Javad Anjum

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	A Community-Based Cognitive Enhancement Program for Older Adults in Mysuru District, India
Field of Study:	Education
Home Institution:	University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Host Institution:	JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, Mysuru, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	December 2026
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Javad Anjum is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education at the University of Georgia. He earned an MBBS, a bachelor’s in medicine, and a bachelor’s in surgery, in India. He subsequently worked as a junior resident in the Department of Psychiatry and later pursued clinical research in the Department of Neurophysiology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, India. He then completed an MEd in educational research and evaluation and a PhD in speech-language science, both from Ohio University. Dr. Anjum also holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

Dr. Anjum’s overarching research agenda focuses on enhancing cognitive and communication outcomes for individuals affected by aphasia, a language disorder that often occurs after focal brain damage such as a stroke, and for individuals with dementia, a neurodegenerative condition that commonly affects both cognition and communication. He approaches this work through three interconnected lines of inquiry: examining the cognitive and lexical-semantic mechanisms that underlie language performance in people with aphasia and dementia; advancing equitable, person-centered neurorehabilitation models for multilingual people with aphasia and dementia; and developing interdisciplinary training programs to strengthen clinical service delivery for people with aphasia and older adults experiencing cognitive decline and dementia. His Fulbright-Nehru Scholar Award extends this third line of inquiry.

The aim of Dr. Anjum’s six-month Fulbright-Nehru flex project is to develop, implement, and evaluate an interdisciplinary cognitive enhancement program for older adults in Mysuru district. Toward this, it is tailoring evidence-based cognitive stimulation activities (brain exercises) that are culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate for Indian families. Graduate students in public health and speech-language pathology are also part of the project; they are being trained to implement the program in 25 households, scaling up to an additional 50 households through telepractice at no cost to the recipients. The project is expected to create a sustainable model to improve cognitive health and delay dementia among older adults in India.

Praveen Arany

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Introducing Photobiomodulation Therapy for Oral Cancer Care in India
Field of Study:	Medical Sciences
Home Institution:	University at Buffalo, New York, NY
Host Institution:	Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi
Grant Start Month:	August 2026
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Praveen Arany is a trained dentist, oral pathologist, and biomedical engineer. He served as an assistant clinical investigator at NIDCR/NIH, Bethesda, and is currently an associate professor with tenure at the University at Buffalo, New York. He has six patents, over 150 scientific publications with over 12,000 citations, and an h-index of 43. His research has been featured in many mainstream media highlights in over 70 countries. He has also received numerous awards recognizing his research contributions, such as the Excellence in Research award from the World Association for Photobiomodulation Therapy (WALT), the Young Investigator award from the National Cancer Institute/NIH, the Young Investigator Award from the Wound Healing Society, the Horace Furumoto Young Investigator award from the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and the Theodore Maiman Award from the Academy of Laser Dentistry. He is the chair of the photobiomodulation (PBM) group in Optica and the former president of WALT, NAALT (North American Association for Photobiomodulation Therapy), and the Lasers & Bio-photonics Group of the International Association of Dental Research.

Dr. Arany has been a key figure in organizing the field of PBM. As an intramural investigator at NIDCR/NIH and in a leadership position at WALT and NAALT, he was instrumental in the adoption of the nomenclature for PBM as an MeSH term for PubMed. Among his other achievements are the demonstration of a novel PBM molecular mechanism involving latent TGF-beta 1 activation, and outlining clinical biomarkers, molecular biomarkers, treatment delivery, and dosimetry. Most recently, he advocated for procedural (insurance) codes to enable safe and effective PBM clinical protocols. This has resulted in clinical practice guidelines recommendations for treating several human diseases and promoting wellness, especially in supportive cancer care.

In India, oral cancer affects over a million people annually. Dr. Arany’s Fulbright-Nehru project is introducing the non-invasive, low-dose, and light PBM therapy for oral cancer patients in India, which has been proven to significantly improve both quality of life and quality of care.

Madasamy Arockiasamy

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Geospatial AI-Driven Framework for Hazard and Resource Management in India
Field of Study:	Engineering
Home Institution:	Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
Host Institution:	Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Grant Start Month:	January 2027
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Madasamy Arockiasamy is a professor of civil, environmental, and geomatics engineering at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and its director of the Center for Infrastructure and Constructed Facilities. He earned his PhD in structural mechanics/engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and both his MSc in structural engineering and BE (Hons.) in civil engineering from the University of Madras. He is a registered professional engineer in several U.S. states and Canada, and is an elected fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

With more than four decades of academic, research, and professional experience, Dr. Arockiasamy has served in leadership and faculty positions at FAU, the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Anna University, and the College of Engineering, Guindy, India. He has also been a research engineer and structural engineering specialist. He has contributed extensively to institutional, national, and international professional activities, including serving as a subject matter expert for the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Dr. Arockiasamy’s research and publications focus on subjects such as structural mechanics, offshore and coastal infrastructure, bridge infrastructure systems, non-contact structural monitoring, and AI applications in civil engineering. He has authored and edited several books and proceedings, and has published extensively in leading engineering journals, including ASCE, Elsevier, and MDPI journals. His recent work includes studies on offshore wind monopile foundations, bridge deterioration modeling, and laser-based infrastructure monitoring.

He has received numerous recognitions, including the John J. Guarrera Engineering Educator of the Year Award and the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award.

Dr. Arockiasamy’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on a combination of teaching and research activities. The teaching activities involve co-teaching, leading, and co-organizing workshops and seminars, curriculum enhancement, graduate student mentoring, and bilateral knowledge exchange at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The project’s research activities are focusing on the development of a geo-AI dashboard by integrating satellite data, GIS, and AI/ML techniques to address key challenges in hazard prediction (landslides, coastal erosion, and water stress), disaster risk reduction, coastal monitoring, sustainable agriculture, water resource optimization, and blue economy applications.

Tanvi Banerjee

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	AI-Powered Dementia Assessment for India’s Healthcare Disparity
Field of Study:	Computer Science
Home Institution:	Wright State University, Dayton, OH
Host Institution:	Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	November 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four and a half months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Tanvi Banerjee is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Wright State University, where she also serves as the codirector of the Data Science for Healthcare Lab. She holds a PhD and an MS in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Missouri.

Dr. Banerjee’s core research interest lies at the intersection of computing and medicine, where she focuses on healthcare applications that utilize wearable and non-wearable sensors for chronic disease management, including measuring stress in caregivers of dementia patients. Her work extensively employs machine learning techniques, data fusion, and big data analytics to classify complex sensor data. With an h-index of 27, her publications cover topics such as multimodal data analysis, physiological responses, and predictive modeling for conditions like sickle cell disease, dementia, and chronic pain. Throughout her career, she has secured substantial research funding, with her personal share of grants totaling approximately USD 2.5 million from prestigious institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy, and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). An accomplished educator, she was honored with Wright State’s College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Teaching Award for the 2024–2025 academic year. Her leadership role in the scientific community is reflected in her position as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence and as local chair and program committee member for several international conferences.

An estimated 8.8 million Indians above the age of 60 live with dementia, yet most remain undiagnosed and lack access to essential resources. To bridge this gap, Dr. Banerjee’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is proposing a culturally nuanced, region-specific Dementia Assessment tool tailored for rural communities. This will enable patients to securely share high-frequency cognitive assessments with their care providers. By deploying AI models to forecast symptom progression, the tool can empower clinicians to deliver proactive interventions and personalized treatment courses, thereby ultimately transforming rural dementia care in India.

Mahadev Bhat

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Forest Resource Conservation: Ecosystem Services Valuation and Policy Integration
Field of Study:	Environmental Sciences
Home Institution:	Florida International University, Miami, FL
Host Institution:	College of Forestry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Sirsi, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	August 2026
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Mahadev Bhat is a distinguished university professor of natural resource economics in the Department of Earth and Environment and the Department of Economics at Florida International University (FIU), Miami, FL. He earned his PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his MS in agricultural economics from the College of Agriculture, Dharwad, India.

His research focuses on economics and policy issues relating to natural resources, including ecosystem services, water resources, coastal and marine systems, and agriculture. He has produced over 380 scholarly contributions, including refereed journal articles, book chapters, technical reports, presentations, and invited lectures. Dr. Bhat has secured more than USD 25 million in competitive research funding from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Bhat co-founded the agroecology program at FIU and led the development of a training and farm-start-up initiative for underserved farmers and veterans, all supported by more than 40 USDA grants. Three of these grants helped establish a multi-university consortium focused on training Hispanic students in South Florida and Puerto Rico. His honors include the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics’ Bernardo Aguilar Award (2019), the FIU Faculty Excellence Award for Research (2020), the FIU Presidential Excellence Award (2016), and the Soil and Water Conservation Society’s Berg Fellowship (1992).

Dr. Bhat has actively promoted Indian language and culture in the United States through over 30 years of volunteer service, value-based teaching, and artistic production/direction at local and national cultural organizations.

Dr. Bhat’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on community-based and culturally rooted forest conservation strategies in India. The project is evaluating the ecosystem services provided by sacred forests and is developing policy pathways that integrate traditional knowledge system into sustainable forest management. He is conducting his research at the University of Agricultural Sciences’ College of Forestry at Sirsi and is also collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad and the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society, Kolkata. Further, he is comparing restoration experiences between the Florida Everglades and India’s Sundarbans to advance cross-regional insights into ecosystem management.

Anol Bhattacherjee

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Societal Good
Field of Study:	Information Sciences/Systems
Home Institution:	University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Host Institution:	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	August 2026
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Anol Bhattacherjee is the Exide Professor in information systems and the director of the master’s program in artificial intelligence and business analytics at the University of South Florida. He has authored about 150 refereed publications, including 12 papers in Financial Times, 50 papers in journals, and seven papers in MIS Quarterly, the foremost journal in his discipline. For many years, he was on the editorial boards of MIS Quarterly and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. With nearly 50,000 citations to his credit, a 2021 Stanford University study ranked him as number 12 in the world in career-wide research impact in the information systems discipline. Dr. Bhattacherjee has also authored a copyright-free book on research methods, Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices, which has been downloaded over 2 million times from 229 countries on six continents, used at over 10,000 institutions, and translated into seven languages. His many awards and honors include the Stafford Beer Medal by the Operational Research Society, UK, the Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair in 2019, and the first-place award at the prestigious Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Innovation Cup Competition in 2023.

Dr. Bhattacherjee’s Fulbright-Nehru project is designing AI systems for societal good – such as to reduce societal polarization – and conducting behavioral experiments in terms of the use of these systems by the population and the impacts of such use. The project is collaborating with Indian scholars to conceptualize, design, conduct, and publish research on this topic and related ones. The project also serves several key objectives of the Government of India’s initiatives related to leveraging technology and science for societal benefit and improving human and institutional capacity for scientific research.

Purushottama Bilimoria

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Genealogy of Indian Liberalism: Colonial Pedigree, Native Trajectory, and Postcolonial predicament
Field of Study:	Philosophy
Home Institution:	University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Host Institution:	University of Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi
Grant Start Month:	February 2027
Duration of Grant:	Five and a half months

Brief Bio:

Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria teaches philosophy at the University of San Francisco. He is also a principal fellow at the University of Melbourne and the principal editor-in-chief of the Sophia journal and the monograph series, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures. Formerly, he was a distinguished professor of law and global ethics at O.P. Jindal Global University, India. He specializes in Indian and cross-cultural philosophy, global critical philosophies of religion, Indian constitutional and personal law, cross-cultural civil rights discourse, and diaspora studies. An elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Prof. Bilimoria is the recipient of several awards and research grants, including from the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF), John Templeton Foundation, the Indian Council for Philosophical Research, Harvard Divinity School, and Emory University’s Institute for the Liberal Arts. His recent publications include: History of Indian Philosophy (Routledge, 2019); Contemplative Studies and Hinduism (with Rita D. Sherma, Routledge, 2021); The Routledge Companion to Indian Ethics: Women, Justice, Bioethics and Ecology (with Amy Rayner, 2024); Mind, Body and Self (with Jaysankar Lal Shaw, Anand Vaidya, and Michael Hemmingsen, Springer, 2024); and Engaging Philosophies of Religion: Thinking Across Boundaries (with Gereon Kopf and Nathan Loewen, Bloomsbury, 2025). Currently, he is writing an entry article on Hindu ethics for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and also working on early Indian liberalism.

Prof. Bilimoria’s Fulbright-Nehru project is building on his extensive work on the articulation of liberalism by three great stalwarts of Indian liberalism in early twentieth-century India – Gopal Krishna Gokhale and his disciples, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It is investigating the political and philosophical horizon of the nationalist trajectory, through to India’s Independence and its aftermath in the late twentieth century. The project is also focusing on a decisive reconstruction of the labors of Indian liberals toward constitutionalism, freedom, social reforms, duties, rights, and reformulation of a distinct vision of liberalism, in contrast to Western liberal theories, particularly those bequeathed by colonial masters, philosophers, and the Indian elite.

Vanessa Botelho

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Between Two Worlds: An Anglo-Indian Memoir of Belonging, Identity, and the Power of Embracing Change
Field of Study:	Literature
Home Institution:	Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, New York City, NY
Host Institution:	Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Grant Start Month:	January 2027
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Prof. Vanessa Botelho is an associate professor of broadcast and digital journalism at the City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. She is also the director of the TV news and digital specialization within the master’s in journalism program. Prof. Botelho is a two-time Emmy Award-winning live television news producer. For nearly three decades, she produced hundreds of hours of live breaking news programs for millions of viewers in the largest media market in the United States, New York City. She is also a former executive producer, who helped launch a television news station in Boston, Massachusetts, for NBC. She is a visiting scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing at Oxford University’s Wolfson College. Prof. Botelho is also a writing instructor for the Oxford Writing Mentors. She has received the prestigious Tow fellowship to support her historical memoir that blends her Anglo-Indian identity with her experience in the fast-paced world of live television news, as well as her family’s immigration experience leaving Calcutta, India, for Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1970s.

She received her master’s degree in biography and memoir from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and her bachelor’s degree in communication arts and journalism from New York Institute of Technology.

For her Fulbright-Nehru teaching and research project, Prof. Botelho is collaborating with Dr. Avishek Parui and Dr. Merin Simi Raj at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai. She is conducting research for her historical memoir at IIT Madras’ Centre for Memory Studies. Her research is also based in Kolkata, where she was born. Focusing on the Anglo-Indian communities of Chennai and Calcutta, she is exploring the facets of identity and memory in postcolonial India. As part of her project, she is also teaching video journalism to graduate students at IIT Madras, demonstrating to them the importance of ethical journalism and how it is key to telling the stories of the underserved.

David Gere

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Young Man/Old(er) Man: Revisiting the Arts of India
Field of Study:	Arts
Home Institution:	University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Host Institution:	The American College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Grant Start Month:	December 2026
Duration of Grant:	Nine months

Brief Bio:

Dr. David Gere, PhD, is the director of the Art & Global Health Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He founded the center in 2006. He is also a professor in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where he teaches courses on art and global health. His book How to Make Dances in an Epidemic (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004) received the award for outstanding book publication from the Congress on Research in Dance. It was also nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and received a special citation from the Society of Dance History Scholars. His co-edited volumes include Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World (1995); Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader (2003); and Through Positive Eyes (2019). In the visual art world, Dr. Gere has co-curated four major exhibitions and took them to multiple locations in South Africa – the Durban Art Gallery, Museum Africa in Johannesburg, and the Slave Lodge in Cape Town – as well as the Fowler Museum at UCLA. He studied music, dance, and the Tamil language in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, on an Oberlin Shansi Fellowship from 1980 to 1982 and, in 2004, was based in Bengaluru as a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar.

Nearly 50 years ago, Dr. Gere taught ethical studies and organized arts programs at the American College in Madurai. Now, as the founding director of UCLA’s Art & Global Health Center, he is revisiting, as part of his Fulbright-Nehru project, the arts of South India with a special emphasis on the programs and projects intended to improve health and save lives. Alongside his research, he is sharing ideas generated from his experience in art and global health with the students and faculty in India.

Joris Gielen

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Patient Involvement in End-of-Life Decision-Making in India
Field of Study:	Anthropology
Home Institution:	Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Host Institution:	Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, Delhi
Grant Start Month:	January 2027
Duration of Grant:	Eight months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Joris Gielen is the Eugene P. Beard Endowed Chair in Professional Ethics and the director of the Center for Global Health Ethics at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, where he also serves as associate professor. His work focuses on the ethical, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of serious illness and end-of-life care, and his scholarly interests include global bioethics, end-of-life decision-making, and spirituality and cultural competence in healthcare. His academic training covers history, religious studies, theology, and Indian philosophy. He has an MA in Indian philosophy and religion from Banaras Hindu University and a PhD in theology from the University of Leuven, Belgium.

In his international and interdisciplinary career, Dr. Gielen has conducted extensive fieldwork in healthcare in India. His scholarship includes numerous peer-reviewed publications on palliative care, spirituality, ethics, and cultural competence in Indian healthcare, with his articles appearing in the Indian Journal of Palliative Care, Journal of Religion and Health, Palliative & Supportive Care, and Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. He is also the editor of Dealing with Bioethical Issues in a Globalized World: Normativity in Bioethics (Springer, 2020). He has taught widely in the United States, Belgium, and India, offering graduate and undergraduate courses on different aspects of healthcare ethics, empirical methods, and culturally competent care.

Dr. Gielen’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining how patients, families, and clinicians in India navigate end-of-life decision-making. It is exploring the ethical tensions between autonomy, traditional values, and legal regulations within India’s healthcare system. By using participant observation and semi-structured interviews in New Delhi, the study is developing a grounded theory to explain the dynamics when decisions regarding the end of life are made. He is also conducting a seminar series on ethical healthcare decision-making at AIIMS Rishikesh. The project aims to foster understanding of end-of-life decision-making and contribute to the bioethics discourse through culturally responsive research and teaching.

Udita Gupta

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Building Sustainable Educational Partnerships to Strengthen Teacher Preparation and Global Exchange
Field of Study:	Education
Home Institution:	Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Salt Lake City, UT
Host Institution:	, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Grant Start Month:	November 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four and a half months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Udita Gupta is a clinical associate professor in the Urban Institute for Teacher Education (UITE) at the University of Utah’s College of Education, where she is working in the field of teacher preparation and secondary mathematics education. She began her career as a statistics lecturer in India. She completed her PhD in educational psychology (learning sciences) from the University of Utah. Dr. Gupta brings a cross-cultural perspective shaped by her academic and professional experience in both India and the United States, and is fluent in both Hindi and English. Her research focus is on the cognitive load incurred in STEM learning; reflective practices; global competency development; community-engaged learning; and the integration of artificial intelligence in teacher preparation. She is particularly interested in how culturally responsive pedagogy, global perspectives, and AI-enhanced instructional strategies can strengthen preservice and in-service teacher education. She has published scholarly work and led faculty development initiatives in these areas.

Dr. Gupta’s Fulbright-Nehru project has three major components: strengthening preservice teacher preparation and secondary mathematics teaching methods through direct classroom teaching, workshops, and seminars for both preservice and in-service teachers in India; collaborating with Indian faculty on developing a curriculum that integrates culturally responsive pedagogy, global aspects, and AI into teacher education; and building enduring academic partnerships between Indian and U.S. institutions through sustained mentorship and capacity building in STEM teacher education. Aligned with India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 reforms that emphasize critical thinking over rote learning, the project is working toward strengthening STEM teacher preparation through inquiry-driven, student-centered strategies, and adopting global practices like COIL – Collaborative Online International Learning.

Catherine Heinlein

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Cultivating Civility: A Study on Incivility’s Impact on Caring in Nursing
Field of Study:	Nursing
Home Institution:	Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA
Host Institution:	Mission of Mercy Hospital & Research Centre/Mission of Mercy School of Nursing, Kolkata, West Bengal
Grant Start Month:	May 2027
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Catherine Heinlein is an associate professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Azusa Pacific University (APU) in California, where she serves as the lead faculty for the nutrition minor program. A highly specialized clinician and educator, she holds an EdD in organizational leadership from the University of La Verne, an MS in nutrition science from the University of Southern California, and both an MSN and BSN from APU. Her multidisciplinary expertise is further defined by her credentials as a family nurse practitioner, registered dietitian nutritionist, and as a certified diabetes care and education specialist.

Dr. Heinlein’s professional work is deeply rooted in transcultural nursing and global health equity. Since 2008, she has been spearheading clinical immersions in Kolkata, India, maintaining long-term partnerships with the Mission of Mercy Hospital & Research Centre and the Missionaries of Charity. In 2018, as a Fulbright Scholar in India, she conducted research on community-based diabetes prevention and mentored local nursing students. Her current international research work extends to Rwanda, focusing on strengthening rural healthcare delivery through competency-based training for community health nurses.

In addition to her global leadership, Dr. Heinlein is a recognized expert in transcultural pedagogy and holistic wellness. She is a certified yoga teacher and creator of the “Walk & Talk” initiative, a program designed to support the mental health of nursing students through movement and dialogue. Her accolades include the APU Teaching Excellence Award and the APU Community Engagement Faculty Award. Meanwhile, as an active member of the Sigma Theta Tau International, Dr. Heinlein continues to advocate for a more compassionate approach to healthcare, focusing her efforts on training the next generation of healthcare providers to lead with cultural humility and empower patients through sustainable, community-led wellness programs.

Inspired by her 2018 Fulbright stint in Kolkata, Dr. Heinlein’s current Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating how incivility and “oppressed group behavior” act as silent killers of the empathy and compassion defining the nursing profession. This pilot project is exploring how nursing students perceive and encounter such challenges in their field. Her research is tracing the evolution of foundational humanistic values as students transition from the classroom to the high-pressure reality of hospital duty. By documenting this shift, Dr. Heinlein aims to identify ways to protect and sustain the spirit of caring among those entering the healthcare workforce.

Radha Jagannathan

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Nature-Inspired Learning: Closing India’s Gender Gap in STEM
Field of Study:	Education
Home Institution:	Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Host Institution:	Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi, Delhi
Grant Start Month:	December 2026
Duration of Grant:	Five and a half months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Radha Jagannathan is professor of statistics at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, where she teaches statistics, advanced econometrics, and program evaluation. She received her PhD from Princeton University and is an internationally recognized scholar whose research focuses on human capital development, school-to-work transitions, youth labor market dynamics, poverty, child welfare, and educational equity. A recipient of Fulbright Specialist awards to Germany, Hungary, and Finland, she is also the recipient of the Rutgers Global Impact Award, as well as numerous honors for excellence in teaching and research.

Her scholarship has appeared in leading economics, education, and public policy journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Economics of Education Review, Cambridge Journal of Education, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Economic Analysis and Policy, Oxford Economic Papers, Social Science Quarterly, and Evaluation and Program Planning. She has also authored four books published by Oxford University Press and Bristol University Press.

Dr. Jagannathan was one of the principal architects of Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency (CUPESSE), an EU-funded 11-country study on youth unemployment conducted between 2014 and 2018. She also cofounded and directed the Nurture thru Nature (NtN) program, a public–private partnership among Rutgers University, Johnson & Johnson Worldwide, New Brunswick Public Schools, and the New Brunswick Education Foundation that delivered STEM educational programs to disadvantaged students from 2009 to 2022.

Dr. Jagannathan is the founding director of the Center for PASCAL Americas at Rutgers, which is part of a global alliance that advances learning for sustainable and inclusive development through partnerships among universities, governments, NGOs, and civic organizations. She currently leads an international consortium of researchers across Europe and North America on a Horizon Europe proposal focused on nature-inspired early childhood interventions aimed at narrowing educational inequities.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Jagannathan is piloting a nature-based STEM program for fifth grade students in Delhi to address persistent gaps in science and math learning, and gender disparities in STEM participation. In partnership with the faculty at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, the project is adapting and replicating the NtN model. It aligns with India’s National Education Policy 2020 and is also aimed at building host capacity and creating a scalable model for broader impact.

Manisha Javeri

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Educational Technology: Comparative Study of Graduate Programs in India and the U.S.
Field of Study:	Education
Home Institution:	California State University, Los Angeles, CA
Host Institution:	SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Grant Start Month:	December 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Manisha Javeri is professor and chair of the educational technology program at the Charter College of Education, California State University, where she has served for over two decades. She holds a PhD in educational technology from the University of Northern Colorado, and advanced degrees in physical chemistry and education from the University of Mumbai.

Her work focuses on the integration of emerging technologies, particularly AI, in teaching and learning across K–12 and higher education. She has designed and taught an early graduate-level course on AI in education and has led curriculum development in areas like online learning, instructional design, virtual and augmented reality, and data-driven decision-making. In her role as program chair, she oversees academic planning, accreditation, and strategic initiatives for graduate programs in educational technology.

Dr. Javeri’s scholarship is complemented by a strong commitment to international and interdisciplinary education. At California State University, she developed one of the first undergraduate courses on peace and conflict resolution by integrating digital tools, data, and global perspectives to examine conflict, sustainability, and humanitarian challenges.

Dr. Javeri’s research and professional contributions extend globally, with projects linking technology to humanitarian and sustainability efforts in Africa and Asia. A Rotary Peace Fellow, she has worked on international initiatives involving peacebuilding, environmental sustainability, and technology-enabled community development. She has also collaborated with the Clinton Global Initiative and UNESCO-related efforts, and has led projects ranging from solar energy interventions in Mozambique to technology integration programs for educators in Botswana.

She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship and recognition as a Global Peace Ambassador. Her current scholarly interests include AI in education, human performance technology, interdisciplinary applications of technology, and equitable access to digital learning in diverse and multicultural contexts. Through her teaching, research, and collaborations, she continues to advance innovative, ethical, and globally informed approaches to educational technology.

Dr. Javeri’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the integration of AI in graduate educational technology programs through a comparative study between California State University and SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. The project is combining teaching and research, including delivering AI-focused courses and conducting mixed-methods research on curriculum design, student outcomes, and institutional contexts. By analyzing similarities and differences across the U.S. and India, the project aims to develop innovative, ethical, and culturally responsive AI curriculum frameworks while fostering long-term academic collaboration and advancing global best practices in AI in education.

Aesha John

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Teaching and Researching Care across the Lifespan: Parenting, Disability, Grief in India
Field of Study:	Social Work
Home Institution:	Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
Host Institution:	Christ (Deemed-to-be-University), Bengaluru, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	August 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Aesha John is a professor of social work at Texas Christian University (TCU), where she teaches courses on care across the lifespan and an elective on grief and loss. Her scholarship focuses on disability, inclusion, parenting, and children’s media use, with a particular emphasis on understanding the lived experiences of families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Dr. John’s research spans multiple cultural contexts, including the United States and India. Her work aims to advance culturally responsive frameworks that center family strengths, improve service delivery, and promote inclusive practices. Her recent work examines children’s media use and parent–child relationships, highlighting how digital engagement intersects with family dynamics and children’s social–emotional development.

Her research has been widely published in leading journals on IDD, including the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. She has received the Disability Manuscript Award from the Council on Social Work Education and the Deans’ Award for Research and Creativity from TCU. She has also received grant funding twice from the Jerry M.D. Lewis Foundation, most recently to support her study on children’s media use and parent–child relationships.

Beyond research and teaching, Dr. John is committed to community engagement and experiential learning. She has led a book club for individuals with IDD and facilitated a job training program for individuals with IDD on the TCU campus. She regularly creates opportunities for her students to engage with vulnerable populations in the community, thereby fostering meaningful, relationship-centered learning experiences that bridge classroom knowledge with real-world practice.

Dr. John’s Fulbright-Nehru project is combining teaching and research to advance cross-cultural understanding of parenting and IDD. She is delivering modules on IDD and lifespan development to psychology and social work students at Christ University, Bengaluru. Her research is also examining parental reactions to their children’s autism diagnosis. Further, she is exploring how families understand, process, and adapt to a diagnosis across cultural contexts, with the aim of informing culturally sensitive, family-centered support and interventions.

Aruna Kilaru

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Plant Cell Biomanufacturing: Curcumin as a Model for Production of Bioactive Compounds
Field of Study:	Agriculture
Home Institution:	East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
Host Institution:	National Agri-Food and Biomanufacturing Institute, Ajitgarh, Punjab
Grant Start Month:	November 2026
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Aruna Kilaru is a faculty fellow for interdisciplinary innovation in the biosciences and a distinguished professor of biological sciences at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), USA. She earned her master’s degree in biotechnology from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, and her doctoral degree in biology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She subsequently completed her postdoctoral training in plant lipid signaling at the University of North Texas and in storage lipid metabolism at Michigan State University before joining ETSU in 2011. Dr. Kilaru has served in national science policy and leadership roles as an AAAS science and technology policy fellow at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service and as a program director at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Dr. Kilaru is an internationally recognized plant biologist whose research focuses on lipid metabolism, stress signaling, and metabolic engineering in plants, with applications in crop improvement and sustainable biomanufacturing. Her work spans diverse systems, including mosses, avocado, oilseed crops, and synthetic biology platforms. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and invited reviews in leading journals like PNAS, Plant Physiology, and the Plant Journal. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal agencies, as well as BioMADE. She currently serves on the editorial board of Plant Physiology and has held several leadership roles in the American Society of Plant Biologists, where she was named a fellow in 2025.

In addition to research, Dr. Kilaru is deeply committed to mentorship, interdisciplinary education, and workforce development in biotechnology and bioengineering. She leads initiatives at ETSU focused on synthetic biology, biomanufacturing, and international collaborations, particularly between the United States and India. Her broader interests include science policy, global scientific engagement, photography, travel, and promoting inclusive pathways into science and innovation.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Kilaru is developing plant cell biomanufacturing platforms for the sustainable production of curcumin and related bioactive compounds using turmeric cell cultures as a model system. Working in collaboration with the National Agri-Food and Biomanufacturing Institute (NABI), India, the project is integrating plant biotechnology, metabolic engineering, and analytical approaches to establish reproducible production systems for high-value phytochemicals. The project also involves training workshops and short courses in plant and microbial biomanufacturing in order to strengthen workforce development and foster long-term research collaborations between U.S. and Indian institutions.

Chiara Logli

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Grounded Cosmopolitanism in Higher Education: Teaching, Research, and Quality Assurance in India
Field of Study:	Education
Home Institution:	Honolulu Community College, Honolulu, HI
Host Institution:	JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	October 2026
Duration of Grant:	Seven months

Brief Bio:

Prof. Chiara Logli is an assistant professor and institutional assessment specialist at Honolulu Community College, Hawai‘i. Her research centers on international and comparative education. She holds an MA in political science from the University of Bologna (Italy) and a PhD in educational foundations/international cultural studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She has worked at the International House at University of California (UC) Berkeley and at the UC Santa Barbara Multicultural Center, and has taught college-level courses in the U.S. and Indonesia. Her project experience includes USAID, UNICEF, UNDP, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, CAST/International Baccalaureate Schools, and the Italian consulate. She is a recipient of fellowships from the East-West Center, the Foreign Language and Area Studies Program, the United States–Indonesia Society, the Rotary International Peace Program, and the European Union’s Erasmus/Leonardo Program.

Suraj Muley

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Neuromuscular Medicine: Inflammatory Neuropathies and Myasthenia Gravis Neuromuscular Medicine: Inflammatory Neuropathies and Myasthenia Gravis
Field of Study:	Medical Sciences
Home Institution:	Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
Host Institution:	Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Grant Start Month:	January 2027
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Suraj Muley is a neurologist and internationally recognized expert in neuromuscular medicine, neuroimmunology, myasthenia gravis, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). He serves as director of neurology at Bob Bové Neuroscience Institute at HonorHealth and is professor of medicine at Arizona State University School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. Dr. Muley completed his medical education at Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, Mumbai, which was followed by research training in pharmacology and residency and fellowship training in neurology, clinical neurophysiology, and neuromuscular diseases at the University of Minnesota. He is board certified in neurology, clinical neurophysiology, and neuromuscular medicine.

Over a distinguished academic career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Muley has held major leadership roles at the University of Minnesota, Barrow Neurological Institute, and HonorHealth, including directing neuromuscular, neuroimmunology, fellowship, and residency programs. His clinical and research interests focus on immune-mediated neuromuscular disorders, with emphasis on novel targeted therapies for myasthenia gravis and CIDP. He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous national and international clinical trials in neuromuscular diseases.

Dr. Muley has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, invited reviews, and international presentations in neuromuscular medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (FAAN), Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP Edin). His honors include multiple teaching and research awards.

Dr. Muley’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on advancing neuromuscular medicine and neuroimmunology in India through collaborative teaching, research, and clinical training. Working with leading academic medical centers in Mumbai, his project emphasizes inflammatory neuropathies and myasthenia gravis, with particular focus on advanced electrophysiological techniques and emerging targeted therapies. The project aims to strengthen subspecialty education, promote collaborative clinical research, and develop sustainable academic partnerships between Indian and U.S. institutions. By leveraging India’s large and diverse patient population, the project seeks to improve understanding and treatment of immune-mediated neurological disorders while fostering long-term global collaboration in neuroscience.

Sreejayan Nair

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Advancing Pharmacology Education and Translational Drug Discovery at BITS Hyderabad
Field of Study:	Pharmacology
Home Institution:	University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Host Institution:	Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Hyderabad, Telangana
Grant Start Month:	December 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Sreejayan Nair, PhD, MPharm, FAHA, is professor of pharmacology, chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and director of the Biomedical Sciences PhD Program at the University of Wyoming, and also serves as the pharmacology thread lead for the WWAMI Medical School, overseeing integrated pharmacology education for medical students. He received his PhD from the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal, India, and completed his postdoctoral training at the Department of Medicine II, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany, and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, U.S. Dr. Nair has over 30 years of experience in pharmacology education, translational research, and mentorship, with his research focusing on protease biology and translational therapeutics for diabetes complications, cardiovascular disease, and neuroinflammation. He has led projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and has received multiple industry grants, supporting both basic discovery and translational applications. He has also authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications. A co-founder of two pharmaceutical start-ups, Dr. Nair holds patents in protease-targeted therapeutics, and has served as the principal investigator on NIH SBIR/STTR grants for bridging academic research and commercial innovation. He also serves as the mentoring director for the WY-NIH Sensory Biology COBRE, providing structured guidance to junior faculty. His teaching has been consistently recognized with honors such as the Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award and the Entrepreneur Award at the National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence. He has also contributed to the training of PhD, postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students.

Dr. Nair’s Fulbright-Nehru project is integrating teaching and research to enhance pharmacology education and translational drug discovery at BITS Hyderabad. As part of the project, he is teaching a molecular pharmacology course, mentoring graduate students, and collaborating on molecular pharmacology/drug discovery projects related to diabetes complications and neuroinflammation. By combining classroom instruction with hands-on research and mentoring, the project aims to strengthen student training, support BITS’s PhD-IMPACT/DRIVE initiatives, and foster long-term Indo-U.S. collaborations in pharmacology and therapeutic innovation.

Emilie Raymer

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	The Web of Life: Human Ecology, Culture, and Global Environmental Thought
Field of Study:	History
Home Institution:	Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Host Institution:	University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Grant Start Month:	May 2027
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Emilie Raymer teaches in the Harvard College Writing Program and holds a doctorate in the history of science and technology from Johns Hopkins University. Her teaching and scholarly interests include life and human sciences, environmental history and ecology, the philosophy of science, and the relationships among, art, science, and literature. She is a recipient of the Anya Bernstein Bassett Award for Excellence in Teaching by Non-Ladder Faculty from Harvard University; the Certificate of Teaching Excellence from Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education every semester that it was awarded during her tenure; and the Dean’s Commendation for Distinguished Teaching Performance for her work at the Harvard Extension School, where she taught both writing and introduction to graduate studies in biology. She is also a recipient of the Arthur J. Quinn Memorial Fellowship from the Bancroft Library; an Alfred M. Landon Research Grant; and a junior fellowship from the Library of Congress. She has also served as a Eugene Garfield Fellow at the American Philosophical Society; a senior visiting fellow at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research; a fellow in values engagement in Harvard’s Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics; and as a visiting scholar in the University of Cambridge’s Department of the History and Philosophy of Science.

Dr. Raymer’s Fulbright-Nehru project is highlighting India’s pivotal contributions to global human ecology by centering on the social scientist Radhakamal Mukerjee and contemporary environmental scholars who moved research away from hierarchical and utilitarian interpretations of the biophysical environment toward an emphasis on entanglement, reciprocity, and regional specificity. The project is conducting archival research to examine how ecological ideas circulated internationally, and how ethical, political, and methodological commitments shaped environmental knowledge.

Deodutta Roy

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Unraveling the Child Exposome: Linking Environmental Stressors and Brain Health Deficits
Field of Study:	Public Health
Home Institution:	Florida International University, Miami, FL
Host Institution:	Amity University, Gurugram, Haryana
Grant Start Month:	September 2026
Duration of Grant:	Nine months

Brief Bio:

Prof. Deodutta Roy is a professor emeritus at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University (FIU), Miami. He joined FIU as a professor in 2004 and served as the founding chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health from 2005 to 2011. Prior to FIU, he was a tenured professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1998–2004). His leadership in building the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at FIU established him as a key figure in public health academia.

Nationally and internationally recognized for advancing translational exposomics –bridging genome, exposome, and environmental public health – Prof. Roy has received several prestigious awards, including the Junior Faculty Development Award from the American Cancer Society, the Scholar Award in Cancer Research from the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and monographs, and holds two patents. He has trained 15 doctoral students and numerous postdoctoral fellows. His work has garnered over 6,000 citations on ResearchGate, underscoring the breadth of his scholarly influence.

Prof. Roy has been at the forefront of exposomics research, exploring how environmental DNA and RNA can serve as records of the human exposome, and can help in understanding the environmental causes of chronic diseases. His work integrates machine learning and bioinformatics to analyze complex, multi-omics datasets, and advancing computational approaches to environmental health sciences, brain health, and cancer research.

Dr. Roy’s Fulbright-Nehru project is integrating teaching, curriculum development, and collaborative research to advance environmental public health education and exposomics research at Amity University, Haryana. Focusing on the air quality in the Delhi National Capital Region, it is exploring links between environmental DNA and early brain health. The curriculum incorporates exposomic methods and analytical tools, alongside holding of workshops and boot camps. By addressing the challenges of air pollution and neurodevelopmental risks in children, the project aims to build institutional exposomics capacity and fulfill the Fulbright mission by fostering academic collaborations between the United States and India.

Surabhi Sahay

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Maternal Health and Agency Regarding Cesarean Section in India
Field of Study:	Communications
Home Institution:	Pennsylvania State University, Abington, PA
Host Institution:	Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Grant Start Month:	July 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Surabhi Sahay is a scholar of organizational and health communication whose work centers on participatory processes during periods of change and crisis. Her research explores how individuals and institutions navigate uncertainty; it pays particular attention to the intersections of communication, organization, and healthcare. She has published widely in leading journals such as Management Communication Quarterly, Health Communication, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, and Communication and Democracy.

Dr. Sahay is the author of an upcoming book with Johns Hopkins University Press that examines the transformation of nurses’ work roles and professional identities from the pre- through the post-COVID-19 era. She is also a special issues associate editor for Management Communication Quarterly, contributing to ongoing scholarly conversations about adaptation and recovery in complex systems. An engaged and dedicated educator, Dr. Sahay teaches courses on organizational communication, crisis and change, and research methodologies. She is deeply committed to experiential learning and has led student groups to Japan and Iceland, thereby broadening their global perspectives. In addition to research and teaching, she has held various leadership roles within her university and professional community. Outside of her academic work, Dr. Sahay enjoys traveling with her husband and their two daughters, embracing opportunities for exploration and connection around the world.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Sahay is examining how cesarean section decisions are made in rural, small-town, and semi-urban India, focusing on women, families, and healthcare providers. Using qualitative interviews, it is exploring how communication, trust, cultural norms, and socioeconomic factors shape maternal agency and informed consent. The study is also attempting to highlight both the overuse of cesareans without medical need and the lack of access when they are necessary, thus putting the spotlight on inequalities in maternal healthcare. Drawing on sensemaking, sensegiving, sensebreaking, resilience, and social support theories, it is analyzing decision-making dynamics and power relations. The findings will inform community-based interventions and communication toolkits to promote equitable, patient-centered childbirth practices, and improve maternal health outcomes.

Nageswari Shanmugalingam

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Discrete Analogs of Uniform Domain and Combinatorial Modulus
Field of Study:	Mathematics
Home Institution:	University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Host Institution:	Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Grant Start Month:	September 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

rof. Nageswari Shanmugalingam is a distinguished research professor (STEMM) in mathematical sciences at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. She obtained her PhD in mathematics in 1999 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research forms part of the foundation of the emergent field of analysis in metric measure spaces, and her current research interests include nonlinear potential theory, Dirichlet and Neumann boundary value problems in non-smooth setting, and non-local energies, with applications in geometry and quasi-symmetric mappings in non-smooth spaces, including fractals. She has more than 100 research publications in highly ranked mathematical research journals, and has coauthored a book (Cambridge University Press, 2015) on Newton-Sobolev mappings between metric spaces. She also has an extensive mathematical research network both in the U.S. and abroad. Her current research interests include the exploration of how Gromov hyperbolic geometry impacts the behavior of harmonic functions and how the dissipation of heat behaves.

In addition to conducting research in mathematics, Prof. Shanmugalingam is an educator, teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Cincinnati. She has also supervised the PhD research of six students and is currently supervising the dissertation research of three other students. She has also been a mentor to postdoctoral scholars.

The development of analysis in non-smooth spaces was motivated by the need to understand how quasi-symmetric classes of regular metric measure spaces share analytic behaviors. This development highlighted the crucial role played by geometric objects called “uniform domains”. On the other hand, recent developments in geometric group theory and fractal analysis indicate a need for discrete analogs of uniform domains. Prof. Shanmugalingam’s Fulbright-Nehru project is developing such analogs in collaboration with Prof. S. Ponnusamy at IIT Madras. The project is also introducing the field of non-smooth analysis to students by conducting a course on analysis in metric spaces.

Rohini Iyengar Vadapalli

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Regionalism in the Visual Arts: Cases from Telugu Lands, India and Mid-Atlantic, USA (2000–2025)
Field of Study:	Art History
Home Institution:	Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
Host Institution:	Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Hyderabad, Telangana
Grant Start Month:	July 2026
Duration of Grant:	Five months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Rohini Iyengar Vadapalli is an art historian and an academician. Apart from research and teaching, she engages in curatorial practice. She obtained her PhD in art history from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. She has significant experience in teaching art history courses at several universities and colleges in India and the U.S. She has also presented her research at various national and international conferences.

Her primary research focuses on regional aesthetics and the various factors affecting the nuances of regional artistic identities. A secondary area of interest is the premodern visual traditions of India. Her publications include exhibition catalogues, magazines, peer-reviewed essays in art journals, and edited textbooks on art and art history.

Dr. Vadapalli’s Fulbright-Nehru project is tracing the development of twenty-first-century visual arts in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in India as well as New Jersey and New York in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. by drawing some compelling parallels between the living folk traditions of both the regions. The study is comparing and contrasting these two regions based on the economic-technological and politico-religious aspects affecting the arts. Her research is also highlighting the importance of AI in various art spheres. The project aims to enable the introduction of new courses on regional contemporary art and curatorial studies in New Jersey and New York, as well as courses on the “histories of regional modern Indian art” in academic institutions. It also holds interdisciplinary relevance for furthering scholarship on American regionalism studies. Further, it would provide database for art historians to conduct research both in the U.S. and India. Most significantly, this project is expected to contribute immensely to the field of art history.

Ashley Walsdorf

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research)
Project Title:	Reimagining Family Therapy for South Indian Contexts through Culturally Responsive Collaboration
Field of Study:	Psychology
Home Institution:	Alliant University, San Diego, CA
Host Institution:	Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kochi, Kerala
Grant Start Month:	October 2026
Duration of Grant:	Nine months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Ashley Walsdorf is an assistant professor of couple and family therapy at Alliant International University. She received her PhD in human development, family science, marriage, and family therapy from the University of Georgia in 2019, with a specialization in immigration policy and working with multicultural communities. In addition to her work at Alliant, Dr. Walsdorf is a licensed, bilingual marriage and family therapist and an AAMFT-approved supervisor in the state of Texas, the director of family programming at a residential treatment center, and a research affiliate of the Latino Research Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Clinically, she has been practicing therapy in English and Spanish with individuals, couples, and families for nearly 15 years, specializing in work with immigrant families, multicultural communities, and addiction and recovery. Her research has examined ethnic-racial socialization, the effects of U.S. socio-political climate on mental health among Latino communities, affirmative clinical work with LGBTQ communities, and critical race theories. She has authored over 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and presented her work at more than 50 national and international conferences. Dr. Walsdorf’s connection to India and international work is both professional and personal: her husband and stepdaughter are from Kerala, and her blended, cross-cultural family informs her commitment to systemic and culturally responsive family therapy. She loves traveling and cooking with her family and eating her mother-in-law’s seriously spicy food.

Dr. Walsdorf’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the relevance of systemic family therapy in the South Indian context. Based at Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in Kochi, Kerala, she is collaborating with graduate students and faculty in psychology and social work through coursework and participatory research that assess Western family therapy theories and models for “cultural fit”, while developing adaptations for local family and community contexts. Her project aims to create culturally responsive frameworks that strengthen the relational elements of mental health education while honoring South Indian social and familial dynamics, in addition to fostering India–U.S. academic partnerships.

Balwantsinh Chauhan

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching)
Project Title:	Teaching of Pharmacogenomics and Biotherapeutics in Indian Pharmacy and Medical Programs
Field of Study:	Medical Sciences
Home Institution:	American University of Health Sciences, Signal Hill, CA
Host Institution:	Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Grant Start Month:	September 2026
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Balwantsinh Chauhan received his BSc, MSc, and PhD (in reproductive endocrinology) from Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda, India. He obtained his MD from the College of Medicine, Spartan Health Sciences University, St. Lucia. He also possesses a postbaccalaureate certificate in toxicology technology from the U.S.

Dr. Chauhan served the Department of Zoology (MSU Baroda) as lecturer from 1970–1982 and was promoted as reader in 1983. He has also worked as faculty with the College of Medicine, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), and with the Roosevelt University College of Pharmacy. He is the founding faculty for two U.S. pharmacy programs. Currently, he is serving as associate professor at the School of Pharmacy, American University of Health Sciences.

Dr. Chauhan’s present teaching interests are: pharmacogenomics; biotherapeutics (BTh); anatomical sciences; medical physiology; pathophysiology; immunology/medical microbiology; and medical genetics. His past research interests included: sequencing the HAP1 gene; and the effect of prolactin and estrogen modulation on another “DNA damage and repair gene”, O6-Methylguanine DNA Methyltransferase (O6-MGMT), in the context of breast cancer. He was also involved in the generation of the transgenic mouse model for human FOXO to explore its possible role in insulin resistance. Dr. Chauhan’s current research interests include: pharmacognosy, especially related to anti-obesity and dermal-wound healing; generation of the rodent melanoma model, and benzanthrone’s dermal-toxicological aspects; and pharmacogenomics. He has also co-authored several peer-reviewed publications and scientific abstracts/posters, some of which have received international merit awards. Further, he has given several lectures both in the U.S. and abroad.

For his Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Chauhan is teaching the fundamental concepts of genetics/genomics as they relate to the understanding of pharmacogenomics and BTh. He is also teaching competency/compliance standards, and designing, developing, and implementing curricula for the pharmacy and medical programs at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai. The project’s goal is to foster international understanding, institutional collaboration, and exchange programs for both students and teachers.

Srinivasan Durairaj

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching)
Project Title:	Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education – STEM Teaching
Field of Study:	Biology
Home Institution:	Richland Community College, Decatur, IL
Host Institution:	Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil, Tamil Nadu
Grant Start Month:	August 2026
Duration of Grant:	Five months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Srinivasan Durairaj is a molecular biologist, educator, and scholar of inclusive STEM pedagogy with nearly three decades of teaching experience in India, Fiji, and the United States. He serves as professor of biology at Richland Community College in Decatur, Illinois, where he teaches biology and microbiology, and promotes student success through learner-centered, accessible instruction.

He earned his PhD from Bharathiar University, India, and has taught in a variety of academic settings, from small classes to large introductory courses, serving diverse student populations. His work centers on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), active learning, and AI-supported teaching in undergraduate STEM education, with a strong commitment to equity, inclusion, and student engagement.

Dr. Durairaj’s Fulbright-Nehru project is implementing UDL-based teaching in three undergraduate biology courses at Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education in Tamil Nadu, India. Through faculty workshops, curriculum co-designing, and the creation of an open-access digital toolkit, the project aims to strengthen inclusive STEM pedagogy, improve student engagement and mastery, and establish sustainable institutional practices aligned with India’s National Education Policy 2020 reform goals, while deepening academic collaboration between the United States and India.

James Geary

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching)
Project Title:	Teaching Literary/Creative Nonfiction to Indian Students
Field of Study:	Literature
Home Institution:	Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA
Host Institution:	Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana
Grant Start Month:	January 2027
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Mr. James Geary is an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has taught at the VII Foundation; Bennington College; Boston University; Brandeis University; the Faber Academy; Tufts University; and the Harvard Extension School. He is the former deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, where he edited Nieman Reports, and the former editor of the European edition of Time magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, the second edition of which was published by the University of Chicago Press, Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It, and I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World, among other books.

For his Fulbright-Nehru project, Mr. Geary is teaching two literary/creative nonfiction writing courses at Ashoka University, India. He is helping Ashoka students articulate and apply the elements and structure of literary/creative nonfiction, synthesize and organize information from disparate sources to tell powerful stories and craft compelling narratives based on original reporting and research. The project is expected to not only benefit Ashoka students intending to pursue advanced writing practices, but also those who want to develop their writing skills for careers in other professions.

Kelsey Gray

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching)
Project Title:	A Two-Way Exchange: Buddhism and Science in Modern Tibetan Monastic Education
Field of Study:	Biology
Home Institution:	Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Host Institution:	Drepung Losel Ling Monastery, Mundgod, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	January 2027
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Kelsey Gray, PhD, is an educator and writer specializing in genetics, molecular biology, and intercultural science communication. She earned her BS in biomedical science from the Ohio State University before completing her PhD in genetics and molecular biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her doctoral research focused on the molecular mechanisms of spinal muscular atrophy. Following her doctoral work, Dr. Gray served as a postdoctoral fellow with the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) at Emory University.

A cornerstone of her international work was her first Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2019–2020) at Drepung Loseling Monastic University, Karnataka, India. During this fellowship, she engaged in deep intercultural exchange, teaching biology courses and collaborating with Tibetan scientists to conduct culturally responsive educational research. Dr. Gray’s professional trajectory includes serving as an assistant professor and the assistant director for the Grand Challenges Initiative at Chapman University, as well as working in the private sector as a regulatory medical writer. As the senior instructional content developer for ETSI, she leads the development of the ETSI bilingual digital learning platform. Her extensive publication record reflects interdisciplinary expertise, spanning from protein biochemistry to the nuances of monastic science learning and metacognition.

Dr. Gray’s Fulbright-Nehru project, “A Two-Way Exchange: Buddhism and Science in Modern Tibetan Monastic Education,” is supporting science education for monastics in India through three integrated initiatives. She is leading a workshop to train monastic leaders on the ETSI Online Learning Platform in order to foster digital literacy and expand curriculum reach. She is also conducting a Human Health seminar series across five monastic institutions, connecting clinical research with monastic interests. Further, she is teaching an advanced biology teacher training course, utilizing modules on immunology and epigenetics to equip monastics with specialized pedagogical skills for future sustainable instruction.

Elizabeth Simon

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching)
Project Title:	Garnering Support for Education and Implementation: Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
Field of Study:	Nursing
Home Institution:	Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY
Host Institution:	Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	February 2027
Duration of Grant:	Six months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Elizabeth Simon has 30 years of academic experience. She is an author, presenter, and expert in curriculum development, international collaboration, and accreditation. She secured Fulbright Scholar awards for 2015–16 and 2022–23, and the Fulbright Specialist award in 2026. Dr. Simon obtained her BS in nursing from Punjab University, India; her master’s degrees from Columbia University, Teachers College, and Hunter College; and her PhD in higher education from Walden University. She has authored books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles. She has also developed curriculum for new programs, revised curricula, and mentored faculty members. Besides, she has served as the founding dean and as a critical care nursing consultant.

Dr. Simon’s Fulbright-Nehru project is gathering support for designating trained sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) in India. It is also studying the wider scope for forensic nursing in India, with nurses able to take roles in medico-legal investigations and evidence collection, mental health counseling, and pregnancy prevention, specifically after a rape trauma. Curricular innovation is also part of the project in order to enhance the professional visibility and social image of nurses in India.

Deonnie Moodie

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Scholar Fellowship
Project Title:	Business School Hinduism: An Imperial Genealogy
Field of Study:	Religious Studies
Home Institution:	University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Host Institution:	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Grant Start Month:	May 2027
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Dr. Deonnie Moodie is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma. She is an ethnographer and historian of religion specializing in South Asia and its global connections. She received her BA in international studies from Hope College and her master’s and PhD degrees in South Asian religions from Harvard University. Her research has been supported by the National Humanities Center, the Henry Luce Foundation, numerous research awards from the University of Oklahoma, and a previous Fulbright-Nehru Student Researcher grant.

Dr. Moodie is the author of The Making of a Modern Temple and a Hindu City: Kālīghāț and Kolkata (Oxford University Press, 2018) and has co-edited special issues for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (with Kirsten Wesselhoeft, 2021) and South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (with Cassie Adcock, 2025). Her peer-reviewed articles have also appeared in the International Journal of Hindu Studies, the Journal of Law and Religion, and Religion Compass. She is on the editorial board of DECISION, the flagship publication of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Dr. Moodie regularly presents her work in public fora as well. She has served as a content consultant for the YouTube series, Crash Course: World Religions, and as a media partner for The Revealer. She has been interviewed for the Marginalia Review of Books, New Books Network, and Delhi Art Gallery. She has also delivered lectures at Harvard Divinity School, Claremont Graduate University, Seton Hall University, the University of North Florida, the University of Missouri, the Centre national de la recherché (CNRS, Paris), and the University of Bergen (Norway). She regularly organizes panels and presents her work at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, the Business History Conference, and the Annual Conference on South Asia.

Dr. Moodie’s Fulbright-Nehru project is engaging with scholars of critical management studies in India for the following purposes: to pursue research for her monograph, Business School Hinduism: An Imperial Genealogy; to enrich ongoing collaborative publications in the areas of religion and economy, religion and labor in South Asia, and cultures of management and authority; and to create partnerships between U.S. and Indian institutions, scholars, and students to advance research in postcolonial and decolonial studies in the humanities and management. Cumulatively, this work breaks new ground in excavating the possibilities that religions – and cultures, more broadly – hold for rethinking humanity’s collective economic future.

Nita Sahai

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Scholar Fellowship
Project Title:	Defining and Testing Hypotheses for Origins of Life: Lonar Lake as a unique early Earth analog site
Field of Study:	Chemistry
Home Institution:	University of Akron, Akron, OH
Host Institution:	Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Grant Start Month:	January 2026
Duration of Grant:	Four months

Brief Bio:

Prof. Nita Sahai’s research focuses on the physical–chemical aspects of biomolecular and inorganic ion interactions at mineral surfaces in processes relevant to the origins of life and astrobiology, environmental geochemistry, and biomaterials science. She earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1997. Following an NSF postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Maryland, Prof. Sahai became a full professor in the Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin–Madison, from 2000 to 2011. She has been with the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, since 2011, and holds joint appointments in the departments of geosciences and biology, and in the Integrated Bioscience Program. Prof. Sahai holds the Ohio Research Scholar Endowed Chair, Biomaterials, and is a fellow of CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research). She was also a fellow and a distinguished lecturer of the Mineralogical Society of America. Her research has been supported by such prestigious institutions as the NSF and NASA. She is also the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the Romnes Faculty Fellowship. Prof. Sahai has served on the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science, which advises NASA. In 2020, she was featured in Fireball, an award-winning documentary on meteorites and the evolution of life and human society on Earth. She has been interviewed on the National Public Radio and on the Public Broadcasting Service. Prof. Sahai has served/is currently serving on several editorial boards, including those of Astrobiology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, and American Mineralogist. She has guest-edited a volume, Medical Mineralogy and Geochemistry (in the well-known Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry Series), and two thematic issues of the Elements magazine. She is a keen history buff and studies philosophy as a hobby.

Dr. Sahai’s Fulbright-Nehru project is exploring how, before life and enzymes, protometabolism emerged. It is exploring mechanisms to synthesize the ATP molecule using metal-ion catalysts. The project is collaborating with the microbiologist Prof. Amitesh Anand (TIFR, Mumbai) and the chemist Prof. Sudha Rajmani (IISER Pune).