Even after having a deprived childhood, Dr. Arti Prasad has become a renowned name in the field of education and technology through her hard work and dedication.

Dr. Arti Prasad is a Professor and the H.O.D. in the Zoology Department of MLSU. She joined the University in 1988 and has been working there since then. She became a Professor in 2015 and since then, she has been guiding research scholars under her supervision. Along with that, she is the only Indian recipient of ‘Erasmus Mundus’ - an award given by the EU for her contribution to research in France. She also introduced two unique courses named ‘Diploma in Public Health Entomology’, a one-of-a-kind course in all of India, and ‘Forensic Entomology’. She is also an advocate of sustainable development and is working towards the goal of making society self-sufficient in terms of dealing with waste. For this, she motivated her students to collect all the waste from the college campus and use it in the vermicomposting unit that she has established in the department.  Seeing the effective changes taking place in the campus, she also motivated local schools to do the same and thus many schools have now become zero-waste institutes and have started their own vermicomposting units. Recently, she undertook a ‘RUSA’ project worth two crore rupees, to train secondary school level students from the tribal belt in mushroom cultivation. In the future, Dr. Arti plans to make her department even more sustainable with technologies like water conservation and solar energy.

Dr. Arti was born in Giridih, Jharkhand. She was brought up in a very good family, in which her maternal grandfather was an M.P, her paternal grandmother was a School Principal and her father was a lawyer. Everything was going well when tragedy struck her family with her mother’s untimely demise. At that time, Arti was only three years old and her younger sister was about one year old. To overcome this tragedy, her family decided that her father should go for higher studies and both the toddlers should be left with his elder brother, ie, Arti’s uncle. She was brought up with great care and affection by her uncle’s family. Academically, she was a good student and also liked taking part in co-curricular activities. Her father was awarded a fellowship and he went to Moscow, Russia to pursue it. He returned when Arti had completed her 12th standard. Eventually, both sisters went to Jaipur with their father who had got a job there. Arti did her B.Sc, M.Sc, and later Ph.D from Jaipur itself.

Dr. Arti says she learned many things growing up, living in deprivation taught her to remain grateful in life, and studying in Jaipur while also taking care of her younger sister made her strong and responsible. She was also very stubborn as she recalls that during college, she had taken a resolution to stop wearing colorful clothes till she tops the college because of a taunt made by a fellow student on her poor English skills. She eventually topped the college, and increased her English skills to the level that she was able to write editorial posts in newspapers. She went on to top the college in her M.Sc course too. Aware of her potential, Arti’s mentor advised her to pursue Ph.D during 1987.  She eventually did Ph.D from the U.S.A.

After completing her education, she got a job at the Vanashtali Vidyapeeth where she worked for two years. Thereafter, she was cleared for an interview for a job in Jodhpur but was not able to join as she had to fulfill her family responsibilities. Later, she received a call letter from MLSU, Udaipur and she joined there in the Department of Zoology.

Dr. Arti believes that the COVID pandemic was nature's way of telling us to stop exploiting it. She says many people suffered a lot due to the lockdown as there was also an economic crisis. However, she also says that Indians have good immunity compared to western nationals and therefore we witnessed a lower fatality rate. She says that the ultimate message that COVID has given us is to be more aware, more disciplined, and more helpful for society.

Talking about her achievements, Dr. Arti says that her journey is still going on. However, she believes that she has done justice to her duties as a daughter, a mother, a wife, and a human being. She also says that had it not been for a cultural shock, she would have performed even better academically in her college life. She considers the love and support of her family to be a huge achievement in life. However, she says that there is more to be achieved and the most important for her is to find a proper cure for Dengue, Chikungunya, and Malaria.

If Arti could go back in time, she would like to relive with her late mother. She also wants to relive the moments of her life when she used to live with her uncle’s family in Jharkhand, she says that there used to be a lively environment there despite all the hardships they faced.

Dr. Arti finds happiness through two things in life. The first one is reading, and the second one is traveling. She likes to read anything that she can get her hands on to relieve stress, and she travels to various places to experience various cultures and traditions.

Dr. Arti gives the message to the students to always remember the sacrifices made by their parents while raising them up and always respect them. Secondly, the youngsters should have proper goals and work towards them without digressing from it or wasting their time. Lastly, she thinks that the youth should be more considerate of their environment and society, and learn to take responsibility for their actions.