Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Anita M George

Dr. Anita M George is a marine biologist and sponge taxonomist at a prestigious institution in India. She is a visiting scientist at the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. Her 14 years of research is concentrated on the systematics of sponges along with their associated biota and how sponges act as ecological indicators to climate change factors. As a principal investigator in the DBT-Research Associate program, Dr. George conducted the first sponge taxonomy workshop at CSIR-NIO, Goa, in 2019 with grants from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune and Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Commission, Maharashtra.

Dr. George obtained her Ph.D. from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tamil Nadu, where she worked on the taxonomy and biodiversity of south Indian sponges. Her post doctorate from James Cook University, Townsville, focused on the morphological changes of sponges from protected and non-protected reefs of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia using remote-sensed data and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. Dr. George received a research and travel grant from the Australian Institute of Marine Science to research the Queensland Museum collections of calcareous sponges of GBR and Palau.

Dr. George’s Fulbright-Nehru project will explore the latitudinal gradients in sponge morphology and microbiome composition using metagenomics and environmental eDNA extracts. The research outcome will give insights into the impact of seawater temperatures on sponge metabolism and biodiversity. Dr. George will share her GIS and taxonomic knowledge with her host, where the students can work in their interdisciplinary fields of research.

Sandip Kumar Saha

Dr. Sandip Kumar Saha is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He works in the broad area of thermal energy storage, solar receivers, and cooling technologies. His primary research interest is exploring the different types of thermal energy storage for solar thermal applications. In recent years, he has been actively involved in developing and demonstrating new technologies for thermal energy storage, solar receiver, and green building.

Dr. Saha received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He was with R&D TATA Steel, India, as a Researcher, and Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, as a postdoctoral fellow before joining IIT Bombay as a faculty member in 2012. Since then, he has carried out several large, funded projects in thermal energy storage. Prof. Saha is a recipient of the Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy (BASE) Fellowship, IUSSTF, 2016. He was awarded the IIT Bombay research award 2020. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports.

Dr. Saha’s Fulbright-Nehru project aims to develop a new high thermal conductive solid-solid phase change material that can be stable for more than few thousands of thermal cycles for low-temperature solar applications (<80 C). A detailed investigation of the thermophysical properties using state-of-art experimental and computational facilities will be carried out to optimize the process parameters and the filler materials. Specifically, an emphasis will be given to understanding the contact between filler polymer interfaces and interfacial thermal resistance. For his teaching component, Prof. Saha is team-teaching a course on advanced engineering thermodynamics with his host. To ensure synergy between the two components, interested students from the course will be involved in analysing and thereby enhancing the performance of energy systems using thermal energy storage through the research work.

Sudarshan Kumar

Dr. Sudarshan Kumar is working as senior scientist at National Dairy Research Institute Karnal. He is presently engaged in research related to dairy animal health and production. Over the last 10 years, Dr. Kumar has developed skills in proteomics-based approaches to solve the problems of low milk yield, truncated lactation, mastitis and alternatives to antibiotics in dairy animals. He also develops highly sensitive MS-based methods for the determination of residual veterinary drugs, pesticides and adulterant in milk. He is specialized in molecular cloning, protein expression and purification in a wide range of hosts like bacteria, yeast and mammalian cell which are validated for its function in cell culture models. Recently, in recognition of his work, Dr. Kumar has been conferred the fellowship of the prestigious National Academy of Dairy Sciences.

Currently, his research activities are focused on discovering alternatives to antibiotics. Dr. Kumar’s studies revealed that urogenital tract in animal secrets a large number of endogenous peptides which possesses antimicrobial characteristics and thus keep the organ sterile. However, there are challenges in its clinical application.

The Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Scholar Program involving collaboration between NDRI and Oregon State University aims to understand the mechanism of action behind such AMPs. Specifically, the emphasis is on understanding the molecular crosstalk between antimicrobial peptide and bacterial growth during the tussle to survive and to explore the responsive mechanism of bacteria towards AMPs. In the presence of AMPs, bacterial growth is inhibited. But the final outcome of the battle depends on the potency of AMPs and the SOS response of bacteria. For taking AMPs to the clinical stage, it is essential to understand the SOS response of bacteria. Such knowledge not only helps in the selection of a best AMP but also enables devising strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance.

Praveen Kumar

Dr. Praveen Kumar is working as an Assistant Professor at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences (IACS), Kolkata. He did his Ph.D. from the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, followed by postdoctoral research at ISOM, UPM Madrid, Spain, as a Marie Curie Fellow. He is an Editorial Board Member of Materials Letters (Elsevier) and Nanotechnology (IOP) Journals. He has served as a Chair, Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), Indian Chapter, funded by the European Commission from May 2017 to July 2021. He is also a member of The National Academy of Sciences (NASI), India and Indian National Young Academy of Sciences (INYAS).

Dr. Kumar’s research contribution covers a broad spectrum of materials science, including III-V semiconductors, 2D-Materials, MXenes, carbon nanostructures, etc., for various energy harvesting (PEC water splitting, CO2 reduction, broadband photodetectors) and storage (supercapacitors) applications. He has authored 89 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, filed 03 patents, more than 75 in conference proceedings, 09 books/chapters, and delivered around 52 invited talks around the globe. He is a recipient of several recognized awards and fellowships, including MRSI Medal 2021, MCAA Societal Impact Award (2019), DAE Young Achiever Award (2019), Micro Internal Travel Grants (MITG), European Commission (2018), BRICS Young Scientist Award (2017), INSPIRE Faculty Award (2014), and the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012).

Dr. Kumar’s Fulbright-Nehru project aims to develop facile synthesis processes for MXenes heterostructures and establish their optical, electronic, electrical, and magnetic properties by experimental and theoretical means for energy harvesting (water splitting and CO2 reduction) applications. He will also be teaching Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology courses at Drexel University.

Rayson Kayalvarathu Alex

Dr. Rayson K. Alex is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus, Goa. His academic work lies in the area of ecocriticism, or broadly environmental humanities (EH) with a specific focus on indigenous nature-cultures and eco-cinema.

Dr. Alex was awarded his Ph.D. in 2011 for his dissertation in ecocriticism from the University of Madras. He is one of the editors of Essays in Ecocriticism (Sarup & Sons, Delhi, 2007), Culture and Media: Ecocritical Explorations (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), Ecodocumentaries: Critical Essays (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), and Ecocultural Ethics: Critical Essays (Lexington Books, 2017). He has translated works from Malayalam: Ecocriticism in Malayalam (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022) and E for Elephant: Elephant Tales and More (Green Books, 2022). He is a recipient of the ASLE Translation and Media Subvention Grants and is the Founder and co-Director of the tiNai Ecofilm Festival.

Dr. Alex’s Fulbright-Nehru research in the US is a continuation of his research work in India that focuses on identifying ecological pedagogies in the humanities which will strengthen and systematize formal and informal teaching in the environmental humanities. These pedagogies will be structurally consolidated, evaluated and disseminated in a manner that is beneficial to the scholars and teachers, particularly in India. He also proposes to teach a course titled “Indian Films, Environmental Justice, and the Subaltern” at the Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University.

Bhangya Bhukya

Dr. Bhangya Bhukya is a Professor of History at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. He specializes in Modern Indian History. His research interests include community histories, the effects of power and knowledge, governmentality and dominance, the state and nationalism, intellectual histories of subaltern communities, identity politics by forest and hill people in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow (2003-06) and a British Council Visiting Fellow (2010).

Dr. Bhukya did his Ph.D. from the University of Warwick, UK, and his thesis has been published as a book, Subjugated Nomads. The Lambadas under the rule of the Nizams in 2010. He published quite influential books, including The Roots of the Periphery. A history of the Deccan Gonds (2017), History of Modern Telangana (2017) and A Cultural History of Telangana (2021). He is also a public historian and activist involved in India’s Adivasi human rights movements.

Dr. Bhukya proposes to study why British colonial protectionism and post-colonial integrationism/assimilationism did not bring tangible changes in Adivasi life, particularly how these development approaches outweighed Adivasi self-rule and self-determinism; and, consequently, also their political rights. The study is theoretical in its nature, and it interrogates the philosophy, assumptions, and approaches of what is termed ‘Adivasi development’ and proposes to re-investigate what development has actually meant to Adivasis.

Sateesh Bino Sathiadhas

Sateesh Bino is the Deputy Inspector General of Police in the Indian state of Kerala. He is a 2008 batch Indian Police Service officer. He has approximately 15 years of experience, including serving as the police chief in five districts of Kerala where he supervised sensitive investigations, ensured law and order, and initiated several well-appreciated community policing initiatives, specifically focusing on prevention of drug abuse and trafficking. In 2023, Sateesh was a global fellow with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). He is a certified Resilience Trainer of the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Apart from his professional accomplishments, Sateesh is an avid fitness enthusiast, being an ultra-marathoner and a triathlete. He has completed two full IRONMAN triathlons (Maryland 2022, Texas 2023). He holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Indian School of Business and a doctorate in managerial economics. As a Humphrey Fellow, Sateesh will focus on law and human rights. He intends to study international best practices in ensuring human rights and contribute to the development of standard operating procedures for law enforcement in this direction.

K.R.S. Preethi Meher

Dr. K.R.S. Preethi Meher is Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science, School of Technology, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu. She completed her Ph.D. at the Materials Research Center, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru in 2012.

Dr. Meher was the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window WILLPower (EMECW) visiting research fellow in 2010 at the Laboratoire Structures, Properties and Modeling of Solids Laboratory (SPMS), UMR CNRS 8580, CentraleSupélec, Paris-Saclay University, France. She was also a CNRS postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratorie CRISMAT, Caen from 2013-2014 and later served as Research Associate at the Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. She has been awarded UGC-DAE-CSR Collaborative Research Scheme for 2022-2025 and is a life member of the Materials Research Society of India (MRSI).

Dr. Meher’s research laboratory at CUTN focuses on the development of new multifunctional materials and electroceramics for energy production, harvesting, and sensing applications. Currently, she works on synthesis, structural and property correlations in novel perovskite halide compositions for photovoltaics. She has published 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and presented several papers at international and national conferences and workshops apart from serving as an invited speaker at various Faculty development programs.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate scholar for Academic and Professional Excellence, Dr. Meher is studying novel layered perovskite halide compositions that exhibit excellent optoelectronic properties coupled with very good stability for an enhanced lifetime of the photovoltaic device.

Vasant Matsagar

Prof. Vasant Matsagar is Professor and Dogra Chair at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, New Delhi. He obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay in structural engineering.

Prof. Matsagar is serving on editorial boards of reputed journals in various capacities: Editor-in-Chief of Indian Society of Earthquake Technology (ISET Journal) and the Indian Concrete Journal; Associate Editor for “Computational Methods in Structural Engineering” section” of Frontiers in Built Environment; and an editorial board member of Bulletin of New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Structures and Buildings, Advances in Civil Engineering, International Journal of Protective Structures, and the journal Architecture, Structures, and Construction. Prof. Matsagar is Founding Director and Fellow of Council of Vibration Specialists, and has received fellowships from Humboldt Foundation, Erasmus, ASEM-DUO India, FEIT Visiting Academic among others. He is also a DAAD (India) Research Ambassador and an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy for Engineering (INAE), the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), the Institution of Engineers (India), and the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology.

Prof. Matsagar is interested in multi-hazard protection of structures using advanced engineered materials. During his Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence at Michigan State University (MSU), Prof. Matsagar is developing a technology for manufacturing biocomposites from agro-residues for gainfully using them in built infrastructure at large-scale as construction materials. By developing a suitable agriculture waste management scheme and implementing it in practice and contributing to sustainability through decarbonized circular economy, this collaborative research work strives for the development of hazard resilient infrastructure in modern cities and towns in both the U.S. and India.

Sonam Sonam

Dr. Sonam obtained her doctorate in earth sciences from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar in 2019, and her B.Sc.(H) and M.Sc. in geology from Hansraj College, the University of Delhi in 2011 and 2013 respectively. Her specializations are in the field of fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, and geospatial science.

Dr. Sonam was awarded the CSIR-Research Associate grant in the year 2021 and is currently a CSIR-Research Associate at IIT, Gandhinagar. She is also recipient of the CSIR-UGC JRF fellowship in the field of earth, atmospheric, ocean and planetary Sciences 2013-2018, and the DST-SERB International Travel grant to present her work at the European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2018. After her Ph.D., she worked as a post-doctoral Research Associate on the arid zone rivers and biodiversity, as a part of the Gujarat state climate change project under the National Mission for Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change, DST, Government of India.

Dr. Sonam’s Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellowship for Postdoctoral Research project is regarding environmental flow modelling for sustainable management of river systems. To understand the gravity of the crisis associated with degraded river health and to ensure sustainable development for all stakeholders, a combined socio-hydro-geomorphic approach, including indigenous knowledge and geospatial techniques, is needed. However, this integrated strategy lacks well-defined methodology. Dr. Sonam is using geospatial tools and integrating them with indigenous knowledge to model environmental flow needed to ensure a healthy functioning river: geospatial techniques are used to analyze river morphological susceptibility to exogenous forcing and indigenous knowledge is used to explain a river’s flow requirements at local scales.