Upinder Singh Bhalla | |
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| Born | (1963-06-21)21 June 1963 (age 62) |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Computational and experimental studies on neuronal and Synaptic signalling |
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| Scientific career | |
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| Doctoral advisor | |
Upinder Singh Bhalla (born 1963) is an Indiancomputational neuroscientist, academic and a professor atNational Centre for Biological Sciences of theTata Institute of Fundamental Research.[1] He is known for his studies on neuronal andsynaptic signalling in memory andolfactory coding using computational and experimental methods[2] and is an elected fellow of theIndian Academy of Sciences[3] and theIndian National Science Academy.[4] TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2007, for his contributions to biological sciences.[5] The Infosys Science Foundation[6] awarded him the Infosys Prize 2017 in Life Sciences for his pioneering contributions to the understanding of the brain's computational machinery.[7]
Upinder S. Bhalla, born in the Indian capital ofDelhi to an academic couple who were professors atJawaharlal Nehru University, enrolled himself at theIndian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for an integrated master's program but discontinued his studies at IITK after one year to joinCambridge University from where he graduated in natural sciences.[1] Subsequently, he secured a PhD under the guidance ofJames M. Bower fromCalifornia Institute of Technology in 1993 and did his post doctoral studies at the laboratory ofRavi Iyengar atMount Sinai School of Medicine.[8] Returning to India, he joinedNational Centre for Biological Sciences, aBengaluru-based biological research centre ofTata Institute of Fundamental Research where he became an assistant professor in 2002 and an associate professor in 2003, before becoming a professor in 2012.[9] He heads a laboratory atNCBS where he hosts a number of research associates, post-doctoral fellows and doctoral students who are involved in the research on Memory andPlasticity through computational and experimental methods.[10]
Bhalla's research has widened our understanding of memory functioning and he has contributed to understanding theneural coding of olfactory information.[11] His team at NCBS usesoptogenetic techniques for monitoring brain cell activity and uses light to stimulate the activity.[12] Bhalla and his colleagues developedMOOSE (Multiscale Object-Oriented Simulation Environment), a simulation tool which helps build computer models of molecules and molecular networks.[13] He has mentored several research scholars in their doctoral and post-doctoral studies[8][14] and is a member of the council of the Indian National Science Academy.[15]
Bhalla received theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize of theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research in 2007 for his contributions to Biological Sciences.[5] The same year, theIndian Academy of Sciences elected him as their fellow.[3] Three years later, he also became an elected fellow of theIndian National Science Academy.[4] In 2017, he received theInfosys Prize in Life Sciences for the excellent work he has been doing for the last two decades which is now not only nationally but internationally recognised as one of the fundamental ways of how we study the role of olfaction in behaviour.[16] In 2018, Bhalla became a laureate of theAsian Scientist 100 by theAsian Scientist.[17]
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