Professor Bandana Samant acquired her post graduation in geology from H. N. Bahuguna Garhwal University, Uttarakhand, India and she did her Ph. D in palynology of lignite deposits of Gujarat from prestigious Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, DehraDun, Uttarakhand. Dr. Samant carried out her postdoctoral research work as a Research Scientist, Research Associate and Senior Research Associate in projects sponsored by funding agencies such as Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In 2005, she joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, UP (India), the premier central university of India, as a lecturer and since 2009 she is working at the Postgraduate Department of Department of Geology, RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur, India. She is credited to have completed seven research projects awarded by reputed national funding agencies. She has published more than 60 research papers, including one in ‘Nature Communication’. She also worked as a collaborator in two National Science Foundation, USA funded research projects. She was awarded ‘Best Researcher Award’ by RTM Nagpur University in 2021. Prof. Samant has successfully guided three research students for Ph. D. She was a member of the National Working Group of prestigious International Geoscience programme, IGCP-609. She has visited the USA, Ireland, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, Korea to deliver invited lectures and present her research work. She is working on the palynoflora of Deccan volcanic associated sediments to understand the response of the flora to Deccan volcanism induced climatic and environmental changes. Her research work is also focused on the coprolites of sauropods to understand habitat and diet of dinosaurs during Late Cretaceous.
Dr. Deepali Thakre completed her Postgraduate degree in geology from the Postgraduate Department of RTM Nagpur University. She did Ph.D. work on the palynological study of Deccan volcanic associated sediments of Chhindwara district, MP, for assessing the effect of volcanism on contemporary flora towards the K-Pg boundary, from RTM Nagpur University. She worked as a Junior Geologist in the Directorate of Geology and Mining (DGM). Prior to her appointment in DGM, she was a Junior Research fellow at the Space Application Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad, Gujarat and in SERB-DST sponsored project at the RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur. Her research work is focused on understanding the environmental and climate perturbation brought by the Deccan volcanic eruption, its effect on flora, and the dynamics of palynofloral turnover close to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, especially in terrestrial environments.