Hugo Francisco de Souza is a Ph.D. scholar cum scientific writer based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. His academic passions lie in biogeography, evolutionary biology, and herpetology. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, where he studies the origins, dispersal, and speciation of wetland-associated snakes. His research involves extensive fieldwork across coastal India, where he spends his night tracking snakes in knee-, or even chest-deep water. This is followed by DNA extraction, processing, prayers to the PCR Gods, and genetic analysis, which comprise his bread and butter.
Hugo has received, amongst others, the DST-INSPIRE fellowship from the Government of India for his doctoral research and the Gold Medal from Pondicherry University for academic excellence during his M.Sc. His research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, including PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and Systematic Biology. He has been invited to give talks, classes, and seminars to budding scientists on ecology and evolutionary biology.
Hugo is a section editor for the scientific journal Reptiles & Amphibians and is regularly called upon to peer-review herpetology and biogeography papers in other publications. He enjoys teaching, reading, and writing, but few things come close to his obsession with debating. He has been fortunate to have been called upon to judge school- and college-level music and debate competitions, though he secretly wishes ‘anime quizzes’ were a thing.
When not working or writing, Hugo can be found consuming copious amounts of anime and manga, composing and making music with his bass guitar, shredding trails on his MTB, playing video games (he prefers the term ‘gaming’), or tinkering with all things tech. Hugo used to spend a significant portion of his time playing basketball, football, or badminton, but there’s only so much you can do in 18 hours of wakefulness.