Ruchira Sen, PhD

Ruchira Sen, is an Assistant Professor at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College (SGGS), Sector 26, Chandigarh. She studies behavioural and microbial ecology of social insects. She primarily studies the primitively eusocial wasp 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒊. Her focus is on the host-parasitoid dynamics and nesting biology of 𝑷. 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒊. She has discovered a new species of the strepsipteran parasitoid, 𝘟𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘴 𝘨𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘨𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘪, that parasitises on 𝑷. 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒊. She also studies the fungus-farming termite 𝑶𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 and the parsitoid wasp 𝑵𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒂 in collaboration with Dr. Rhitoban Raychoudhury at IISER Mohali. Her research is generously funded by ANRF, India.

She received her PhD by working on the behaviour of males of the primitively eusocial wasp 𝑹𝒐𝒑𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒂 under the supervision of Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar at IISc Bengaluru. Later she did her postdoctoral research on fungus-growing ants at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, with Prof Ulrich Mueller and on lower termites at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN with Prof M. E. Scharf.

She brings together field observations, molecular ecology, microbial community analysis, and behavioural experiments to understand how insect societies are maintained, how they resist parasites and pathogens, and what symbiotic microbes do behind the scenes. She is an editorial board member of the journal Microbial Ecology (Springer Nature) and received the Editor of Distinction award for 2026.

She teaches Zoology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has taught courses like 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝑩𝒆𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒓, 𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚, 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑬𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑵𝒆𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝑬𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑷𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏t She is the coordinator of Prof Puran Singh Science Society of SGGS College and organizes various events for the society. She is also the coordinator of NAAC Criterion 3.