Dr Veena V. S. is an alumnus of IIST. She completed her PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics from IIST in 2018, where her doctoral work focused on the structure, evolution, and kinematics of massive star-forming regions. She subsequently held a Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Cologne, Germany, and a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), Germany, and is currently a guest researcher at MPIfR. She is a recipient of the 2019 K. D. Abhayankar Award for the best thesis presentation by the Astronomical Society of India. Her research focuses on molecular gas evolution and star formation in extreme environments, with particular emphasis on the Galactic Centre and the large-scale structure of the Milky Way. She combines millimeter, submillimeter, and low-frequency radio observations from facilities such as APEX, IRAM, Yebes, and GMRT, and has led multiple major observational programs from forefront as the Principal Investigator. She is actively involved in student supervision, proposal reviewing, and public outreach.