Home Institution USA: The Ohio State University

Ananya Kamalakannan

Ananya Kamalakannan is a 2026 graduate from the Ohio State University, where she earned her BS in systems and behavioral neuroscience, with minors in medical humanities and global public health. Her academic and professional work centers on mental health equity, medical education, and the social determinants of health. As part of her honors undergraduate thesis, she conducted research on mental health trends among medical students by analyzing national datasets to investigate disparities in various mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, self-injurious behaviors, and suicidality.

Beyond research, Ananya is deeply involved in community engagement and student leadership. She was a Morrill Scholar at Ohio State and a recipient of the Kaplan Humanitarian Award, accolades that reflected her sustained leadership skills across civic and cultural organizations. She has also served as the president of Global Medical Brigades (a student-led volunteer organization that implements sustainable health systems), Red Saree (a nonprofit focused on health equity and awareness), and Tamil Sangam (a cultural outfit that preserves and promotes Tamil cultural heritage). Throughout her undergraduate career, Ananya was deeply engaged with South Asian communities across both the United States and India; during this time, she led mental wellness workshops for youth through Snehalaya, an NGO supporting women and children affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS, based in Ahmednagar, India.

A classically trained Indian dancer, and visual artist, Ananya is passionate about fostering cross-cultural dialogue through both public health and the arts. She hopes to become a physician-researcher focused on global mental health, medical education reform, and developing culturally grounded approaches to student well-being.

Ananya’s Fulbright-Nehru project involves a mixed-methods study examining the mental health of Indian medical students hosted at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru. The project is investigating how academic pressures and structural inequalities shape student mental health outcomes and treatment utilization. Drawing on her epidemiological research at Ohio State, Ananya is adapting validated survey instruments to the Indian context and conducting qualitative interviews with the students and faculty. She hopes to translate the findings into culturally grounded policy recommendations to improve institutional support systems and foster a generation of medical providers who embrace mental health as a priority.

Moira Donovan

Moira Donovan is a writer and community-based development professional with six years of work experience. In 2020, Moira graduated magna cum laude from the Ohio State University with a BA in political science. Immediately upon graduation, she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA for one year with a local refugee resettlement agency in Columbus, Ohio. As she developed the institutional capacity of the organization, her work ranged from organizing conferences for community leaders to developing multiyear fundraising strategies. After her service ended, she remained with the agency for an additional year as their communications specialist, building up their recognition in the community. For the next two years, she worked as a grants and contracts specialist at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Ohio State University. There, she managed comprehensive financial operations for grant-funded cancer research portfolios. From 2024 to 2025, she served as a Banyan Impact Fellow with the American India Foundation in New Delhi, India, leading the design and planning of the organization’s 25th anniversary campaign. After returning from India, she has been involved in early childhood education as a teacher, thereby further deepening her commitment to lifelong learning. With a particular passion for migration studies, she integrates research and data-driven insights with storytelling to create measurable impact and influence.

Moira’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining how colonial legacies, religion, and caste shape migration from South Goa to Dublin, Ireland. Following Brexit, Ireland has become a key destination for Goans holding Portuguese passports. The project is investigating how caste persists within Goan Catholic communities and influences migration opportunities, aspirations, and socioeconomic mobility. Using ethnographic methods, including interviews and participant observation across Goa, the study is exploring who migrates and why. It is also considering how migration reshapes the home communities. By analyzing this under-explored corridor, the research contributes to broader discussions related to contemporary migration in terms of caste, religion, and transnational mobility.

Sandip Mazumder

Dr. Sandip Mazumder is professor and associate chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering at The Ohio State University (OSU). He joined OSU in March 2004. Prior to OSU, he was employed at the CFD Research Corporation in Huntsville, AL, for seven years. He is one of the architects and early developers of the commercial code, CFD-ACE+™. His research is computational in nature and spans three main areas: computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer emphasizing on chemical reactions, with applications in combustion, catalytic conversion, fuel cells, batteries, and chemical vapor deposition; thermal radiation and its applications; and non-equilibrium transport phenomena as occurring in nanoscale systems. He has been active in raising awareness about global warming and climate change among engineering students and the general public through his classroom teaching and seminars. Dr. Mazumder is the author of two graduate-level textbooks, more than 65 journal papers, and over 65 peer-reviewed conference publications. He is the recipient of the McCarthy Engineering Teaching Award and the Lumley Research Award from the OSU College of Engineering. He has also been a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers since 2011.

In light of the fact that the U.S. and India are ranked second and third, respectively, among the highest carbon dioxide-producing nations, Dr. Mazumder’s Fulbright-Kalam project involves a collaborative one-semester part-teaching, part-research stint at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. For this, he is creating and deploying two modules with the objective of increasing awareness about global warming and its causes among the future engineering workforce in both the countries. While the teaching module has a short ambit, the research module, titled “Hierarchical Models for Atmospheric Solar Radiation Transport and Earth’s Temperature Predictions”, is attempting to answer long-standing questions on the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming.