Florida International University Archives

Deodutta Roy

Prof. Deodutta Roy is a professor emeritus at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University (FIU), Miami. He joined FIU as a professor in 2004 and served as the founding chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health from 2005 to 2011. Prior to FIU, he was a tenured professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1998–2004). His leadership in building the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at FIU established him as a key figure in public health academia.

Nationally and internationally recognized for advancing translational exposomics –bridging genome, exposome, and environmental public health – Prof. Roy has received several prestigious awards, including the Junior Faculty Development Award from the American Cancer Society, the Scholar Award in Cancer Research from the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and monographs, and holds two patents. He has trained 15 doctoral students and numerous postdoctoral fellows. His work has garnered over 6,000 citations on ResearchGate, underscoring the breadth of his scholarly influence.

Prof. Roy has been at the forefront of exposomics research, exploring how environmental DNA and RNA can serve as records of the human exposome, and can help in understanding the environmental causes of chronic diseases. His work integrates machine learning and bioinformatics to analyze complex, multi-omics datasets, and advancing computational approaches to environmental health sciences, brain health, and cancer research.

Dr. Roy’s Fulbright-Nehru project is integrating teaching, curriculum development, and collaborative research to advance environmental public health education and exposomics research at Amity University, Haryana. Focusing on the air quality in the Delhi National Capital Region, it is exploring links between environmental DNA and early brain health. The curriculum incorporates exposomic methods and analytical tools, alongside holding of workshops and boot camps. By addressing the challenges of air pollution and neurodevelopmental risks in children, the project aims to build institutional exposomics capacity and fulfill the Fulbright mission by fostering academic collaborations between the United States and India.

Mahadev Bhat

Dr. Mahadev Bhat is a distinguished university professor of natural resource economics in the Department of Earth and Environment and the Department of Economics at Florida International University (FIU), Miami, FL. He earned his PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his MS in agricultural economics from the College of Agriculture, Dharwad, India.

His research focuses on economics and policy issues relating to natural resources, including ecosystem services, water resources, coastal and marine systems, and agriculture. He has produced over 380 scholarly contributions, including refereed journal articles, book chapters, technical reports, presentations, and invited lectures. Dr. Bhat has secured more than USD 25 million in competitive research funding from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Bhat co-founded the agroecology program at FIU and led the development of a training and farm-start-up initiative for underserved farmers and veterans, all supported by more than 40 USDA grants. Three of these grants helped establish a multi-university consortium focused on training Hispanic students in South Florida and Puerto Rico. His honors include the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics’ Bernardo Aguilar Award (2019), the FIU Faculty Excellence Award for Research (2020), the FIU Presidential Excellence Award (2016), and the Soil and Water Conservation Society’s Berg Fellowship (1992).

Dr. Bhat has actively promoted Indian language and culture in the United States through over 30 years of volunteer service, value-based teaching, and artistic production/direction at local and national cultural organizations.

Dr. Bhat’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on community-based and culturally rooted forest conservation strategies in India. The project is evaluating the ecosystem services provided by sacred forests and is developing policy pathways that integrate traditional knowledge system into sustainable forest management. He is conducting his research at the University of Agricultural Sciences’ College of Forestry at Sirsi and is also collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad and the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society, Kolkata. Further, he is comparing restoration experiences between the Florida Everglades and India’s Sundarbans to advance cross-regional insights into ecosystem management.

Anjana Mishra

Prof. Anjana Mishra is assistant teaching professor in the Department of Politics & International Relations, School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University (FIU), Miami. She joined FIU as an adjunct professor in 1998. Prior to that, she taught at the University of Lucknow and NSN Degree College, Lucknow, India. At FIU, she teaches courses on South Asia, development studies, and global issues. Dr. Mishra’s research interests include issues related to the Asian Indian diaspora, gender, development, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is currently editing a book, Politics and Culture in the Developing World. Dr. Mishra is active in the South Florida community and is a member of the Miami Dade County Asian Advisory Board; she is also the secretary, executive board member, and founding member of the Miami Association of Indian Americans for Culture and Arts.

Prof. Mishra’s interdisciplinary project for the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Award involves a survey exploring the impact of globalization and COVID-19 on the empowerment of chikan artisans – Urdu-speaking, Muslim women – living in the city of Lucknow. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, this study is assessing the improvement, decline, or status quo in the empowerment of these women in the face of threat from machine-made Chinese chikan fabric and the more recent challenge presented by the loss of wages and health issues arising from the pandemic-related lockdown.