Devraj Singh 
 

How long have you been with the department? What motivated you to come to our department? Where did you live before starting at UK?

It has been three years and four months since I joined the Biology Department.

The faculty members conducting research in diverse areas, from ecology and evolution to cell and molecular biology, were a great motivation to pursue biology. Another attraction was Clock researchers’ niche developing within the department and across different colleges at UK. 

Before moving to Lexington, I lived in Bloomington, Indiana, for almost 4.5 years. 

Describe your time with the department so far. What are you most proud or excited about? 
Being able to start my own lab is the most exciting. 

What draws you to your work?
Interaction with students, researchers and a thought of advancing our research question to fill a small knowledge gap in our research area. 

What is your favorite part of your job? 
Being able to interact with students full of curiosity and learning exciting research from fellow researchers and listening to exciting research work at weekly seminars. 

What is the most challenging part of your job?  
Managing time to keep up a balance between research, teaching and personal goals. 

What’s your favorite course to teach and why? If this is your first semester teaching, what will you be teaching and what do you like about that subject? I enjoy teaching the BIO 350 (animal physiology) course because it gives me the flexibility to talk about physiology in the context of organismal, integrative and comparative levels. Also, the lab associated with each chapter makes it more exciting. 

Tell us about your research interests and why you are passionate about them. Is this something you’ve been working on throughout your career or has it changed over time?

Yes, I have been working on questions related to daily and seasonal timing mechanisms since my graduate school. I did participate in research questions that were not related to my core interest during my postdoctoral time. My research program is broadly focused on understanding the flexibility of the annual schedules of migratory and resident animals living in seasonal environments. I investigate the environmental cues and neuroendocrine and genetic mechanisms that determine when and how animals time their annual phenologies (e.g., nonbreeding to breeding). What are the ecological and evolutionary processes that have shaped the seasonal schedules of animals breeding and developing at different latitudes? How learning attributes of endogenous rhythms would help predict the capacity of animals to adjust their annual schedules to a changing environment, we have to understand the cues and mechanisms underlying timing decisions. 

What do you want the public to know about your research? 
Daily and seasonal timing is the core of the periodic behavioral and physiological processes that keep organisms in synchrony with the physical world. Any perturbation to the geophysical world caused by anthropogenic actions could affect the dynamics of organisms living in this changing environment. 

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement in your career? 
So far, I would say starting my lab at UK. 

What is something that you wish others (students, colleagues) knew about what you do?

Our research is focused more on seasonal timing in behavior and physiology. But we also study questions that could help us think of measures for avian conservation. 

If you could share one piece of advice with students, what would it be? 
There is no limit to learning, and don’t hesitate to ask questions. 

How do you spend your free time? 
I love watching documentaries on history, culture, and human civilization.

If you weren’t a biologist, what would you be doing? 
Maybe journalism. 

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? 
It would be a dish from India called “Tahri” made with rice, spices, and vegetables like potatoes, peas, cauliflower and carrots cooked in mustard oil. 

If you could meet one famous person, dead or alive, who would it be and why? 
Mahatma Gandhi, who is also known as the father of the nation (India). It mesmerizes me to read about how a single man’s thoughts of revolting through peace and nonviolence could reach the masses, leading to a country's independence.