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I am fascinated and intrigued by the diversity of life forms in nature, and awed by the infinite interactions/processes that create and maintain this diversity. My appreciation for nature has inspired me to study natural systems in ways I think will lead to their conservation. Most of my academic training and research is in plant community and ecosystems ecology. My current research is in the montane grasslands of the Nilgiris, south India. Over the past 3 years I have been examining the impacts of various land use and global change issues. I study the invasion process and its effects in the grassland, and its interaction with disturbances. I am also interested in understanding how disturbances per se affect ecosystem processes such as primary production and nutrient cycling, and community assembly. I use habitat and landscape level experiments and surveys, and GIS-Remote Sensing based approaches and tools to investigate. I believe my research findings will be crucial currency to lobby for appropriate conservation action in the Nilgiris.

Teaching

• BIO 153, Principles of Biology II, laboratory: Fall 2003, 2004, 2005
• BIO 151, Principles of Biology I, laboratory: Spring 2004, 2005, 2006, Summer 2007
• BIO 325, Introductory Ecology, recitation: Summer 2008
• BIO 103, Basic Ideas of Biology, grading: Spring 2009

• Srinivasan MP, Shenoy K and Gleeson SK. 2007. Population structure of Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius)  and its invasion impacts on the resident plant community in the grasslands of Nilgiris, India. Current Science, 93(8):1108-1113.
• Shenoy K and Madhusudan PS. 2006. Small mammal communities in a rapidly developing southern Indian city. Zoo’s Print Journal, 21(2): 2152 - 2159.
• Arvind NA, Rao D and Madhusudan PS. 2001. Additions to the birds of Biligri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats, India. Zoos’ Print Journal, 16(7): 541-547.