PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Parul Verma

Parul Verma is a computational neuroscientist and chemical engineer who builds mathematical models of the brain, using machine learning and bifurcation theory among her tools. After a chemical engineering degree at IIT Bombay, she earned a Purdue PhD in 2020 under Doraiswami Ramkrishna, with a thesis that applied machine learning to blood metabolites to predict chemotherapy-induced neuropathy in pediatric leukemia patients. As a postdoctoral researcher in Ashish Raj's Brain Networks Laboratory at UCSF, she worked on spectral graph models of brain oscillations and, in 2024, was first author of a paper on the long-range excitatory time scale in Alzheimer's disease. She won the 2024 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring, and in November 2023 her move to the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras was announced. As of October 2026, she is an assistant professor there and affiliate faculty at its Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Timeline

  1. By 2020

    IIT Bombay and a Purdue PhD

    She earns a Bachelor of Technology in chemical engineering at IIT Bombay, with a research project on moment closure methods for a TNF-alpha signaling model under Ganesh Viswanathan. She completes a PhD at Purdue in March 2020, advised by Doraiswami Ramkrishna in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering.

  2. 2020

    Predicting chemotherapy neuropathy

    Her Purdue thesis applies machine learning to blood metabolite profiles of pediatric leukemia patients to find metabolites that predict neuropathy from the drug vincristine, and the trained models run in an open-source tool, VIPNp. In 2020, she is first author of the Scientific Reports paper "A Metabolomics Approach for Early Prediction of Vincristine-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy", which introduces VIPNp as a free tool for physicians. Her 2020 papers on pain-sensing neurons include "Using Bifurcation Theory for Exploring Pain" and an analysis of a 9D model for a small DRG neuron.

  3. By 2021

    Postdoc at the Brain Networks Laboratory

    By 2021, she is a postdoctoral researcher in the Brain Networks Laboratory of the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF, where Ashish Raj is her principal investigator. An Alzheimer's Association mentored postdoctoral fellowship funds her work on dynamic functional activity in Alzheimer's disease, carried out with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. In 2021, she coauthors a PLOS Computational Biology paper with Justin Torok, Pedro Maia, Christopher Mezias and Raj on directional bias in tau deposition from axonal transport.

  4. 2022–2023

    Spectral graph models of brain oscillations

    In 2022, she publishes an improved spectral graph model of brain oscillations in NeuroImage with Srikantan Nagarajan and Ashish Raj; the analytic model captures magnetoencephalography frequency spectra of resting healthy subjects. In August 2022, she coauthors a Frontiers in Neuroscience review with Raj and Nagarajan on structure-function models of whole-brain functional imaging. Her 2023 Network Neuroscience paper, "Stability and dynamics of a spectral graph model of brain oscillations", has the same two coauthors.

  5. November 2023

    A faculty post at IIT Madras

    In November 2023, the Ramkrishna Research Group at Purdue announces that she will join the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras as a faculty member early in 2024. She plans to continue her brain research there.

  6. 2024

    A Dean's Award for mentoring

    She wins the 2024 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring, announced by Purdue's Ramkrishna Research Group in January 2024.

  7. 2024

    Excitatory time scale in Alzheimer's

    In 2024, she is first author of "Impaired long-range excitatory time scale predicts abnormal neural oscillations and cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease", published in Alzheimer's Research and Therapy with Kamalini Ranasinghe, Srikantan Nagarajan, Ashish Raj and other coauthors. In July 2024, she is also a coauthor of a Communications Physics paper that uses simulation-based inference with the spectral graph model to estimate how EEG spectra mature through development.

  8. As of October 2026

    Assistant professor at IIT Madras

    She is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras, specializing in computational neuroscience, and her group builds mathematical models of the brain to study diseases, brain states and neurotechnologies. She is also affiliate faculty at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and a faculty member of the Centre for Integrative Biology and Systems medicinE (IBSE).

Career

  1. Since 2024IIT MadrasAssistant Professor
  2. Department of Radiology and Biomedical ImagingPostdoctoral Researcher

Education

  1. 2020Purdue UniversityPhD
  2. IIT BombayBachelor of Technology

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Parul Verma yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. About me - Parul Verma parulv1.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Alumni – Ramkrishna Research Group engineering.purdue.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Towards Understanding Neuropathy from Cancer Chemotherapy and Pathophysiology of Pain Sensation: an Engineering Approach docs.lib.purdue.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. A Metabolomics Approach for Early Prediction of Vincristine-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy | Scientific Reports nature.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras: Dr. Parul Verma che.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Emergence of directional bias in tau deposition from axonal transport dynamics | PLOS Computational Biology journals.plos.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Spectral graph theory of brain oscillations--Revisited and improved | VIVO Weill Cornell Medical College vivo.weill.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Frontiers | Structure-function models of temporal, spatial, and spectral characteristics of non-invasive whole brain functional imaging frontiersin.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Parul Verma Set to Join as a Faculty at IIT Madras – Ramkrishna Research Group engineering.purdue.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Dr. Parul Verma wins 2024 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring – Ramkrishna Research Group engineering.purdue.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Simulation-based inference of developmental EEG maturation with the spectral graph model | Communications Physics nature.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  12. Parul Verma | Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence wsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  13. Parul Verma - IBSE - IIT Madras ibse.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.