Chennai scientist bags Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship for climate-resilient crop research

A Chennai-born scientist Samathmika Ravi, has been awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral Fellowship, one of European Union’s most competitive research grants.

An alumna of Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai, Ms. Ravi later pursued a Masters in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology from the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bengaluru, and completed her Ph.D. in Animal and Food Science at the University of Padova, Italy. She has built her research career at the intersection of genomics and crop science.

Her fellowship project, Bytes4Beets, focuses on identifying climate-resilient traits in wild relatives of sugar beet, aiming to support breeding strategies that can withstand rising temperatures and environmental stress. The fellowship includes a research phase at the University of Western Australia, followed by a return phase at the University of Padova. While centred on European agriculture, the work holds broader relevance for global food security and climate adaptation.