Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Archives

Parvaiz Ahmad Shiekh

Dr. Parvaiz A. Shiekh is DST INSPIRE Faculty at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi. He obtained his bachelor’s in science from Sri Pratap College, University of Kashmir, Jammu & Kashmir, followed by a master’s in biotechnology from the Central University of South Bihar, Bihar. He received his Ph.D. in biological sciences and bioengineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) under the supervision of Prof. Ashok Kumar, where Dr. Sheikh designed and evaluated bioactive, oxygen-releasing, and antioxidant polymeric biomaterials for therapeutics and translational medicine.

Dr. Parvaiz qualified for CSIR-UGC NET JRF (2013), DBT JRF (2013), and GATE 2013. He has published several peer-reviewed articles in reputed journals, including Biomaterials, Chemical Engineering Journal, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Bioactive Materials, European Polymer Journal, and Biomacromolecules. His work has also resulted in two granted patents.

Dr. Parvaiz has received several national and international awards. He received the DST AWSAR Award from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the ILBS-TATA Emerging Leader fellowship from the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi. His doctoral thesis was awarded the Innovative Student Project Award 2021 at Doctoral Level by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), New Delhi. His thesis work was also awarded the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award from IIT Kanpur and the Best PhD Thesis Award from the Society for Biomaterials and Artificial Organs, India. His other scientific achievements include IITK-SIIC Student Innovation Award (SSIA), TERMIS-AP Golden Award 2021, SYBS Young Researcher Award, SBAOI – Bajpai-Saha Student Award, Torrent-ISHR Young Scientist Award, and Dr. S K Maulik Award. He has also received international travel support from IITK, DST-SERB, and INSA/CSIR/DAE-BRNS-CCSTDS for presenting his work at international conferences.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research scholar at UCLA, Dr. Parvaiz is developing smart microneedle patches to deliver on-demand oxygen and cell instructive molecules for therapeutics and regeneration.

Sarbeswar Sahoo

Dr. Sarbeswar Sahoo is working as an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Erfurt (Germany) and Charles Wallace Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast (UK). He received his Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore and has held Visiting Fellowships at University of Groningen (Netherlands), University of Cardiff (UK), University of Muenster (Germany), University of Erfurt (Germany), Roskilde University (Denmark), Queen’s University Belfast (UK), and NUS (Singapore). His research interests include Neoliberalism, Sociology of Development, and Sociology of Religion. He is the author of Civil Society and Democratization in India (Routledge, 2013) and Pentecostalism and Politics of Conversion in India (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

During his Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship, Dr. Sahoo aims to compare the experiences of Bhil Pentecostals in India and Black Pentecostals in the US and discuss how different cultural contexts influence peoples’ lived religious experiences and how Pentecostalism is transforming the everyday socio-political lifeworld of people at the margins. A comparison of the Bhils with the experiences of Black Pentecostals in the US will help us understand not just the “contextual” nature of religious experiences and activities, but also the relationships between religion, state and secularism.

Vasant Matsagar

Prof. Vasant Matsagar is Professor and Dogra Chair at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, New Delhi. He obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay in structural engineering.

Prof. Matsagar is serving on editorial boards of reputed journals in various capacities: Editor-in-Chief of Indian Society of Earthquake Technology (ISET Journal) and the Indian Concrete Journal; Associate Editor for “Computational Methods in Structural Engineering” section” of Frontiers in Built Environment; and an editorial board member of Bulletin of New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Structures and Buildings, Advances in Civil Engineering, International Journal of Protective Structures, and the journal Architecture, Structures, and Construction. Prof. Matsagar is Founding Director and Fellow of Council of Vibration Specialists, and has received fellowships from Humboldt Foundation, Erasmus, ASEM-DUO India, FEIT Visiting Academic among others. He is also a DAAD (India) Research Ambassador and an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy for Engineering (INAE), the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), the Institution of Engineers (India), and the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology.

Prof. Matsagar is interested in multi-hazard protection of structures using advanced engineered materials. During his Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence at Michigan State University (MSU), Prof. Matsagar is developing a technology for manufacturing biocomposites from agro-residues for gainfully using them in built infrastructure at large-scale as construction materials. By developing a suitable agriculture waste management scheme and implementing it in practice and contributing to sustainability through decarbonized circular economy, this collaborative research work strives for the development of hazard resilient infrastructure in modern cities and towns in both the U.S. and India.

Vaivab Das

Vaivab Das is a UGC Senior Research Fellow in sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. They have interdisciplinary training in Human Rights Law (NLSIU, Bangalore), Women and Gender Studies (TISS, Hyderabad), and English Literature (Ravenshaw University). They are interested in looking at the role of data cultures, law, gender and sexuality in the making of histories and policies for LGBTQIA+ persons in India.

They are an activist academician, who firmly believes that their academic goals are interwoven with fostering social change. They have worked towards the recognition of diverse gender and sexual minorities as protected categories, building gender-affirming infrastructures, and creating community spaces for LGBTQIA+ sensitization and awareness in various institutions. Recently, they worked on a writ petition for the horizontal reservation for transgender persons in public education and employment opportunities submitted to the Telangana High Court. In the past, Vaivab has worked as a technical expert on projects on gender-based violence, inclusive and accessible quality education, state welfare programs and livelihood schemes for the World Bank, Oxford Policy Management, Stanford University, and the Government of Odisha.

Vaivab’s Ph.D. project is an anthropological exploration of the bureaucratic, institutional, and socio-cultural barriers that impact the participation of transgender persons in democratic processes like elections in India. The project examines the conflict between law (legal rationality) and identity in the experiences of citizenship, along with the historical trajectories and political technologies that underpin the politics of the body and the body of politics in plural democracies.

During Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellowship, Vaivab is focusing on drawing a comparative understanding of how transgender persons navigate citizenship and elections as voters, candidates, and political representatives in the USA and in India.