Dr. Anish Kirtane

I’m Anish. I grew up in India, endlessly curious about nature—first as a tiger safari guide, now as a scientist. I've always loved finding organisms in their ecosystems, whether it’s a tiger in the jungle or a beetle in the dirt. That curiosity evolved into a passion for building sensitive tools to study biodiversity on a deeper level.

Today, I work with environmental DNA (eDNA)—the genetic traces that all organisms leave behind in their environment. It’s like nature’s own detective trail, and by following it, we can uncover patterns in ecosystems that were previously invisible. I'm currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich, where I leverage the eDNA analysis to understand the natural world.