Dr. Raisa is a mathematician and educator, with a research focus on algebraic topology, algebra (particularly non-commutative ring theory) and algebraic graph theory. As a research scholar at IIT Madras, she grew mathematically and strengthened her understanding of topology, analysis and algebra. Broadly, Dr. Raisa’s area of research was in Algebraic Topology, in particular the topology of real toric varieties and small covers. Algebraic Topology is the study of topological spaces (manifolds and varieties for example) through certain algebraic invariants associated with them. Her specific problem is the study of the topology of real Bott manifolds which are an interesting class of examples of real toric varieties. In her thesis titled “On the topology of real Bott manifolds”, supervised by Dr. V. Uma, they gave a criterion for the admittance of a spin structure on orientable real Bott manifolds as well as a graph theoretic interpretation of the same. Thus began her interest in graph theory. She is currently interested in graphs and studying the spectral properties of the matrices associated with them.

Before joining Chanakya University, Dr. Raisa was an Assistant Professor at St Joseph’s University in Bangalore where she taught several courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She shares a commitment to nurturing students’ understanding and appreciation of mathematics.