Mrudula Chodavarapu is a junior at the McDonough School of Business. She is pursuing a double major in Operations and Analytics (OPAN) and Finance and is also part of the Sustainable Business Fellowship program. Mrudula works in the Ries lab and has found this experience to be an opportunity to explore business sustainability through a different perspective and to expand her intellectual horizons.
Mrudula has been enthralled by the pursuit of knowledge from a very young age. In particular, butterflies have remained a constant fascination for Mrudula since her childhood because they remind her of her community. Thus, when presented with the opportunity to get involved in butterfly research by Dr. Cynthia Wei, Mrudula eagerly accepted the opportunity. Dr. Wei introduced her to Dr. Leslie Ries of the Ries Lab of Butterfly Informatics, and Mrudula found herself captivated by the prospect of combining data-driven decision-making with her passion for ornate insects. The Ries Lab is part of the Department of Biology and focuses on the intersection of data analytics and lepidopterology throughout North America. Additionally, they conduct research on the thermal tolerances of butterflies, moths, and skippers, supporting data curation and management efforts throughout North America.
Mrudula supports ongoing research in the Ries Lab by conducting statistical analyses of collected ecological, biological, and developmental data on butterflies. This work includes conducting multi-factor analyses on the impacts of nutrition, temperature, and timing on the development of silver-spotted skippers. Mrudula uses coding software such as Python and R to efficiently transform the data to answer questions regarding butterfly development. Mrudula’s skills in programming and statistical modeling prove particularly useful in this process.
Mrudula has found the Ries Lab community exceedingly supportive, allowing her to pursue independent projects while fulfilling her responsibilities as an undergraduate research assistant. This opportunity has allowed her to expand both her intellectual and personal spheres and hone her data-wrangling techniques. As a Sustainable Business Fellow, Mrudula’s classes focus primarily on the sustainability of businesses, so this opportunity to explore the cross-section of science and business has introduced a new lens through which she can interpret business sustainability. In the future, Mrudula hopes to research the impacts of industry-originating externalities on butterfly biodiversity in the contiguous United States.