation in the natural habitat of these ants. We have tried to understand this reunification process by artificially fragmented the ant colonies in controlled laboratory conditions. When colonies were artificially fragmented, they mostly (25/30) reunified into a single nest. When the quality of the nest occupied by the sole reproductive was good, colonies reunified at this address. However, quality of new nest is more important than her presence as colonies choose the risk of relocating her when she was in a suboptimal nest. We have also used network analysis to better understand the reunification process.

Anabas testudineus, the climbing perch, is a species of fish in the family Anabantidae. It is native to Asia. They possess a labyrinth organ, a structure in the head which allows it to breathe atmospheric oxygen. Fish of this family are commonly seen gulping at air at the surface of the water. In their wild habitat these fishes are often found near the surface of water.

We had worked on personality traits of the shoals of climbing perch. We asked whether there is consistency among different methods for testing of personality traits. Further, we looked at how the personality traits affect the decision-making in this species.

The Ambassadors of Evolution Workshop funded by the European Society For Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) had been organized by the Behaviour and Ecology lab of IISER Kolkata with help of convener of the workshop Professor Dr. Anindita Bhadra.

The children of classes V to VIII of the Oriental Public School, Kalyani participated in the two-day workshop at IISER Kolkata Campus. The aim of the workshop was to introduce basic concepts in evolution to the children through short lectures and fun experiments.

About 50 students, who were participated in the workshop, presented their understanding of evolution to their peers in an open science fair at their school on 8th September 2017. I was part of this program as volunteer to help a group of students understands the basic concepts of evolution.

The Frontiers in Modern Biology(FIMB) symposium was organised by the Department Biological Sciences of IISER, Kolkata on 5-6th December 2015.

The symposium consisted of invited talks by eminent scientists along with student posters. The symposium covered diverse areas of modern biology across three main sessions- disease biology, genomics and evolution and interdisciplinary areas in biology.

 The 10th Year Celebration of IISER Kolkata Advances in Life Sciences was organized by the Department Biological Sciences of IISER, Kolkata on 13-15th January 2017.

The symposium consisted of invited talks by eminent scientists along with student posters. The symposium showcased modern biology in its diverse glory over three main sessions – Disease Biology, Genomics and Evolution and Interdisciplinary Biology.

The Workshop on Cyberspace and Cybersecurity was organized by IISER Kolkata on November 4, 2017. The workshop was consisted of a series of lectures on

• Cyberspace: Privacy and Security Issues by Prof. Chandan Mazumdar

• Quantum technology for hacker-free Society by Prof. Prasanta Panigrahi

• Introduction to the Quantum world 101 and some 010 by Dr. Rick Mukherjee

• Cyber Security: Attacks and Countermeasures by Prof. Dipanwita Roy Chowdhury

• Digital Security: Do We Need to Get Paranoid? by Dr. P. A. Sreeram

• Aspects of Quantum Cryptography by Dr. Goutam Paul