Dr. Deepti Navaratna is a musician and neuroscientist interested in an alchemy of research and performance. After several years of neuroscience research at Harvard Medical School, USA, her current research interests span neuroscience, arts and humanities; exploring new frontiers of interdisciplinary knowledge such as cognitive hermeneutics, neuropsychology and empirical musicology. She is a Chevening Clore Fellow (2021-23), recognized by the UK Government as one of the most creative artists and dynamic leaders across the globe.
Until, recently she served as the Regional Director, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Bengaluru, India. She directed the centre’s research, academic and outreach activities at the intersection of science and humanities - with a focus on Indian knowledge systems. Under her leadership the centre was deemed a ‘Centre for Excellence’ under the Bangalore University and initiated a one-of-a-kind Post Graduate Diploma in Manuscriptology and Paleography. She served as the Chairman, Board of Studies, IGNCA Bangalore for curriculum development across music research, manusciptology and paleography. As an arts curator, she has curated over a thousand academic/outreach events
such as seminars, symposiums and public engagements.
While at IGNCA she was instrumental in the scientific documentation of several vanishing art forms such as the Kinhal art, Kerala Mural paintings and Ayyanar Terracota Votive Art. In 2018, she created the Raaga Laboratory, a first-of-its-kind laboratory studying Indian music from neuroscientific and cultural perspectives. The laboratory undertakes interdisciplinary research in Cognitive Musicology, Science of Raagas, Chants and Rhythm, Brain body computer interfaces for special needs and performance and Hermaneutics of Indian Music Cognition – study of texts of Nada Yoga & Natyashastra.
Deepti holds a doctorate degree in Neuroscience and has authored over twenty original scientific research papers, book chapters to her credit.