Shirley Telles has a degree in conventional medicine (MBBS) and a MPhil and PhD in Neurophysiology. Both MPhil and PhD theses were on the effects of yoga practice. Dr. Telles received a Fulbright fellowship in 1998 and in 2001 an award from the Templeton Foundation for creative ideas in neurobiology. In 2007 she received an Indian Council of Medical Research Center for Advanced Research to study meditation's effects through autonomic variables, evoked and event related potentials, polysomnography and fMRI. Dr Telles has been the director of Patanjali Research Foundation, Haridwar, India; www.patanjaliresearchfoundation.com since 2007. Dr. Telles has over 198 research papers cited in bibliographic databases and authored 7 books. She is an enthusiastic practitioner of yoga.