Rate My Professor Ajay Narendra

Ajay Narendra is a Professor and Research Training Director in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University. He completed his BSc (Hons) at St Joseph’s College of Arts & Science, Bangalore University in 2000, MSc in Remote Sensing and Cartography at Madurai Kamaraj University in 2002, and PhD in Biological Sciences at Macquarie University in 2007. After his doctorate, he undertook postdoctoral research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University in 2006. He then secured an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2009 and ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award in 2012 at the same institution. In 2015, Narendra returned to Macquarie University as an ARC Future Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences, progressed to Associate Professor in 2023, and was promoted to Professor in 2026. Additionally, he has served as Co-Director of the Pollinator Futures Research Centre since 2025 and leads the Ecological Neuroscience Group.

Professor Narendra's research centres on cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying spatial learning, memory, and navigation in Australian invertebrates inhabiting diverse environments including Central Australian deserts, intertidal zones, rainforests, urban landscapes, and dim-light habitats. He integrates behavioural, physiological, and neurobiological approaches and develops innovative tools for reconstructing fine-scale movements. Key publications include "Sexual dimorphism in jump kinematics and choreography in peacock spiders" (2025, The Journal of Experimental Biology), "The relevance of goal directed movement for insect pest control" (2025, Current Opinion in Insect Science), "Visual physiology of Australian stingless bees" (2025, Journal of Comparative Physiology A), "Before the brink: considering sublethal impacts of climate change on stingless bee flight performance" (2025, Journal of Thermal Biology), "Polarisation vision in ants, bees and wasps" (2014), and "Vertical Lobes of the Mushroom Bodies Are Essential for View-Based Navigation in Insect Brains" (2020, Current Biology). His achievements include the ARC Future Fellowship (2015), ARC DECRA (2012), ARC APD (2009), Executive Dean Award for Research Collaboration (2022), and Tall Poppy Science Award (2008). He convenes BIOL3310 Invertebrate Biology and Behaviour.