ABOUT THE TALK
Human beings are closely connected with the biodiversity around them. They directly use these plants and animals for food, medicine, clothing, and shelter. In ancient times, the places where people lived determined what they ate. Many plants and animals we use today might have been completely unknown in India in the past. For instance, we know that potatoes were brought from the Americas by the Portuguese and the English. Could not these plants have been found in both India and the Americas before they were introduced here? How do we know this? What other plants and animals that we use are like potatoes? Could we not make Chettinad chicken if we lived in Ponniyin Selvan times? Why is this even a question?

In this talk, we will examine how the ideas of Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace affect the way we think about the history and geography of living beings. We will try to find out whether or not we could have made and enjoyed a specific recipe of Chettinad chicken if we had lived in the 10th century CE.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
After getting undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the Department of Botany, University of Delhi (1969-74) and teaching for two years at Miranda House, University of Delhi (1974-76), R. Geeta joined the Agricultural Research Service, working at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research and then at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (1976-1987). She went on to get a PhD. degree at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, working with Michael Donoghue (1987-1993). R. Geeta was awarded the Katherine Esau Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the University of California at Davis with Jim Doyle, Judy Jernstedt and Neelima Sinha (1994-1997). She joined the faculty of the Department of Ecology and Evolution at SUNY Stony Brook and was there from 1997 to 2009, after which she left Stony Brook and the US to join the Department of Botany, University of Delhi, in 2009. Full circle. She retired from DU in 2018, and is now based in Chennai, where she continues to think, talk, and discuss about evolution and phylogenetic biology, as well as participating in science communication at diverse levels, harking back to initial forays with the Tamil Nadu Science Forum in its starting phas