Panjab University Archives

Ms. Stuti Benal is a teacher of foreign languages and has been teaching French at Alliance Française de Chandigarh. She recently completed her master’s in English from the department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. In addition, she also holds a master’s in journalism and mass communication from the School of Communication Studies, Panjab University.

Ms. Benal has worked in France as an English language assistant as a part of the prestigious Asisstant de Langue program for two years where she taught high school and college students while sharing her culture with them and developing her teaching methodologies. She has written for magazines and university newspapers in the past and continues to be an avid writer. Passionate about languages, she is currently learning Spanish and also working towards perfection in her native language, Pahari.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Assistant and cultural ambassador at the University of Notre Dame, Ms. Benal aspires to share her language with the students through innovative teaching strategies while incorporating the culture of her country in the classroom through music, food, literature, and films. She looks forward to enhancing her understanding of this increasingly multicultural world, which for her finds its reflection in the manifoldness of the Indian experience.

Dr. Neetu Goel is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh. She completed her Ph.D. in 2005 with a concentration in theoretical chemistry under the supervision of Prof. B. M. Deb. Dr Goel’s research area is theoretical and computational chemistry that focuses on the structure-property relationship of clusters and nanomaterials. Her research endeavors rely on density functional theory to understand/tailor materials at atomic scale and to design efficient heterogeneous catalyst for reactions of industrial importance.

Dr. Goel has established a strong research group at her home institute that is actively engaged in scientific pursuits of varied dimensions. Dr. Goel has in the past collaborated with Prof. Michael Springborg from the University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany. She was also awarded the Mercator fellowship for a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Dr. Goel’s Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship project is a combination of teaching and research with clearly defined goals. Her project is aimed at bioconjugated nanomaterials for application in health-related areas. She is investigating the structure and dynamics of biomolecule/nanosurface interface through quantum mechanical and atomistic simulations. Through successful execution of this project, Dr. Goel strives to make an enormous economic impact as the computational modeling of bioconjugated nanomaterials saves plenty of time, effort, and cost involved in the trial-and-error approach employed in laboratories. State-of-the-art computations envisioned in the project seek to provide reliable pointers for successful culmination of derived outcomes into successful clinical trials. Dr. Goel is also teaching a course on quantum mechanics and numerical/theoretical methods in computational physics to the students at MTU, with the goal of developing synergy between teaching and research, and strengthening teacher-student relationships.