Swati Tripathi,^1,*,** Ajay K. Arya,^2,*** Sadhan K. Basumatary,^1,**** Samir K. Bera<sup>1,*****

1</sup>aQuaternary Palynology Department, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Luckn
²bDepartment of Geology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow-226007, Uttar Pradesh, India

^*Corresponding author: Email: swatidixit26@gmail.com
^**Swati Tripathi is currently working as a Scientist ‘B’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany. She focuses on palaeoclimatology using Quaternary pollen as a proxy. She was awarded a BSc from Lucknow University in 2005. She received three gold medals for obtaining the highest percentage of marks in MSc (botany), Lucknow University in 2007. She received her PhD in 2011 from the Department of Botany, Lucknow University. Swati worked as a research fellow and Birbal Sahni Research Associate before joining as a Scientist B. She is also the recipient of the Dr. B.S. Venkatachala Memorial Medal (2012) for her outstanding research work in palaeobotany. She has 24 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals.
^***Ajay Kumar Arya was awarded a BSc from the University of Lucknow in 2001, an MTech in applied geology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, in 2004 and a PhD in environmental geology from the University of Lucknow in 2013. He is currently an assistant professor in Geology at the University of Lucknow and is working on palaeoclimatology, environmental geology, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS). He has eight years' teaching and 11 years' research experience, and has published 10 papers in national and international journals.
^****Sadhan K. Basumatary was awarded a BSc from the University of Gauhati in 1995, an MSc in botany (special paper microbiology) from the University of Gauhati in 1998 and a PhD in Quaternary palynology from the University of Lucknow in 2011. He is currently a Scientist ‘C’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, working on palaeoclimatology using multiproxy data. He has 12 years' research experience, and has published 60 papers in national and international journals.
^*****Samir K. Bera was awarded a BSc in botany from the University of Calcutta in 1976, an MSc in botany from the University of Burdwan in 1978 and a PhD from the University of Lucknow in 1989. He is currently a Scientist ‘F’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, working on palaeoclimatology and using Quaternary pollen as a proxy. Samir has 33 years' research experience, and has published 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has visited Antarctica twice, and has supervised several research students.