Sathyabhama Das Biju

S. D. Biju (Sathyabhama Das Biju) is Senior Professor at Department of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, India where he has served as Dean, Faculty of Science, and Chair (Head), Department of Environmental Studies.

Biju’s research focuses on amphibian taxonomy, systematics, behavior, evolution and biogeography.  His work contributes to conservation through discovery and documentation of species. For nearly 35 years, Biju has been conducting research on amphibians in Asian forests to document their diversity, life, and behavior. Biju has made an indelible mark on amphibian study. A taxonomist par excellence, he is the only Indian herpetologist to describe 116 new amphibian taxa (2 families, 10 genera, 109 species) — nearly 25% of the country’s diversity. His work has been published in top-tier journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the Royal Society.

Biju completed his degrees from Kerala University and obtained his first PhD was in Botany from University of Calicut, India. He contributed to knowledge on plants through several scientific publications and books. His second PhD was in animal science from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. After that he focused exclusively on amphibians. His over three decades of work thereon has attracted global attention to amphibians in South Asia. He has discovered over a hundred new species, including the famed Indian Purple Frog and published over 100 articles in top scientific journals like Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Proceedings of the Royal Society. His findings have been widely reported in popular press like BBC, National Geographic, CNN, Times, Forbes, The Economist, New York Times and The Guardian, to name a few. Biju’s contributions have received prestigious recognitions such as the IUCN/ASG SABIN award 2008 and Indian State Government’s highest civilian award Kerala Sree 2022. He was elected to the Indian National Science Academy (FNA) and Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc).

A former Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University, he continues as an Associate of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University. He was also a recipient of the INSA-Royal Society London Exchange Fellowship and The Royal Society London Fellowship for working at the British Museum of Natural History, London.

• Curriculum Vitae
• INTERVIEW: Journey of S.D. Biju: a pathfinder (Mathrubhumi, India)
• NEWS: India’s maverick ‘frog man’ (BBC); Who will fight for the frogs?  (Harvard Gazette)
• COVER STOTY: Frog hunters of the Western Ghats (The Economist)