Sehajpal Singh

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowships
Project Title:	Unveiling Martian climate dynamics: A comprehensive study of spiders
Field of Study:	Earth Sciences
Home Institution:	Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Host Institution:	California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA
Grant Start Month:	September 2025
Duration of Grant:	Nine months

Brief Bio:

Mr. Sehajpal Singh is a PhD candidate at the Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering, IIT Bombay. His doctoral research focuses on studying water and dry ice’s impact in Martian climate using modeling and data analysis. He is a planetary science enthusiast and believes one should explore the cosmos, for there might be a compelling reason for its vastness. He is also a Board Member at OpenPlanetary, an international non-profit organization.

Sehajpal holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET), Patiala, Punjab. He also co-founded the Thapar Amateur Astronomers Society, a TIET student club dedicated to the love of space and astronomy. This keen interest in space science motivated him to pursue an MTech in remote sensing and GIS (specialization: water resources) from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), ISRO, Dehradun. In his MTech research project, he studied the spatio-temporal dynamics of Mars’ north polar ice cap and subsurface water ice detection on Mars.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, Sehaj is understanding the role of volatile ices in the Martian climate. His research will characterize the substrate and frost surrounding the araneiforms (spider-like features) present near the south pole of Mars. The study strives to contribute to the knowledge of araneiform morphologies and their correlation with local environmental conditions, which can provide insight as to whether there is ground ice within the topmost layer of the substrate.