Host City India: Bloomington

Rajneesh Gupta

Mr. Rajneesh Gupta is a public servant with 24 years of experience in project execution, policy analysis, maintenance, academia, and research. He is serving as Executive Director/S&T at Research Design & Standards Organization in Lucknow under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. Before taking on this role, Mr. Gupta was Professor (NM) at the National Academy of Indian Railways, Vadodara, where he trained over 2500 professionals from diverse categories, seniority levels, and domains.

He holds a bachelor’s in electronics and communication engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (1998) and an advanced degree in public policy from the Indian School of Business, Mohali. Additionally, he has a master’s in arts with a specialization in industrial psychology. At present, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational behavior and human resource management from the Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida. His passions include yoga, meditation, running, and reading.

Mr. Gupta’s Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research focuses on uncovering the key to better public services in India. He is passionate about exploring the intersection of job demand, resources, organizational behavior, and human resource capabilities in the public sector. The goal of his Ph.D. is to identify the critical role that public service motivation plays in enhancing efficiency and driving positive outcomes for citizens.

Anupama Ghosh

Dr. Anupama Ghosh is Associate Professor in the Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Kolkata. Her primary research interests include virulence mechanisms of different phytopathogens and defense responses from the respective host plants. Her research group at Bose Institute is engaged in understanding the role of various molecular players from a biotrophic plant pathogenic fungus, Ustilago maydis, which are involved in the invasion and colonization of the host plant Zea mays.

Dr. Ghosh earned her bachelor’s in microbiology, and master’s and Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of Calcutta. For her postdoctoral studies, she joined the Department of Organismic Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany, where she contributed significantly to studies involving functional characterization of secreted effector proteins from Ustilago maydis. She received the DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the Early Career Research Award from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India for carrying out her research in plant-microbe interactions. Ongoing research projects at her laboratory are funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India and SERB.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Ghosh is studying the role of extracellular vesicles in Zea mays in the defense response of maize towards Ustilago maydis infection.

Mohammad Jibraan Fazili

Dr. Mohammad Jibraan Fazili is an assistant professor of English at Malla Reddy University in Hyderabad, where he teaches English language and literature courses. He has developed curriculum material and mentored English-language learners. He also has an extensive experience as an English tutor on various online platforms, where he gave personalized training to a diverse group of students. He also conducts communication and soft skills training, personality development sessions, and prepares students for Cambridge B2 level competence and tests like IELTS, and TOEFL. His deep understanding of the nuances of language and literature underline his teaching methods.

With a focus on immigration, nativism, and modern fiction, Dr. Fazili earned his PhD in English from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2024, where he also completed his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English. Proficient in, Urdu, Kashmiri and English, Dr. Fazili has presented papers at notable national and international conferences and published articles in various journals.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Dr. Fazili will try to elevate cultural awareness of India’s heritage through dynamic engagement. Employing innovative and interactive approaches, he hopes to introduce Urdu language and literature to students, fostering a vibrant classroom environment. His methodological blend will enhance learning, promote multilingual competencies, and encourage exploration of diverse languages and cultures.