Prof. V. Thiyaga Rajan (Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences)
B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D (University of Madras)

Fields of interest
Environmental proteomics, proteome plasticity and environmental change, ecological and economic consequences of larval exposure to environmental stressors, ecological developmental biology-larval metamorphosis in real world.

In 2000, I completed my PhD in Marine Zoology, with an emphasis on larval ecology, settlement and metamorphosis and biofouling in cooling water systems in nuclear power plants, at the University of Madras. Immediately after my graduation, I joined Prof PY Qian's larval biology laboratory at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, as a Post-doctoral Fellow. During these days, using multi-faceted approaches (from classical through to the most modern molecular/statistical techniques) I have examined ecological concepts/questions related to larval settlement and then studied the response of benthic population/community, especially early life-stages, to a variety of environmental stressors and addressed several scientific and practical issues of coastal zone management and environmental impact assessment (i.e. recovery of both micro- and macro communities in coastal areas after sewage discharge and dumping of contaminated mud). I have authored over 45 peer-reviewed scientific publications on topics including marine ecology, larval biology, marine microbial ecology, developmental biology and environmental proteomics. Currently I am holding an Assistant Professor position in the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and also serve as a Resident Scientist in Swire Institute of Marine Science of HKU.