Jewel Johnson

Ph.D student at Ball State University

Email: jewel.johnson@bsu.edu

Phone: +(91) 8301082500

Web: https://sciquest.netlify.app/

About Me

My name is Jewel Johnson, and I am pleased to share with you some information about myself. I am a Ph.D. student at Ball State University and will be studying embryonic learning using fathead minnow fish. I am interested in understanding how and why animals behave the way they do. Moreover, I have gained a fair amount of experience in R programming, particularly in data visualization, data wrangling, and statistical modeling. As a personal endeavor, I have begun to document my acquired skills through tutorial-style blog posts. In my free time, I enjoy engaging in photography, read books and participate in outdoor activities. Recently I have been trying to improve my cooking (and eating) skills.

Education

Ph.D student (Environmental Sciences)

Ball State University, Indiana, USA

Present

Integrated BS-MS Dual Degree in Biological Sciences

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, India

August 2015 - August 2020

Experimental Skillset

  • Experience in training and handling honeybees and hornets for behavioural experiments
  • Experience in honeybee keeping and maintaining honeybee colonies
  • Experience in using spectrophotometer (Maya 2000, Ocean Optics, USA)

Technical Skillset

  • Proficient in R programming: Knows ggplot2 ggpubr ggstatsplot tidyr and dplyr packages
  • Skilled in statistical modelling using R: Linear models, Generalized linear models, Generalized mixed effects models.
  • Familiar with website creation using Rmarkdown distill and quarto packages in R. Made a personal blog using quarto
  • Intermediate knowledge in HTML5 and CSS languages
  • Have an Indian Union Driving licence (4-wheeler and 2-wheeler)
  • Wildlife Photography
  • Presentation and communication skills
  • Management skills

Research Experience

Major Degree Thesis

IISER-TVM, India

May 2019 - April 2020

Visual ecology of the Giant Honey Bee (Apis dorsata)

This project was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Hema Somanathan. The Giant Honeybee (Apis dorsata) is known to be facultative nocturnal species of bees who occasionally forage on flowers during crepuscular and full-moon periods. Despite having day-adapted eyes, it is not known how A. dorsata can forage in low light conditions. So my project was aimed at understanding the visual ecology A. dorsata.

During this project, I developed a novel training paradigm for training A. dorsata as they are open nesting species that are quite aggressive and cannot be reared or handled in a controlled lab environment. I performed classical conditioning and Y-maze experiments and, conducted video observations. I learned how to use the software BORIS for video analysis. Data analysis and data visualization was done using R.

Semester Project

IISER-TVM, India

May 2018 - Dec 2018

Morphometric analysis on Asian Bees

For this project, I managed and stored around 100 different species of insect specimens and performed basic morphometric measurements on them using the ImageJ software.

Summer Internship

IISER-TVM, India

May 2018 - Dec 2018

Investigating the role of phenylalanine in the Asian Honeybee (Apis cerana)

It is known that honeybees rely on pollen as their primary source of protein and we also know that flowers which are primarily pollinated by honeybees contain a cocktail of amino acids in their nectar. In this project, I investigated the role of phenylalanine, an essential amino acid for honeybees in terms of learning in the Asian Honeybee (Apis cerana).

During this project, I performed classical conditioning experiments and did data analysis using R.

Summer Internship

IISER-TVM, India

May 2017 - June 2017

Visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of the Greater Banded Hornet (Vespa tropica)

The Greater Banded Hornet (Vespa tropica) is a hymenopteran predator who is declared as an invasive species by many countries in Europe. They are also generalists who employ a wide variety of foraging strategies which makes them excellent model organisms to study cognition and vision.

In this study, I performed classical conditioning experiments to study colour and shape learning abilities in V. tropica. Later I checked their olfactory preferences by performing a dual choice experiment. The data from the experiments were analyzed using R. I also received first-hand experience in writing the manuscript of this study which was later published in 2021. The study also garnered media attention from The Wire Science.

Awards and Honors

  • Achieved all India rank of 52 in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2020 in Ecology and Evolution Paper. GATE score 606 and GATE Reg no: EY20S57226002 (2020)
  • Achieved all India rank of 91 in Council of Scientific & Industrial Research - Junior Research Fellowship (CSIR-JRF) and National Eligibility Test (NET) Exam 2019 Fellowship (Reg no. 367970). This is the qualifying exam for PhD and lectureship in India. (2019)
  • Received best exhibit award for the project presentation on DNA Hard drives in the IISER-TVM Annual Science Fest (2016)
  • Recipient of Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) fellowship. For 5 years of study in IISER-TVM. (2015-2020)

Publications

  • Balamurali, G. S., Reshnuraj, R. S., Johnson, J., Kodandaramaiah, U., & Somanathan, H. (2021). Visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of the greater banded hornet, Vespa tropica. In Insectes Sociaux (Vol. 68, Issues 2–3, pp. 217–226). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-021-00820-w. (You can email me if you want a copy)

Conferences & Presentations

  • Poster: Visual associative learning and odour preferences in a hymenopteran predator Biology across kingdoms : School of Biology Symposium and Department day (September 2019) IISER-TVM, India
  • Presentation: Role of phenylalanine in learning in Asian honeybee (Apis cerana) Second Bangalore Meeting On Asian Bees (March 2019) NCBS Bangalore, India
  • Poster: Visual associative learning in the Greater Banded Hornet (Vespa tropica) Young Ecologists Talk & Interact (YETI) 2018 (January 2018) Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India

Extra Curricular Activities

  • R programming enthusiast: Made tutorials on data visualization, data wrangling, introductory statistics and statistical modelling.
  • Co-founder of whatsthisdata, a Twitter handle promoting science communication through data visualization for the public
  • Co-founder of The Ecological Society of IISER-TVM, a student body for promoting environmental awareness and safeguarding the greenery on the campus
  • Managed EcoGO, an ambitious project for mapping the entire fauna and flora in IISER-TVM via iNaturalist

Interests and Hobbies

  • Photographing wildlife
  • Blogging and science communication
  • Badminton
  • Birding
  • Teaching
  • Trekking and cycling
  • Listening to music

For the pdf version of this resume please click here. [Last updated on Aug 2022]