Abhishesh Pal

Mr. Abhishesh Pal is a Ph.D. scholar at the MEMS, Mechatronics, and Nanoelectronics Lab (MMNE), BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad. Mr. Pal intends to work on point-of-care devices by miniaturization of sensors for its application to detect and monitor soil and environmental parameters. This can facilitate deeper penetration of modern technology at a lower cost of utilization.

Mr. Pal earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, (AKTU), and a master’s degree in Nanotechnology from Karnataka’s National Institute of Technology, Surathkal (NITK). During his master’s degree, he utilized marine resources such as shells and bones of marine organisms to work on a patented process for dramatically lowering the sintering temperature of porous ceramic, which can be employed in biomedical applications such as bone scaffolds. He did an extensive study on the effects of combustible pore formers on biocompatible ceramics and optimized various parameters to develop porous scaffolds with required mechanical properties. During his master’s and ongoing doctoral degree, he published research articles in multiple peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, he filed a patent for a device that uses the colorimetric approach to detect and monitor soil macronutrients.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, he will enhance the miniaturized device developed by him to detect soil macronutrients and facilitate data monitoring as well by using machine learning approach such that various soil types can be covered. He wishes to develop a simple and low-cost device to bridge the gap between technology and the farming community in the world.

Having stayed in various parts of India he has developed a keen interest in Indian culture and understands six Indian languages. Also, he is a sports enthusiast and likes to spend his free time cooking and watching movies.

Akshay U Nair

Mr. Akshay U Nair is a Ph.D. scholar at the Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati. The major interest of research is understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning the plant acquired stress response(s). He is trying to correlate the key transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and epigenetic pathways to get a deeper understanding of the stress memory mechanism in plants. Identifying the vital regulatory modules could aid in engineering abiotic stress-resilient crops.

He completed his master’s from the Department of Plant Science, Central University of Kerala. He has been a summer research fellow (2019) of the Indian Academy of Sciences. He has qualified for some of the national-level competitive exams including CSIR-Net, GATE, JGEEBILS.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, he will be investigating how the transgenerational inheritance of acquired stress tolerance occurs in plants. The outputs of this research will be helpful in connecting the altered gene regulatory networks with epigenetic modifications induced by specific abiotic stresses in plants.

He spends his non-research hours playing football and venturing into short stories. He is also interested in cooking and exploring new places.