Field: Neuroscience

When parents prepare you to take on life and motivate you to take your desired path, you are sure to make your mark. The same thing happened with Vidita. She was born to parents who were both clinical scientists and motivated her to go after her dream. She had an immense interest to read since childhood.

Vidita received her undergraduate degree from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai in Life Sciences and Biochemistry. She obtained her doctoral degree in Neuroscience at Yale University with Professor Ronald Duman, whose mentorship shaped her research career. Her postdoctoral work was done at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and at the University of Oxford in the UK, which she completed in March 2000.

She joined the Department of Biological Sciences, TIFR  as a Principal Investigator. Her research is centered around the role of serotonin in shaping neurocircuits of emotion during critical periods of postnatal development and on the mechanism of action of fast-acting antidepressant treatments. Through her research, she has helped in understanding how individuals develop vulnerability or resilience to stress-associated psychopathology.

Her work has garnered the 2015 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for Medical Sciences. She is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development in 2012. She was supported by her late husband in her career as well.

I urge my readers to listen to the below Ted x talk to understand how our brain changes with experience delivered by Dr. Vidita Vaidya.

My one-line takeaway: Sometimes you choose the path and sometimes the path chooses you; in both cases give your best.

Click the letter to read previous posts in A2Z challenge : A / B/ C/ D/ E/ F/ G/ H/ I/J/K/L /M/N/O/ P/ Q/R/ S/T/ U

PS: I have planned to take up non-fiction this year as my theme for the A2Z challenge, where every day in the month of April ( except Sundays) I will be writing about women in the stream of science and their contributions.  Disclaimer -The information collected is from different sources available online.

The main objective is to draw inspiration and share information about such great lives who did it, despite all difficulties in their life.

Love,

Chinmayee