Host Institution India: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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.

Vikram Vishal

Dr. Vikram Vishal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and an associate faculty in the Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai. He leads the ‘Computational and Experimental Geomechanics’ group at IIT Bombay. Dr. Vishal worked at IIT Roorkee over 2013-16, during which he pursued the Fulbright-Nehru postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Dr. Vishal also serves as the Convener of the DST-sponsored ‘National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization’ at IIT Bombay. He is a recipient of two national awards and holds the young scientist recognition from all major science academies in India. He is currently a member of the Indian National Young Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Vishal’s research interests are in the domains of geomechanics, carbon capture and sequestration, enhanced petroleum recovery and unconventional hydrocarbon systems.

During his Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship at MIT, he aims to develop an integrated risk assessment framework using experimentally validated simulations for CO2 storage in a mature oilfield in India. This research work will build on evaluating the storage readiness of specific fields in an onshore sedimentary basin. Detailed understanding of the barriers and their elimination will be key to successful deployment of carbon capture and storage in India, and advance their readiness levels.

Gargi Kundu

Dr. Gargi Kundu is an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at Philipps University of Marburg, Germany. She obtained her B.Sc. from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal in 2015, and her master’s from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu in 2017. She then received her Ph.D. in 2022 at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune, Maharashtra, with CSIR-UGC NET fellowship.

Dr. Kundu specializes in the chemistry of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes, focusing on small molecule activation, stabilization of carbon-based diradicals, and NHC-boron chemistry. She has published numerous articles in esteemed international journals, and has received various accolades during her Ph.D., including the NCL RF Keerthi Sangoram Memorial Endowment award for ‘the best research scholar’, and the Best Thesis award in chemical science from CSIR-NCL and AcSIR, respectively. Notable achievements also include the RSC Best Poster award by Poster Twitter Conference, and the Best Oral Talk award at ICMGSC-2023.

The diradical field, despite intriguing electronic properties, lacks extensive study. Boron-doped PAHs are gaining attention for being low in toxicity, cost-effective, with high π-affinity, photoluminescence, and redox properties. As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, Dr. Kundu is synthesizing stable boron-based diradicals, combining open-shell diradical character, luminescence, and redox properties. The focus is on exploring their potential applications as super-electron donors, photo-/electro-catalysts, redox switches, functional chromophores/ fluorophores in photovoltaic cells, and artificial light-harvesting systems with a special emphasis on hydrogen activation.

Sonika Chibh

Dr. Sonika Chibh is a postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She obtained her B.Tech. in biotechnology degree from Jaypee University of Information Technology, Solan, Himachal Pradesh in 2014, and her master’s (M.Tech.) in biotechnology from Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab in 2016. She then received her Ph.D. in 2022 from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research/ Institute of Nanoscience and Technology Mohali, Punjab. Her Ph.D. work focused on the formation of self-assembled peptide-based nanoparticles as a drug delivery system in cancer therapy. Her postdoctoral research at Tel Aviv University focused on the development of monoclonal antibodies against phenylalanine for the treatment of phenylketonuria, with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Dr. Sonika Chibh has published several research articles in recognized international journals during her Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies. She received a George S. Wise Post-doctoral fellowship at Tel Aviv University in 2022. During her Ph.D. she received the Young Researcher award in an oral presentation organized by SYBS in 2021. She also received the Best Poster award in Bengaluru Nano in 2022.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Dr. Chibh is working on a project entitled “Design of Chemokine-Based Self-Assembled Nanoparticles for Receptor-mediated Specific Drug Delivery”. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Shuguang Zhang and MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer, who is the father of controlled drug delivery.

Pratik Sen

Prof. Pratik Sen joined the Department of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur as an Assistant Professor in December 2008 and became a full professor in November 2018. He is currently the Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair at IIT Kanpur. Prof. Sen has received several awards and recognition for his research, which includes the Young Scientist Medal from Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in 2012; Young Faculty Research Fellowship from IIT Kanpur, 2015-2017; Member INYAS, 2016-2020; Young Faculty Research Fellowship of MeitY, India in 2018, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2021 and Bronze Medal of Chemical Research Society of India in 2021. Prof. Sen has published over 130 research articles in international journals of repute.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowships, his primary research interest is to understand clues about the existence of extremophiles (species that can survive in extreme conditions like cold, desiccation, osmotic stress, etc.). Studies show that extremophiles accumulate osmolytes in high concentrations that can form an alternate media, which probably maintains the enzymatic behaviour in harsh environments. He aims to study enzyme conformational dynamics at freezing conditions in the presence of alternate media using single-molecule spectroscopy. The proposed study can be instrumental in understanding the enzyme’s stability and activity in extreme conditions.

Sudip Bhattacharyya

Prof. Sudip Bhattacharyya is a professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is also the current Payload Manager of the Soft X-ray Telescope aboard AstroSat, the first dedicated Indian astronomy satellite. He primarily works on extremely compact cosmic objects, such as neutron stars and black holes. These objects provide excellent opportunities to probe extreme aspects of physics, such as strong gravity, high magnetic field, accretion-ejection mechanism, high-density degenerate matter, and gravitational waves, which cannot be studied in terrestrial laboratories. Prof. Bhattacharyya studies these objects primarily using X-ray satellite data and theoretical modelling. Prof. Bhattacharyya did his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, and was a Research Associate at the University of Maryland at College Park and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the USA, before joining a faculty position at TIFR in 2007. He received the NASA Space Science Achievement Award in 2007.

Prof. Bhattacharyya’s Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence project aims to study the evolution of rapidly spinning neutron stars to probe their fundamental aspects. The project can be relevant for several Indian and U.S. observatories.