Cambridge Archives - Welcome to

Priti Gupta

Dr. Priti Gupta is a neuroscientist and Director of Research at Project Prakash, an Indo-US initiative that aims at alleviating curable childhood blindness in India while also demystifying how the human brain learns to see. She got her PhD in Computational Neuroscience from Dayalbagh University and received her post-doctoral training in Cognitive Neuroscience at IIT Delhi. Dr Gupta’s research interests include visual and cognitive development and learning and brain plasticity. As a scientist at Project Prakash, Dr Gupta has worked extensively with children treated for congenital cataracts to understand how vision develops after prolonged visual deprivation. Her work in visual development has featured in several top-tier journals including Science.

To tackle the broad goal of understanding visual development, one needs to adopt a multifaceted approach that merges work with both typically and atypically developing children, and computational modeling. To complement her expertise of working with atypically developing children, as a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence scholar Dr Gupta is acquiring experimental and analytical skills at the Nelson Lab at Harvard University to study typically developing children. Through well-designed studies with babies and toddlers her goal is to characterize the development of temporal vision, thereby furthering the understanding of the critical role time plays in perceptual organization.

Amiya Kumar Jana

Dr. Amiya K. Jana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. He has received research funds as principal investigator from DST, DAE (BRNS), CSIR, MHRD, and ISRO, among others. He has authored over 150 research articles in several international journals of repute. He is the sole author of three textbooks in the area of numerical analysis, modeling, simulation and control.

Dr. Jana has received numerous awards and recognitions, including Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK, 2023), Faculty Excellence Award (IIT Kharagpur, 2021), Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany, 2017), inclusion in World’s Top 2% Scientists list (Stanford University, 2020 – 24), and is an editorial board member of Scientific Reports (Nature Group) and Frontiers in Control Engineering (Frontiers Publisher, Switzerland). His research focuses on renewable energy, clean fuel, desalination, process integration and control.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Jana is planning to work on the proton exchange membrane fuel cell with its optimization and control by the use of AI-based state estimator.

Debabrata Goswami

Prof. Debabrata Goswami joined IIT Kanpur as an associate professor in 2003, became a professor in 2010, and became a Professor with Higher Academic Grade (HAG) in 2017. He also held the five-year term of Prof. S. Sampath Chair-Professorship from 2018 at IIT Kanpur. He has received several awards and recognition for his research, which includes the Hoechst Advanced Technology Division Industrial Affiliates Fellowship for outstanding academic record in Princeton, the International Senior Research Fellowship award of the Wellcome Trust (UK), the Swarnajayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Thathachary Science Award (India). He is a Fellow of Optica (previously OSA), the Institute of Physics, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His work in ultrafast optics and light-matter interactions has also been recognized by the 2019 Galileo Galilei Award of the International Commission of Optics. Prof. Goswami has published over 175 research articles in internationally reputed journals, several book chapters, and edited conference proceedings and books.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellow, Prof. Goswami is focusing on advancing femtosecond laser applications for laser machining toward nanofabrication, including additive and subtractive fabrication projects using ultrafast and multiphoton optical processes and thermal dynamics. His research will delve into the quantum processes initiated by femtosecond laser pulses interacting with materials, and this work promises to yield innovative tools and technologies with broad applications across science and industry.

Subhamita Sengupta

Dr. Subhamita Sengupta is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. She completed her BSc in 2013 from Asutosh College, Kolkata affiliated with the University of Calcutta) and earned her MSc in 2016 from Jadavpur University. She was awarded her PhD in June 2022 from the S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata. Additionally, she served as a visiting fellow at the same institution from August 2021 to July 2022.

Dr. Sengupta’s research focuses on low-temperature electrical and magnetotransport, vortex dynamics in superconductors, and interface phenomena in complex oxides. She has published in reputed international journalsand received the INSPIRE scholarship during her undergraduate studies.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University, Dr. Sengupta is leveraging advanced techniques developed by Prof. Jennifer Hoffman’s team, combining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM), to study superconducting vortices hosting Majorana zero modes — a cornerstone of topological quantum computing. Her research focuses on detecting magnetic field gradients between proximate vortex cores using MFM to determine the parity states of overlapping Majoranas, a critical step toward achieving stable qubit operations and topologically protected quantum logic.

Arjun Bindu Sunil

Dr. Arjun Bindu Sunil is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Sahas Labs, a product development company developing deep-tech robotics and instrumentation solutions based in Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. He also leads Embedite, another startup working on healthcare and sustainability, as the Chief Executive Officer. He completed his BTech in mechanical engineering at Government Engineering College Barton Hill in Trivandrum. He gained his master’s in research and PhD from the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in June 2024 with the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship. His research was focused on developing an intraoperative probe that integrates multimodal tissue characterization and soft robotics to enhance brain tumor margin delineation.

Dr. Sunil has made several significant contributions to neural engineering and biomedical engineering with skillsets in microfabrication, robotics and product design. He has 12 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, four granted patents and eight patent applications. He received the BIRAC SITARE-GYTI Award 2021 and Sun Pharma Science Foundation Science Scholar Award 2022, among others, and is the national winner of James Dyson Award 2022. He represented India at the BRICS Young Scientist Forum 2024 as a young innovator.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow under the guidance of Prof. Shriya Srinivasan, Dr. Sunil is aiming to develop a myoelectric prosthesis that can be implanted in the upper limbs through modular surgical techniques. The technology used in the proposed prosthesis seeks to improve upper limb control in patients, providing a more accessible and less invasive alternative to existing solutions.

Mamu Hage

Ms. Mamu Hage is the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of West Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. She is a 2017 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. Her previous stints have included being Collector and District Magistrate of North Goa District with additional charge as MD & CEO of Panaji Smart City Corporation. As District Magistrate and Collector in various districts and states she has conducted two Legislative Assembly Elections and Parliamentary Elections, ensured implementation of key Government schemes and initiated several developmental projects.

During her stint in West Siang, Mamu focused on district developmental goals such as Clean Aalo Initiative and urban transformation through a range of measures. She has been instrumental in securing various awards and accolades for the district in urban innovation, health and wellness and election management.

Mamu is the first Apatani Tribe IAS officer and only the second from Arunachal Pradesh to be selected as a Humphrey Fellow under the Fulbright Scholarship.

Mamu is also a swimming enthusiast. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, and a master’s in Applied Psychology from South Campus, Delhi University. As a Humphrey Fellow, Mamu is studying urban sanitation, urban roads and mobility, and how to make cities smart.

Ananth Wuppukondur

Dr. Ananth Wuppukondur is currently Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad (MNNIT), Uttar Pradesh. His research interests are in Coastal and Hydraulic Engineering, focusing on understanding the physics of natural hazards in coastal and riverine environments and exploring nature-based solutions for protection under changing climate. Prior to joining MNNIT, he was a postdoctoral scholar in a NASA-funded research project at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.

Dr Wuppukondur holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Sri Venkateswara University, and a master’s degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He later obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. His research contributions in restoring the Great Barrier Reef have been published in BBC’s Unlocking Science series.

During his term as a Fulbright-Kalam Fellow at MIT, Dr. Wuppukondur is quantifying the role of mangrove forests in coastal protection and establishing a knowledge network between India and USA for using mangroves as a nature-based solution to diminish the flooding associated with storm surges. Coastal communities in India and USA are adversely impacted by the increasing intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones due to climate change. The results of this work will improve assessment of coastal flood risk and help in disaster mitigation and management in both countries.

Sushrita Acharjee

Ms. Sushrita Acharjee works as an Assistant Professor of English at the School of Liberal Arts and Culture Studies, Adamas University, Kolkata. She is a PhD candidate at the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, from where she previously earned her MPhil degree. From 2020 to 2022, she was a UGC-JRF and a teaching assistant at the Department of English, Jadavpur University.

In 2024, Sushrita was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Grant to conduct research in the UK for her doctoral thesis. She contributed to the BBC 3 radio documentary, Recording on the Nomad’s Trail, on Bengali ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya. In 2021, she collaborated with History for Peace under Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Kolkata, India in preparing resources for and moderating a workshop, ‘Aesthetics of Resistance: Revisiting 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War through Various Art Forms’. She also served as a research fellow for Sahapedia-UNESCO on a project, Rituparno Ghosh: The First Queer Star of Bengal.

Sushrita has presented her research at various universities in the UK, Italy, and at Bangla Academy, Bangladesh, among others. She has contributed to publications by Bloomsbury and Routledge. Her research interests traverse sound cultures, war narratives, migration, oral cultures and other literary and performance studies.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Sushrita is investigating the possibility of songs and sounds leading to lesser-known histories of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. She is also training in ethnomusicology under experts, while exploring field research opportunities in the Bangladeshi immigrant communities in the USA.

Arup Biswas

Mr. Arup Biswas is a PhD candidate in Theoretical Physics at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His broad research interest lies in the study of non-equilibrium statistical physics and stochastic processes. Here, his primary focus is to quantify and understand a class of complex physical processes such as animal navigation, random search processes, and transport properties and find a universal picture to describe them through a single thread.

Arup holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in physics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal. There he was a recipient of the INSPIRE scholarship. Thereafter, he qualified in several national-level examinations such as NET JRF, GATE and JEST to avail a fellowship in PhD.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Harvard University, Arup is working on experimental studies of dung beetles through programmable robots. Dung beetles are fascinating creatures that can use references as far off as the Milky Way galaxy to navigate towards home. His research in the US consists of understanding their motion through theoretical modelling, tabletop experiments and leveraging them for further real-life applications. Apart from academics Arup loves sketching, using cool digital tools and is interested in world politics, stock markets and cricket.

Aditi Barman Roy

Ms. Aditi Barman Roy is a PhD candidate and a teaching assistant at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Roorkee. She completed her graduation and post-graduate studies in English from the University of Calcutta and Delhi University respectively. In addition, Aditi has completed her MPhil in gender studies from Jadavpur University. Currently, as a Senior Research Fellow in English at IIT Roorkee, Aditi delves into the bioethical complexities of modern biotechnological innovations through the lens of literary fiction.

Aditi’s research on bioethics has been published in well-known journals such as the English Academy Review (Taylor and Francis) and Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures (Taylor and Francis). She has also contributed chapters to academic books related to her field of study and presented her research at various international conferences. Among her accolades is the prestigious Indian Council of Social Sciences Research grant for presenting her work at Brunel University in London and full funding to pursue her research at the University of Oklahoma for six weeks.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Harvard, Aditi is working in the field of science and technology studies (STS) to address the complex bioethical challenges arising from the recent biomedical advancements in the 21st century. Her research is focused on the narratives of speculative fiction that investigate the bioethics of medical practice from the lens of critical posthumanism. In her free time, Aditi enjoys painting, reading, trekking, and exploring new genres of cinema.