Dr. Tanusree Pandit (b.1984) is a first class post graduate from Calcutta University (2005-07) in Anthropology with specialisation in Pre-History and Palaeoanthropology. After passing her Masters she was inclined to know more about on how Humans evolved so she stepped forward to take a leap to make it possible. She started her journey and earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Palaeoanthropology from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom and has completed her dissdertation on “Revised focus on the neuroscience of the brain in Archaeological Context: Special reference to Oldowan and Acheulian techno-gradient” under the direct supervision of Prof. Lawrence Barham. She strongly believed that the teaching should not stay within the boundary of the books so she worked voluntarily as a Demosntrator at the Weston Discovery Centre, World Museum Liverpool and got herself trained in Museum related activities from 2008-2009 under the direct supervision of Ms. Gina Couch, Director, Weston Discovery Centre. After coming back to India, she got selected as a guest researcher in the Palaeoanthropology lab at the Anthropological Survey of India, Government of India and worked for 02 months in the year 2010 under the supervision of a renowned scientist Dr. Anek Ram Sankhyan. In the same year the same research organisation hired her for the post of Project Research Assistant and gained experience in DNA analysis and sequencing of present day population. During her association with the Governmental organisation she attended many conferences and presented papers. In the year 2011 she was selected as a Junior Research Fellow in the same Governmental Organisation in the Palaeoanthropology cum Osteology lab and had an opportunity to work with the Harappan skeletons, the one and only large scale repository of it in India. Later in the year 2014 to 2016 she was selected as a Senior Research Fellow at the same organisation and had an opportunity to work in a large scale project “Siwaliks Expedition” under the direct supervision of Dr. Anek Ram Sankhyan and Dr. Biswanath Sarkar. In the month of December in the year 2016 she joined Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh as a Doctoral Scholar under the supervision of Prof. Ramesh Sahani presently acting as an Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Delhi University, India and Prof. Sushama G Deo, Former Head, Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute, Pune, India. Her research is on “Palaeolithic Archaeology of River Sher, Central Narmada Basin, District Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh”. During her doctoral research she got more interested on the Middle Palaeolithic of India and the prehistoric cognitive skills. Her thesis is now ready for open defense.
At present she is working as a Biology teacher in an ICSE affiliated school in India and has been appointed as a Visiting Examiner by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination. She participated in many national and International conferences and published papers in the journals of international repute related to Palaeoanthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology. She was awarded Partial Travel Grant by the Calcutta University in the year 2015 as a part of attending IUAES 2015 at Thammassat University, Thailand. She was chosen as an Evaluator at the Child Scientists 24th State Level Congress, Kolkata, India in the year 2016. She even has gained voluntary teaching experience at the Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India from the year 2017 to 2018. She is also associated as a Bibliographic Editor for EXARC journal. She also acted as one of the chapter reviewer of a book entitled “Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology” edited by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera and Lara Braff (2019); American Anthropological Association, Arlington, VA.
To streamline her research career she is now keen to take a deep dive into AI and Machine Learning to understand the cognitive domain of prehistoric minds. “I would like to make wider connections with the researchers and institutes both from lithic experts as well as cognitive specialists who would help me build a platform to explore the prehistoric minds”.
Education and present status
Doctoral Scholar in Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Specialisation
My area of Specialisation is Prehistoric Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology.