University of California Archives

Revathi Ponnuswamy

Dr. Revathi Ponnuswamy is a Senior Scientist (Plant Breeding) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, India with 17 years of rich experience in rice research. She was awarded a PhD in Genetics from the premier agricultural research institution, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. She is one of the meritorious scientists who as Principal Investigator successfully spearheaded multi-disciplinary research projects by securing competitive research grants from various organizations, including Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), and ICAR.

Her achievements as a successful researcher and plant breeder are reflected in her peer-reviewed publications and development of high-yielding, climate-resilient, and stress-tolerant rice varieties and hybrids to smallholder farmers of India. She has received several awards and fellowships. In her capacity as an educator, she has mentored and guided the academic pursuits of several MSc and PhD students.

During her fellowship at University of California, Davis, Dr Revathi is training in a breakthrough synthetic apomixis technology from the lab where it was invented. Her research project aims to enhance rice production and productivity amidst rapidly changing climatic conditions through synthetic apomixis, which could save on rice hybrid seed cost of millions of resource-poor farmers in India.

Jyoti Gupta

Dr. Jyoti Gupta is an independent researcher from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. She earned her BSc (physics & mathematics) in 2013 and her MSc (physics) in 2015 from Udai Pratap Autonomous College, affiliated with Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. In June 2024, she was awarded a PhD from the University of Hyderabad, Telangana State. Dr. Gupta was a visiting research fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-BHU), Varanasi from January 2024 to October 2024.

Dr. Gupta’s research interests are primarily in the field of development of earth-abundant electrocatalysts for energy conversion application with a focus of hydrogen evolution reaction application. She has published several research articles in reputed international journals. She was also recognized for one of her publications under the University of Hyderabad’s Incentive of Excellence scheme.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Dr. Gupta is focusing on the development of MoS2/MXene nanocomposite using fluorine-free synthesis method and its utilization as bifunctional electrocatalyst for water electrolyzers. During his fellowship, Dr. Gupta aims to explore cost-effective bifunctional electrocatalysts for electrocatalytic water splitting.

Oishi Choudhury

Ms. Oishi Choudhury is a PhD candidate at the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi. She qualified for the University Grants Commission (UGC) NET-JRF (Junior Research Fellow) in 2022 and began her doctoral journey in 2023. She completed her master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Delhi, specializing in biological anthropology with a focus on epidemiology and public health.

Oishi has published a book chapter and a manuscript revolving around biological anthropology and public health. Her research interest extends to molecular anthropology. Her doctoral research aims at screening, awareness, and counselling of beta thalassemia trait among young adults in Delhi-NCR India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at University of California San Francisco, Oishi is conducting a comparative study on thalassemia carrier screening and genetic counselling protocols in India and the US. Oishi is enhancing her expertise in advanced screening techniques for diagnosing thalassemia trait in the U.S. As part of her research, she will work at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, home to one of the largest thalassemia programs in the U.S.

Mohammed Roshan Cheerakolil Konath

Dr. Mohammed Roshan C.K. completed his Ph.D. from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai in 2021. He completed his master’s and bachelor’s in sociology from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and the University of Calicut, Malappuram, Kerala respectively. In his Ph.D. dissertation, he explored the techniques of cultivating affective bonding with the Prophet Muhammed and the devotional world these bonds create among the Mappila Muslims of Kerala, South India.

Dr. Roshan has published in renowned academic and non-academic journals. He has presented at numerous national and international conferences. His area of interest revolves around the sociology of religion, technology, globalization and local cultures, affect studies, intellectual history of Islam, anthropology of Islam, and Islam and Muslims in South Asia.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship, Dr. Roshan is looking at a recent phenomenon among Mappila Muslims of South India whereby they look toward North American Muslim scholars to form an opinion on Islamic matters and shape their everyday life. The foundational assumption in this study is that this new tendency needs to be located in the ongoing surge of neo-traditional Islam in different parts of the world. The study compares neo-traditional Islam’s characters, structures, mode of knowledge production, global networking, and authorities in North America and South India, and analyzes the shared characteristics and ruptures between traditional Islam in both contexts. Dr. Roshan’s study enquires how these complex trans-local realities, mediated through the means and structure of globalization, call to reimagine the conventional boundaries between Islam and the West.

Saikatul Haque

Dr. Saikatul Haque is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad since 2021. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2021, under the supervision of Prof. Sandeep Kunnath, at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research – Centre for Applicable Mathematics (TIFR-CAM), Bengaluru. He earned his master’s in 2016 from TIFR-CAM after completing his bachelor’s in 2014 at R K Mission Vidyamandira, University of Calcutta, Kolkata.

Dr. Haque’s research work focuses on the study of well-posedness and regularity for elliptic and time dependent partial differential equations. He has published several research articles in reputed international journals. He also qualified IIT JAM in 2014 and CSIR UGC NET held in December 2015. He has been selected for the INSPIRE faculty fellowships in 2023 by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow, Dr. Haque is studying mainly three partial differential equations: the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS), a modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation, and a related heat equation. The main focus of this project is to understand the global time behavior of the energy-critical focusing inhomogeneous fractional NLS. This includes research into local and global well-posedness, variational estimates for elliptic problems, linear profile decomposition, and rigidity. For the cubic NLS, mKdV and nonlinear heat equation, Dr. Haqueis investigating well-posedness and ill-posedness in modulation spaces.

Sujoy Ghosh

Dr. Sujoy Kumar Ghosh is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at Laboratorio NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Pisa, Italy. Previously, he was Post doctoral Research Associate at UNIST, South Korea. Dr. Ghosh completed his Ph.D. in 2019, M.Sc. in 2012, and B.Sc. in 2010 from the Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Dr. Ghosh has published 45 scientific articles in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters, and he possesses h-index of 29 (Google scholar). He has won several awards and recognitions, such as Young Scientist Award in “International Virtual Conference on Advances in Functional Materials (AFM 2020)”, Newton Bhabha Fellow (2017), Best Poster Award in “Fourth International Symposium on Semiconductor Materials and Devices (ISSMD-4)” (2017), DST Award for 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, Germany (2016) among others. The design and experimental study on piezo-, pyro- and ferro-electric properties of synthetic and natural polymers as well as investigation of their resulting energy harvesting device towards the applications of self-powered healthcare monitoring are leitmotifs of his research.

In recent years, the integration between medicine and technology qualitatively extended new designs of implantable biomedical devices (IBDs), allowing competitive advantage for medical treatment of human body. However, nearly all classes of active IBDs rely on battery powers, which not only have limited lifespan, but also increase patient’s health risks and expanses. During his Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship, Dr. Ghosh is designing ultrasonic waves stimulated piezo-electrically-powered miniature wireless IBDs using biodegradable natural polymer materials in a non-invasive approach.

Parvaiz Ahmad Shiekh

Dr. Parvaiz A. Shiekh is DST INSPIRE Faculty at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi. He obtained his bachelor’s in science from Sri Pratap College, University of Kashmir, Jammu & Kashmir, followed by a master’s in biotechnology from the Central University of South Bihar, Bihar. He received his Ph.D. in biological sciences and bioengineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) under the supervision of Prof. Ashok Kumar, where Dr. Sheikh designed and evaluated bioactive, oxygen-releasing, and antioxidant polymeric biomaterials for therapeutics and translational medicine.

Dr. Parvaiz qualified for CSIR-UGC NET JRF (2013), DBT JRF (2013), and GATE 2013. He has published several peer-reviewed articles in reputed journals, including Biomaterials, Chemical Engineering Journal, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Bioactive Materials, European Polymer Journal, and Biomacromolecules. His work has also resulted in two granted patents.

Dr. Parvaiz has received several national and international awards. He received the DST AWSAR Award from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the ILBS-TATA Emerging Leader fellowship from the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi. His doctoral thesis was awarded the Innovative Student Project Award 2021 at Doctoral Level by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), New Delhi. His thesis work was also awarded the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award from IIT Kanpur and the Best PhD Thesis Award from the Society for Biomaterials and Artificial Organs, India. His other scientific achievements include IITK-SIIC Student Innovation Award (SSIA), TERMIS-AP Golden Award 2021, SYBS Young Researcher Award, SBAOI – Bajpai-Saha Student Award, Torrent-ISHR Young Scientist Award, and Dr. S K Maulik Award. He has also received international travel support from IITK, DST-SERB, and INSA/CSIR/DAE-BRNS-CCSTDS for presenting his work at international conferences.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research scholar at UCLA, Dr. Parvaiz is developing smart microneedle patches to deliver on-demand oxygen and cell instructive molecules for therapeutics and regeneration.

Kadiguang Panmei

Mr. Kadiguang Panmei is a doctoral fellow at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and his research is focussed on the documentation and preservation of Zeliangruang (Zeliangrong) Naga folk music. He holds a master’s degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi university, an MPhil in Social Sciences from TISS Mumbai and is also a certified audio engineer and music producer from ILM academy.

As a member of the tribal community of the Ruangmei (Rongmei) Nagas from Manipur in northeast India, his interests in research include the study of tribal culture from its myriad perspectives on food, the arts, geopolitics and more. He is a recipient of the UGC JRF (2016) for conducting his MPhil-Ph.D. research and was awarded the emerging scholar award at the international food studies conference (2019) held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for the presentation of his MPhil paper. He was also awarded the Sahapedia–UNESCO Fellowship in 2019 to conduct research on the aural history of the Ruangmei Nagas of Manipur.

He believes that research on music should include a union of both the sonorities of music and the lexical narratives behind its histories and philosophies. His Ph.D. research on Zeliangruang Naga folk music therefore considers not only the important need of the written word but also, the preservation of folk songs and music through recordings and audio archiving.

The Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship for him is a crucial step towards not only completing his Ph.D. research but his vision to document and preserve folk music and to facilitate the recovery of dying oral traditions from the northeast region of India. Through his work, he hopes to add more to the growing stock of research on the people of north east India, uncovering the plethora of ethno-cultural knowledge that this remote region of India has to offer. When he is not reading or writing for his research, he likes to cook, produce music and play the guitar.

Shubham Pande

Mr. Shubham Pande is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Electrical Engineering department of Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His doctoral research primarily focuses on the characterization and modeling of Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM). He is also interested in electro-thermal analysis, compact modeling of electronic devices, and BiCMOS process development. He is an awardee of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship in 2020.

The proposed work under Fulbright-Nehru grant aims to develop strategies for reducing operating current in RRAM devices. This proposal will attempt to address this challenge by optimizing device structure using Multiphysics simulations, compact modeling, and experimental validation. Successful completion of this work will help set design guidelines and develop a fundamental understanding of the technology.

Apart from research, Shubham’s hobbies include reading, traveling, and watching movies.

Sourav Kumar

Mr. Sourav Kumar is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam. His doctoral research focuses on the evaluation of earthquake-induced changes in groundwater composition, commonly known as hydro-geochemical earthquake precursors (associated with the slow accumulation of tectonic stress in the Earth’s crust) in northeast India.

Mr. Kumar obtained his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun, in 2016. He completed his master’s degree in Earth System Science and Engineering under the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, in 2018. He received the MHRD-GATE Fellowship for two years of his M.Tech. in 2016, where he studied the spatio-temporal variability in India’s groundwater storage using GRACE data. As his research expanded and segued into his doctoral research, he has presented his work at international conferences in 2019 and 2021.

As a Fulbright-Nehru fellow, his primary objective is to understand the links between earthquakes and hydrological/hydro-geochemical variation that could be used as basic scientific input required for an impending earthquake prediction at both national and international levels. The proposed study could be used to correlate datasets from northeast India with those from other parts of the world such as Iceland, Japan, Korea, Italy, China, and the United States, that have reported similar earthquake-induced changes in groundwater composition.

In addition to his academic engagements, he also led the cricket team of IIT Guwahati at the ‘All-India Inter-IIT Sports Meet’ during 2017-19 and held several student representative posts at the institutional level throughout his college years.