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Debabrata Goswami

Prof. Debabrata Goswami joined IIT Kanpur as an associate professor in 2003, became a professor in 2010, and became a Professor with Higher Academic Grade (HAG) in 2017. He also held the five-year term of Prof. S. Sampath Chair-Professorship from 2018 at IIT Kanpur. He has received several awards and recognition for his research, which includes the Hoechst Advanced Technology Division Industrial Affiliates Fellowship for outstanding academic record in Princeton, the International Senior Research Fellowship award of the Wellcome Trust (UK), the Swarnajayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Thathachary Science Award (India). He is a Fellow of Optica (previously OSA), the Institute of Physics, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His work in ultrafast optics and light-matter interactions has also been recognized by the 2019 Galileo Galilei Award of the International Commission of Optics. Prof. Goswami has published over 175 research articles in internationally reputed journals, several book chapters, and edited conference proceedings and books.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellow, Prof. Goswami is focusing on advancing femtosecond laser applications for laser machining toward nanofabrication, including additive and subtractive fabrication projects using ultrafast and multiphoton optical processes and thermal dynamics. His research will delve into the quantum processes initiated by femtosecond laser pulses interacting with materials, and this work promises to yield innovative tools and technologies with broad applications across science and industry.

Nirupam Roy

Dr. Nirupam Roy is an Associate Professor and Convener of the Joint Astronomy Programme in the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He did MSc (2005) and PhD (2009) in Physics from the National Center for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA-TIFR). Subsequently, Dr. Roy was a Jansky Fellow (2009-12) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA, and then a Humboldt Fellow (2013-15) at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. He worked as an Assistant Professor of the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur (2015-16), before joining IISc in 2016. Dr. Roy has been awarded the Young Scientist Medal by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in 2013 and the Laxminarayana & Nagalaxmi Modali award of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) in 2024. He has also served as one of the Ambassador Scientists of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in India during 2018-24.

The primary expertise of Dr. Roy is in the field of radio astronomy, and his research interests include study of the ISM and star formation, galactic novae, and observational cosmology.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Roy is planning to study low-frequency diffuse radio emission from Milky Way, other galaxies and galaxy clusters. These will be used to explore the nature of astrophysical turbulence as well as to address some of the challenges of detecting the cosmological 21-cm signal.

Subhamita Sengupta

Dr. Subhamita Sengupta is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. She completed her BSc in 2013 from Asutosh College, Kolkata affiliated with the University of Calcutta) and earned her MSc in 2016 from Jadavpur University. She was awarded her PhD in June 2022 from the S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata. Additionally, she served as a visiting fellow at the same institution from August 2021 to July 2022.

Dr. Sengupta’s research focuses on low-temperature electrical and magnetotransport, vortex dynamics in superconductors, and interface phenomena in complex oxides. She has published in reputed international journalsand received the INSPIRE scholarship during her undergraduate studies.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University, Dr. Sengupta is leveraging advanced techniques developed by Prof. Jennifer Hoffman’s team, combining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM), to study superconducting vortices hosting Majorana zero modes — a cornerstone of topological quantum computing. Her research focuses on detecting magnetic field gradients between proximate vortex cores using MFM to determine the parity states of overlapping Majoranas, a critical step toward achieving stable qubit operations and topologically protected quantum logic.

Rajes Ghosh

After finishing his PhD in June 2024 from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Dr. Rajes Ghosh is currently pursuing a one-year postdoctoral position at the Department of Astrophysical Relativity in the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru. He earned his BSc in 2017 from Burdwan Raj College, affiliated with Burdwan University, and completed his MSc in 2019 at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Dr. Ghosh was a Prime Minister Research Fellow (PMRF) during his PhD and a recipient of the Inspire fellowship during his BSc and MSc. The national PMRF website showcased his scholarly works as commendable research. During his MSc, he received the award for Outstanding Research Performance along with the President’s, Director’s, and Institute gold medals from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar.

Dr. Ghosh’s primary research interests include probing gravity in strong field regimes, gravitational wave signatures of modified gravity, physics of ultra-compact objects, and quantum aspects of gravity. He has published 14 research articles in several reputed international journals, including Letters and Rapid Communications in Physical Review D.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow at Krieger School of Arts and Science, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Ghosh is exploring the gravitational properties of ultra-compact objects, both with and without horizons, such as black holes and compact stars. By studying their gravitational wave and shadow signatures, he aims to explore and constrain potential new physics beyond general relativity.

Indranil Chakraborty

Dr. Indranil Chakraborty is currently an institute postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where he has been working since May 2023. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, affiliated with University of Calcutta, in 2015. He then completed both his master’s degree in physics (2017) and PhD (2023) at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal.

Dr. Chakraborty’s research interests lie in gravitational physics, particularly in the study of gravitational wave memory effects — a subtle and yet-to-be-detected phenomenon predicted by general relativity. Over the years, he has authored several research articles, including a single-author publication in reputed international journals.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, Dr. Chakraborty is investigating how gravitational wave memory effects manifest in cosmological settings. His project also aims to develop a formalism for calculating memory effects in modified theories of gravity. This research is crucial for next-generation gravitational wave detectors, as they are expected to probe potential deviations from general relativity — currently the best-verified theory of gravity.

Seema Rani

Ms. Seema Rani is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) Mohali. Her current research focuses on developing novel 2D metal chalcogenides-based sensors, electronics, and memory devices, aiming to contribute innovative solutions to advance these fields. Her research also extends to micro-electrochemistry methods and micro-electrocatalysis. Over the course of her doctoral studies, she has published more than ten research articles in reputed journals and presented her findings at numerous national and international conferences.

Seema holds a bachelor’s degree in science from BPS Women’s University, Khanpur Kalan, Haryana and a master’s degree in physics from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana. She has been a recipient of various scholarships throughout her academic journey and ranked fifth in her master’s program. Additionally, she qualified in the CSIR-UGC NET examination in physical sciences with an all-India rank of 141 and was awarded the CSIR-JRF fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, meditation, cooking, and reading.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Seema is aiming at developing advanced biomimetic eye systems with in-sensor computing capabilities, specifically mimicking the functionality of bipolar cells essential for visual processing.

Arup Biswas

Mr. Arup Biswas is a PhD candidate in Theoretical Physics at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His broad research interest lies in the study of non-equilibrium statistical physics and stochastic processes. Here, his primary focus is to quantify and understand a class of complex physical processes such as animal navigation, random search processes, and transport properties and find a universal picture to describe them through a single thread.

Arup holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in physics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal. There he was a recipient of the INSPIRE scholarship. Thereafter, he qualified in several national-level examinations such as NET JRF, GATE and JEST to avail a fellowship in PhD.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Harvard University, Arup is working on experimental studies of dung beetles through programmable robots. Dung beetles are fascinating creatures that can use references as far off as the Milky Way galaxy to navigate towards home. His research in the US consists of understanding their motion through theoretical modelling, tabletop experiments and leveraging them for further real-life applications. Apart from academics Arup loves sketching, using cool digital tools and is interested in world politics, stock markets and cricket.

Arpan Pal

Mr. Arpan Pal is a PhD candidate at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR), Pune, Maharashtra. His doctoral research focuses on studying the interaction of merger shocks with the intra-cluster medium in galaxy clusters. He uses a technique called radio interferometry which combines data from different radio antennas to form a large and sensitive radio telescope to study these objects in detail. His research also focuses on optimizing radio interferometry techniques to get a much clearer and sharper picture of the universe.

Arpan holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Burdwan Raj College, Burdwan and a master’s degree in physics from NCRA-TIFR. He collaborates actively with many national and international research groups and played an important role of projects that use both ground and space-based telescopes ranging from radio to X-rays.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the National Radio Astronomical Observatory, Socorro, Arpan is exploring how several biases affect radio polarimetric imaging and, in turn, the conclusions in general. This is possibly the first attempt to characterize the radio polarimetric biases in the wide-band era of radio interferometry. He is part of the Algorithms Research and Development Group at NRAO. Arpan loves fishing, cooking and exploring new fishing spots and recipes.

Poulami Nandi

Dr. Poulami Nandi is a postdoctoral fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat since March 2022. She received her Ph.D. in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) in April 2022. She earned her master’s in physics from IITK and joined the research group of Prof. Arjun Bagchi in 2017 to pursue her Ph.D. Her doctoral thesis “Carrollian Conformal Symmetry and Holography” focuses on Carrollian conformal and BMS field theories, and their relations with the holographic principle for asymptotically flat spacetimes.

During her Ph.D., Dr. Nandi was awarded two international fellowships: the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Fellowship 2019-2020 for nine months to visit the University of California, Davis and the Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellowship 2018-2019 for 12 months by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India. She was also affiliated with the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria for six months from August 2019 before moving to California in 2020. She was awarded International Travel Support (ITS) by SERB in 2022 to present her work at the prestigious annual conference “Strings” in Vienna. She also received the INSPIRE scholarship from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India during her undergraduate studies. She has co-authored several publications in international high-impact journals and presented her works through multiple seminars and posters in India and Europe.

The holographic principle is one of our best hopes to understand quantum gravity. One of its most prominent examples is the AdS/CFT correspondence, which is also deeply connected to diverse branches of physics, such as condensed matter, quantum information, and optics. During her Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship, Dr. Nandi is investigating the interface of quantum theory of gravity and theory of quantum computation. She is working to understand aspects of quantum information theory for non-Lorentzian field theories, in the context of flat-space holography, and also the dynamics of quantum systems.

Neha Khatri

Dr. Neha Khatri is Principal Scientist at the Department of Manufacturing Science & Instrumentation, CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh. She is a young researcher working in the area of ultra precision machining and optical metrology techniques for smart manufacturing.

Dr. Khatri earned her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 2010 from the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kanpur and her master’s in advanced instrumentation engineering in 2012 from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai. She then joined as a scientist at CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh in November, 2012. She received her Ph.D. in 2019 in opto-mechanical instrumentation from AcSIR, Chennai. She made significant contributions to advanced manufacturing techniques using ultra precision machining protocol for the development of various techniques and products for societal and strategic applications. Her research findings and investigations have received recognition through high impact publications, international collaborations, as well as transfer of technologies. Dr. Khatri’s scientific recognitions include Raman Research Fellowship 2021-22, SERB Women Excellence Award 2022, INAE Young Engineer Award 2021, and IEI Young Engineer Award 2022 for her notable contribution in the area of ultra-precision machining. She has received many best paper awards in various international conferences. She was inducted in the second BRICS Young Scientist Conclave to represent India at Hangzhou, China in 2017.

The key hurdle in high throughput precision freeform optics fabrication is quality control. As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Khatri is working at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her research focuses on developing on-machine metrology for precision fabrication of freeform optics with fast measurements and analyses for closed loop control and optimization.