I have worn several hats in my professional career so far. From being an engineer working in the power sector in India, to being a marketing executive and business development manager working in the remote farms of Southeast Asia, India and China to working as an business analyst in the mature biotech industry in Denmark and North America, my varied work experiences drew me back to academics. I am drawn to investigate the interplay between economic growth and environmental degradation or conservation. With a degree in Economics from UGA and now as a PhD student with ICON and the Odum school of Ecology, I intend to focus my research on investigating how different cultures and different patterns of economic growth impact ecological conservation and what lessons can be learnt for rapidly growing economies like India to have an all encompassing economic growth.