Hi!
I am Neelabja (nee.lab.joe)

Self Reflection

Like any other famous (now a) figure of speech, this one too is so widely misinterpreted that "Jack of all, master of none, but oftentimes better, than a master of one" has turned out to be in the form that is currently known to be. But it is exactly that original text, that I find to be surprisingly meaningful to my own life and being. Why?

I believe that any truth, if it is indeed objectively true, can be and should be reached at with multiple paths of search.
As someone who is trying to become well-rounded in the interdisciplinary perspectives of understanding our brain, mind and existence, I have been dipping my research feet into the different approaches of the famed cognitive hexagon. And no part has ever seemed to not be a worthwhile exercise to become the jack of most trades in the craft of understanding the historically puzzling question of why we are (and) how we are.

I am currently a PhD researcher in Psychiatry working on social neurocognitive basis of psychiatric disorders National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), India with Dr Urvakhsh Mehta at his Schizophrenia Lab. Concurrently, I function with him as the Data Scientist at the SHARP Project. My work here bases itself on the premise that the traditional biological reductionist mechanism, in its current state, is not the best equipped to holistically study or understand the brain, which unlike any other organ in our body, is in constant flux with the external inputs and updation of own sensory schemas. But as well as studying its own self. Thus, I explore the underpinnings of manifested psychiatric disorder conditions in the neurobiological bases, but also in the domains of materialist social, environmental, economic, philosophical conditions and behaviours.
I have also been collaborating in research projects with Dr Christopher Krupenye, of the Social Origins Lab at Johns Hopkins Univ on a project.

Earlier, I have been professionally engaged as a lead Project Associate with Dr Ark Verma's Lab at IIT Kanpur, and as a research analyst with IndianPAC before that.

Academically, my constant confusion with my own existence had landed me at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur as a Cognitive Science MS(by Research) student. It was an unparalleled experience of learning and growing as a serious academic researcher.
Before that, my undergraduate training in B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering graduate from HIT Kolkata. The experience was sparsed with enriching lessons from a few extraordinary beings.

I could not have asked for a better schooling experience for 12 years at my second home, South Point High School, Kolkata.

In the midst of all these academic endeavours (which you can find here), I have been indulging in a political cognition & public policy researcher, in data analysis and software-development, both professionally and as a hobby. You can find some of them here .
Football, along with trying to stargaze underneath polluted skies count as my leisure.