Kripa Gowrishankar
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Physics of Biological Systems
- Statistical Mechanics and Phase Transitions
Biography
Kripa has a Bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Madras and a Master’s degree from IIT, Madras. She did her PhD at Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, broadly in the growing interdisciplinary area of physics in biology, and specifically on mathematical modelling of physical forces on the eukaryotic cell surface. She particularly enjoys the collaborative nature of work in this area and learned a lot about biology and experimentation from her peers. During her post doctoral work at University of California in Davis, she worked on self organization of spindles during cell division. She is interested in undergraduate teaching and research, because she believes that students of that age are highly enthusiastic, sharp and observant, but are not given enough opportunities in the prevailing education system. She would like to develop classroom demonstrations and involve students in simple research projects that are both highly educational and that could contribute to scientific research. Her research interests are broadly in the area of Physics in Biology, Statistical Mechanics and Physics Education.
Courses
Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics
Exploring the secrets of Energy and Entropy.
Introduction to Climate Science 1
Understand the earth's climate system through foundational physical concepts
Mathematics for Physics II
Computing in Physics
Learn to write programs and use it to understand physics.
Thermal Physics
A study of processes that involve energy and entropy.
Introduction to Biophysics
Explore this new and exciting area of research in which physicists and biologists work together in interdisciplinary ways.
Publications and Writings
- D, Gowrishankar K, Bilgrami S, Ghosh S, Raghupathy R, Chadda R, Vishwakarma R, Rao M and Mayor, “Nanoclusters of GPI Anchored Proteins are formed by Cortical Actin Driven Activity”, Cell, 135, 1 – 13 (2008)
- Gowrishankar K, Ghosh S, Mayor S and Rao M,“Active remodeling of cortical actin regulates spatiotemporal organization of cell surface molecules” Cell,149,1353 – 1367 (2012); Previewed in Developmental Cell
- Chaudhuri A, Bhattacharya B, Gowrishankar K, Mayor S and Rao M,“Spatiotemporal regulation of chemical reactions by active cytoskeletal remodelling” PNAS, 108, 14825 – 14830 (2011)
- Gowrishankar K and Rao M,“Nonequilibrium phase transitions in active contractile polar filaments”.