Sunrit Panda
Princeton, NJ| Grant Category: | Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Program |
| Project Title: | Difference in Emissions from Kon-Tiki Pyrolysis and Open-field Burning of Rice Straw |
| Field of Study: | Agriculture |
| Home Institution: | Princeton University, Princeton, NJ |
| Host Institution: | Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal |
| Grant Start Month: | September 2025 |
| Duration of Grant: | Nine months |
Brief Bio:
Sunrit Panda is a researcher and development professional interested in cultivating financially sustainable solutions for large-scale social problems in the Global South. With broad quantitative experience in statistics, machine learning, environmental modeling, and finance, he is using his Fulbright year to contribute to his larger body of academic and social work on carbon sequestration. He is also coordinating brick kiln emissions testing in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab for the Mauzerall Group at Princeton University’s Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment. In prior roles, Sunrit worked on the credit and investment banking teams of a Singaporean emerging markets impact investment firm as well as on the corporate partnerships team of a finance professional development organization. From teaching AI in village schools to building tubewells, Sunrit also has a long history of service in rural India. A New Jersey native, he holds a bachelor’s degree in operations research and financial engineering from Princeton University.
Sunrit’s Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating the differences in greenhouse gas and particulate emissions between open-field burning of rice straw and Kon-Tiki flame curtain pyrolysis in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal. Open-field burning contributes significantly to winter smog in the Indo-Gangetic plain, while Kon-Tiki pyrolysis offers a low-cost alternative that produces biochar, a carbon-sequestering soil amendment. The study is quantifying CO₂, CO, CH₄, NO₂, PM2.5, and PM10 emissions across two stubble-burning seasons. It is also examining how emission data can inform carbon and methane offset pricing; this can pave the way for economic incentives for smallholder farmers and also support policy development within India’s emerging carbon market framework.