Vidita Vaidya

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Vidita Vaidya
Vidita Vaidya.jpg
NationalityIndian
Alma materSt. Xavier's College, Mumbai
Yale University
AwardsShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, 2015

National Bioscience Award for Career Development, 2012

Fellow, Indian National Science Academy
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience with a focus on studying the neurocircuitry of emotion
InstitutionsTata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
Doctoral advisorProfessor Ronald Duman at Yale University

Vidita Vaidya is an Indian neuroscientist and Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Her primary areas of research are neuroscience and molecular psychiatry.[1]

Early life[]

Viditas parents, who are clinician scientists, and her uncle (a Malaria Parasitologist) were a big motivation for her to pursue neuroscience. Her father is a clinical pharmacologist, and her mother is an endocrinologist. She was also deeply influenced by the primatologists Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, during her teenage years.[2]

Education[]

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. Her postdoctoral work was done at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and at the University of Oxford in UK, which she completed in March, 2000.[1][3]

Career[]

She joined the Department of Biological Sciences, TIFR at the age of 29, in March, 2000, as a Principal Investigator.[4] She has been a Wellcome Trust Overseas Senior Research Fellow and an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2000-2005.[5] Vidita studies the neurocircuits that regulate emotion and how these mechanisms are influenced by life experiences, and antidepressants. She also investigates how changes in brain circuits form the basis of psychiatric disorders like depression and how early life experiences contribute to persistent alterations in behaviour. She was awarded the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 2015 in the medical sciences category[6] and is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian Academy of Sciences. She received the J.C. Bose Fellowship from SERB, Govt. of India in 2021.

Vidita's research has also been 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.[7] Her lab work is conducted on lab rats and mice. Vidita's particular field of interest lies in understanding how individuals develop vulnerability or resilience to stress-associated psychopathology.[4]

In January 2020, Vidita joined the editorial board of The European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN) as one of a panel of four new senior editors. EJN is the official journal of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS).

Features in Books and Videos[]

Vidita has been featured in Lilavathi's Daughters,[8] a compilation of biographical essays on Indian women scientists, and on "The Life in Science" blog.[9] In 2015, she gave a TEDx talk at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai in which she spoke about how stress can change our neurological makeup.[TEDx 1] She has also been featured in TIFRs "Chai and Why".[10]

Achievements[]

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.[11] She received the Nature Award for Mentorship in Science, 2019, in the mid-career category.[12]

Publications[]

Her site at TIFR hosts a complete list of her publications.[13]

Personal life[]

She has a daughter. In her spare time, she likes to travel, dance, and read.[2]

See also[]

  • TIFR

References[]

  1. ^ a b "TIFR - Principal Investigator". Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  2. ^ a b Vaidya, Vidita. "Interview with AsianScientist". Asian Scientist.
  3. ^ "Vidita A Vaidya - Info". www.researchgate.net. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  4. ^ a b TLoS (30 May 2016). "Vidita Vaidya Gets Into Your Head". The Life of Science. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  5. ^ "Former Associates". Indian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  6. ^ "List of recipients" (PDF). Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (SSB) for Science and Technology 2015. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  7. ^ junoontheatre (26 April 2015). "The Social Brain: Discoveries and Shared Delights with Prof. Vidita Vaidya". Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  8. ^ "Women in Science IAS - Vidita" (PDF). Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  9. ^ "Vidita Vaidya gets into your head". The Life of Science. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  10. ^ Vaidya, Vidita. "Molecules that modulate your mood". YouTube.
  11. ^ "Awardees of N-BIOS for the year 2012" (PDF). AWARDEES OF NATIONAL BIOSCIENCE AWARDS FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT. Department of Biotechnology, India. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  12. ^ Dance, Amber (6 February 2020). "What the best mentors do". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00351-7. S2CID 214423534.
  13. ^ "Publications". Tifr.res.in. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
Reference group
  1. ^ Vaidya, Vidita. "TEDx Talk". YouTube.
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