Naya Banerjee
Graduate Student, Field Naturalist Program
Cohort AO, Class of 2026
BIO
As an adolescent, Naya left suburban Maryland with her family to settle in New Delhi, India. In the midst of that immense city, she found herself in an oasis of wilderness as she rambled the thorny, dry, deciduous jungles of the Delhi ridge. Born to two Indian biologists, she was drawn to the academic life, working as a researcher and professor of mathematics for over a decade at the University of Delaware. She has also done stints as an apprentice arborist, a carpenter, a farmworker, and has trained and worked as a psychoanalyst. The Covid pandemic underlined the fleeting nature of existence and prompted her to integrate her joy of being a part of the natural world with her professional life. Through the FN program she hopes to hone her field skills and to work on the environmental issues that affect the communities in her chosen home. Besides relaxing in stillness, Naya enjoys caring for forest and garden, learning to wrench on machinery, perfecting her whole wheat sourdough, and roaming the mountains with her canine and human loved ones.
Bio
As an adolescent, Naya left suburban Maryland with her family to settle in New Delhi, India. In the midst of that immense city, she found herself in an oasis of wilderness as she rambled the thorny, dry, deciduous jungles of the Delhi ridge. Born to two Indian biologists, she was drawn to the academic life, working as a researcher and professor of mathematics for over a decade at the University of Delaware. She has also done stints as an apprentice arborist, a carpenter, a farmworker, and has trained and worked as a psychoanalyst. The Covid pandemic underlined the fleeting nature of existence and prompted her to integrate her joy of being a part of the natural world with her professional life. Through the FN program she hopes to hone her field skills and to work on the environmental issues that affect the communities in her chosen home. Besides relaxing in stillness, Naya enjoys caring for forest and garden, learning to wrench on machinery, perfecting her whole wheat sourdough, and roaming the mountains with her canine and human loved ones.