Host Institution India: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sujit Sakharam Damase

Mr. Sujit Sakharam Damase is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mathematics at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in mathematics from Fergusson College, Pune, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, respectively. As a doctoral student, Sujit delves into the intersection of Fourier analysis, sphere packing, representation theory, operator theory, and total positivity.

Sujit’s research in mathematics has been published in well-known peer-reviewed journals such as Linear Algebra and its Applications and the Canadian Mathematical Bulletin. He has also presented his research at various international conferences and workshops across Taiwan, Canada, and Scotland. He received a travel grant from the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences to present his work in Edinburgh as the only graduate student speaker and the International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS) Student Grant. He is a Simons visitor at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, a UNESCO research center in Trieste, Italy.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Sujit will be working at the interface of discrete geometry and number theory. His research addresses the fundamental problem of sphere packing, focusing on designing good spherical codes and proving bounds on them. The study strives to advance the state of the art in constructing and analyzing packings by leveraging linear and semidefinite programming bounds and higher-order applications of harmonic analysis. In his free time, Sujit enjoys exploring the history of mathematics, reading, and taking long walks.

Keerthi Jalli

Ms. Keerthi Jalli is a 2013-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. Over the past 13 years, she has held multiple leadership positions in Assam, working on public health, nutrition, and women’s empowerment. She currently serves as Commissioner, Panchayat and Rural Development, Assam, and Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen.

As District Commissioner, Keerthi focused on improving maternal and child health, combating anemia and malnutrition, strengthening citizen participation, and enhancing service delivery in geographically challenging and socio-economically vulnerable regions. She played a key role in managing flood response and COVID-19 relief efforts. Her work has been recognized with the Chief Minister’s Karmashree Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

In her current role, Keerthi oversees rural development and sanitation programs. She is leading efforts to strengthen local self-governance institutions, promote sustainable sanitation, enhancing livelihoods, and building climate-resilient communities through decentralized development.

Keerthi holds a B.Tech. in computer science and engineering. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing large-scale public programs. As a Humphrey Fellow, she is focusing on technology policy and management. She aims to study how emerging technologies, data-driven governance, and digital public infrastructure can strengthen public service delivery and improve development outcomes, particularly for underserved communities.

Nagarajan Ganapathy

Dr. Nagarajan Ganapathy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), India, where he heads the Medical Informatics and Digital Health Laboratory. He earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2019 at IIT Madras, India, and was a DAAD fellow at TU Braunschweig, Germany, followed by postdoctoral training at the Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics (PLRI), TU Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School, Germany. He continues to serve as a Visiting Scientist at PLRI. His research expertise spans affective computing, artificial intelligence, multimodal analysis, wearables and IoMTs, mental well-being, behavioural informatics, unobtrusive sensing, and edge analytics — with a focus on intelligent, non-invasive systems for continuous mental health monitoring and emotion recognition. He is a recipient of the DAAD Research Fellowship and DAAD Research Ambassador Award and serves as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, Dr. Ganapathy is collaborating with Professor Rosalind Picard at the MIT Media Lab. He is combining his expertise in multimodal physiological AI with Professor Picard’s pioneering work in affective computing and mental health sensing to develop transformative non-invasive mental health monitoring systems and strengthen the India-United States research partnership.

Poulami Chakraborty Srivastava

Dr. Poulami Chakraborty Srivastava is a Scientific Officer at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, and an Associate Professor at Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI). She is a lead materials engineer in the advanced nuclear reactor program and has made key contributions to the development of structural materials for Gen-IV reactors, including fusion and molten salt reactors. Her pioneering work on liquid metal technology for the Indian Test Blanket Module for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor has positioned India as a frontrunner in this field.

Dr. Srivastava is a recipient of several awards including the Young Engineer Award from the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2019, the Department of Atomic Energy Young Engineer Award, Distinction in Corrosion Science and Technology from National Association of Corrosion Engineers International, ITAS Mettler-Toledo Young Scientist Award and Best PhD thesis awards from the American Society of Metals, HBNI and NACE. She has authored over 40 international journal papers and book chapters and is also an editorial board member of Scientific Reports.

As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, Dr. Srivastava is planning to establish the effect of in situ proton irradiation over the corrosion behavior of ferritic/martensitic steels in liquid lead-based alloys using the unique accelerator-based beamline at MIT. Her project would validate a hypothesis which predicts that radiation may slow down the corrosion in liquid metals, confirmation of which would save years of corrosion tests and obviate corrosion mitigation measures.

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.

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.

Pallavi Rachel George

Pallavi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where she specializes in the Public Systems Group (PSG). After three years of working as a policy researcher in the development sector, she turned to academia to follow her passion for research, teaching, and mentoring.

Pallavi’s research examines climate resilience in coastal cities with a focus on developing inclusive planning mechanisms and outcomes. Her work stands at the intersection of public policy, urban planning, and climate sciences, viewing coastal cities as socio-ecological systems with complex interdependencies that must be captured in urban climate resilience planning and policymaking. In her research, Pallavi utilizes various quantitative and qualitative methodologies, such as social network analysis, computational online text analysis, structural equation modelling, policy document analysis, and statistical methods.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow, Pallavi is studying select coastal cities in the U.S. and India to comparatively examine resilience planning processes and outcomes to further the common goal of achieving inclusive resilience in our cities. She did her bachelor’s in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and her master’s in public policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her studies in Singapore were supported by a scholarship from the Li Ka Shing Foundation. She has presented her work at various conferences, both national and international. In her free time, Pallavi enjoys practicing Bharatnatyam, playing badminton, painting, and travelling.

Anchal Sharma

Ms. Anchal Sharma is a Ph.D. candidate at IIT Delhi. Her research encompasses tactile perception of objects in the visually challenged. Drawn towards innovations exercising imagination, scientific thinking, and strong user empathy, she has mentored and participated in diverse social innovation projects and won two awards by IISc, Bangalore and IIT-Delhi with her team. She has led and been a speaker in events propagating innovation including those by AIM, NITI AYOG.

She completed her M.Des. in Industrial design (from SPA, New Delhi) and interned at GVIC, PepsiCo, India. She was acknowledged for her thesis work for integrating cultural spatial forms in a unique product using principles of light and shadows to educate children about unity. The project was sponsored by the Design Clinic Scheme by GoI and NID and was featured as a finalist in Toycathon 2021 and TISDC 2018. During her B.Arch. she emerged as a 2nd ranker both for her thesis work on ‘a school for experiential learning’ and overall 5-year academic performance.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, she will analyse how to better convey three-dimensionality in two-dimensional tactile stimuli. Although layered and complex, she believes with continual deep-work and problem-solving acumen, this work can profoundly advance and contribute towards accessible STEM education for those without vision.

She believes in a multi-faceted growth and commends the perseverance sports can bring to life. She has played Throwball at National level and won silver medal (Badminton) at college level. Being perceptive towards life, she exercises self-expression through art, writing, and short videos.