Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Guhananthan Arulprakash

Mr. Guhananthan Arulprakash is a PhD candidate at Applied Materials Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore. His doctoral research focuses on developing metal oxide-based electrocatalysts for water splitting applications. He believes that hydrogen energy would be the next alternative fuel to combat demand for fossil fuels and to reduce over-reliance on battery technology.

Guhananthan holds an integrated MSc Chemistry degree from Amrita Vishwa Vidhyapeetham, Coimbatore, India with a first-class distinction. After his masters, he worked as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in PSG Institute of Advanced Studies, Coimbatore, India under a DST-funded project where he worked on nanobubble technology. During his tenure as a JRF, he had the opportunity to work in collaboration with industry partners and designed a pilot-scale plant for the industry. This helped him to connect laboratory results with real world problems, and motivated him to research an alternative fuel, which is the current global demand.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow at the clean energy systems lab at Arizona State University, Guhananthan is working on developing new Ruddlesden Popper type perovskite oxides for electrocatalytic water splitting application. His research will also address the current challenges in sea water splitting, such as corrosion and other side reactions. His research will contribute to affordable green hydrogen production from sea water which is an ambitious goal for both USA and India.

Geetha Mariswamy

Geetha Mariswamy is a PhD Candidate at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. With more than a decade of experience spanning education, gender and labor in teaching, program implementation, research and grassroots education initiatives, her work focuses on equity, access and educational transformation in India.

Geetha began her journey in education as a Teaching Fellow with Teach for India, where she taught children from underserved communities and helped build community-led learning spaces. During her work at RV Educational Consortium, she led a four-year participatory action research project on whole-school improvement. She worked closely with schools, teachers, communities, and education departments to strengthen inclusive learning practices, teacher development, and school processes. Her previous publications and conference presentations engage with language teaching learning practices, teacher beliefs, and governance in education.

Geetha is also the co-founder of Haadibadi Community library in Bengaluru that creates access to reading and creative learning opportunities for children and youth from marginalized communities. She was recognized as an Emerging International Voice for the Library Movement by the Goethe-Institut and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

Geetha’s doctoral research lies at the intersection of policy, regulation, privatization and teacher workforce dynamics. It examines how regulatory frameworks attempt to balance the public-good nature of education with growing privatization and particularly in teacher education. During the fellowship, she is investigating the historical and political underpinnings of policy reforms, institutional responses and evolving governance landscape of teacher education in India.

Gazal Khan

Ms. Gazal Khan is a doctoral candidate and a teaching assistant at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. She completed her graduation and post-graduate studies in English from Aligarh Muslim University. Gazal is a recipient of the Charles Wallace Fellowship for archival research in the United Kingdom and has been a Visiting Doctoral Student at the University of Oxford (Trinity Term 2026). Her research examines the temporality and spatiality of borderland identities within transnational histories of violence.

Gazal’s work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including The English Academy Review, Peace Review, and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, as well as in edited anthologies. She has presented her research at several international conferences across India, the UK and the U.S. She has been awarded the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research grant for presenting her work at the Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention (NeMLA) 2026 and a fully funded travel grant from the Frank and Debbie Driesman Foundation, Potomac, USA, for her paper presentation at the NeMLA 2024.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Gazal is working in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies and refugee studies to study the process of mediation in the [re]presentation and narrativization of the traumatic episodes of the Rohingya refugee crisis. Gazal is an avid traveler who enjoys exploring landscapes and cultures, with adventures in trekking, rafting, desert safaris, and snow skiing, and a passion for Bollywood music.

Dorothy Sachdeva

Ms. Dorothy Sachdeva is a PhD candidate at the Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. Her doctoral research focuses on the synthesis of two-dimensional nanomaterials with precise control over their composition and morphology. She performs in-depth characterization to understand the chemical and phase transformation mechanism using advanced electron microscopy techniques.

She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemistry from Delhi University and IISc, Bengaluru, respectively. She is a recipient of the Prime Minister Research Fellowship from the Government of India, which funds her research at IISc, Bengaluru. She has publications in peer-reviewed international journals with high reach and has presented papers at national and international conferences.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Dorothy is working with in situ electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. PtCu alloy nanoparticles nucleated on highly reduced SrTiO3 nanocubes deactivate for the preferential oxidation of CO to CO2 at higher temperatures. She is trying to identify the mechanism of deactivation under operando conditions, enabling her to visualize and analyze catalytic processes with high spatial and temporal resolution in real time. When not in the lab, she can be found reading, playing, and cooking. Dorothy loves spending time with her friends and family, and enjoys travelling and meeting people from various cultures.

Deepika Siva Naga Vemuri

Ms. Deepika Siva Naga Vemuri is a PhD candidate from the Department of Artificial Intelligence at IIT Hyderabad. Her doctoral research focuses on concept-based learning, a paradigm that guides model learning through structured, high-level, interpretable concepts. She is curious about the origins and mechanisms of intelligence, inspired both by neuroscience and science fiction.

Deepika holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from BVRIT Hyderabad College of Engineering for Women, Hyderabad, Telangana, which is where she first got exposed to AI as a Women Techmakers Engineering Fellow, supported by Google. Intrigued by the field, she pursued a master’s degree in artificial intelligence from the University of Hyderabad, Telangana, where she conducted research on distributed machine learning. As a PhD student at IITH, she has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship and has published her work in top AI conferences like ICML, AAAI and WACV.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Deepika is extending concept-based learning to embodied agents, exploring threads like concept-conditioned decision-making and policy-learning. Beyond research, she is always eager to explore new things and has many other interests including music, art, literature and writing.

Debarati Mondal

Ms. Debarati Mondal is a PhD candidate at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi. Her doctoral research work focuses on identification and characterization of novel antifungal phytomolecules against one of the human fungal pathogens Candida glabrata. As a student of molecular biology, she is passionate about telling the stories of biological macromolecules in a simple, engaging way through her creative scitoons (scientific cartoons) which have been featured in Science Reporter, a popular science magazine, and recognized by INSA-INYAS international sci-art competition.

Debarati holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), West Bengal. However, her keen interest in the fascinating world of biological molecules led her to take biochemistry as a specialization in Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. In her MSc project, she studied how starch types of two staple grains (pearl millet and rice) differ and interact with dietary lipids, particularly in relation to glucose release.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Debarati is studying the process of adaptation of Candida glabrata to antifungal compounds. Her research will unravel how the fungus responds to selective pressure imposed by an antifungal compound derived from plant sources. This study aims to provide valuable insights into its resistance mechanisms, associated genomic alterations, gene expression patterns, and phenotypic plasticity with underlying potential evolutionary trajectories. Overall, this project will offer a comprehensive picture of how C. glabrata, or similar infectious microbes, adapt to changing environmental conditions within human hosts.

Chalantika Chakraborty

Ms. Chalantika Chakraborty is a PhD candidate at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Mandi. With a background in economics, her research lies at the intersection of energy economics, industrial and climate policy. Her doctoral research examines energy consumption trends across Indian industries and studies how industrial output and energy use respond to market-based mechanisms such as the perform, achieve and trade policy. She has presented her work at international platforms including the International Association for Energy Economics conference and World Sustainable Energy Days.

Chalantika holds a master’s degree in economics from Cotton University in Guwahati, Assam. During college, she was actively involved in the National Service Scheme and contributed to several social outreach initiatives through NGO volunteering. Prior to joining PhD, she worked on multiple research projects.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Chalantika is conducting comparative research of India and the U.S. to examine how policy design influences industrial energy efficiency, emissions reduction, and decarbonisation pathways in developing and advanced economies. Beyond academia, she nurtures a deep love for India’s rich musical and dance traditions, spanning classical and folk forms. She holds two bachelor’s degrees in music, has received professional training in Kathak and Rabindra Nritya and performed at several events. She enjoys writing, reading Ruskin Bond, and learning regional music that connects her more deeply with the places she lives in.

Bikram Pain

Mr. Bikram Pain is an Integrated PhD student at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bengaluru, where he works on the dynamics of many-body quantum systems. His PhD research is motivated by a fundamental question in modern quantum physics: how is information transported, scrambled, and encoded across space and time in isolated quantum systems? By studying hidden statistical structures, his work aims to connect diverse signatures of quantum information spreading within a common microscopic framework.

Bikram completed his bachelor’s degree at Midnapore College before joining ICTS for doctoral studies. In March 2024, he visited Nordita: The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Stockholm, Sweden, as a Visiting PhD Student, where he worked on Anderson localisation in long-range correlated systems.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Bikram is working at the University of Texas at Austin on questions related to information scrambling and correlations in quantum systems using statistical approaches. His work aims to contribute to a finer understanding of how information is stored and shared in interacting quantum systems. Outside academia, Bikram enjoys cooking, running, and reading.

Anup Jha

Mr. Anup Jha is a PhD candidate at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Center. His doctoral research focuses on therapy resistance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the most prevalent hematological malignancy in adults. He is engaged in the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and the development of new small-molecule inhibitors to improve outcomes for therapy-resistant AML patients.

Anup holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Scottish Church College, University of Calcutta, West Bengal. He developed a keen interest in molecular and cell biology during this time and led several outreach programs for cancer patients. He then pursued a master’s degree in zoology at the same university, where he specialized in molecular cell biology. In his master’s project, he wrote a grant proposal to identify novel oncogenic receptors in therapy-resistant pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients and to develop CAR-T cells targeting therapy resistant acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells .

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Anup is investigating why TP53-mutated AML patients respond poorly to Ven-Aza combination therapy and how different TP53 mutant clones rewire the AML cellular state in response to Ven-Aza, thereby contributing to therapy refractoriness and resistance. His study would enable the discovery of molecular pathways and the identification of additional therapeutic targets in Ven-Aza-resistant TP53-mutated AMLs.

His long-term goal is to unravel the complexities of leukemia biology, advance understanding of therapy resistance, and contribute to the development of next-generation therapeutics.

Anjana Manoj Nair

Ms. Anjana Manoj Nair is a PhD candidate in the Department of History, School of Social Sciences, at the University of Hyderabad. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Delhi. Anjana’s current research focuses on transgressions and deviance, examining their codification within normative Sanskrit theological discourses and parallel contestations within narrative literary traditions across a historical continuum.

Anjana has been an ICSSR grantee under the International Collaboration Data-Collection Scheme in 2025, and a Getty grantee in 2024 for attending the 36th Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art held in Lyon. Alongside presenting her research at international academic forums such as the 28th European Conference on South Asia Studies in Heidelberg, and the 13th International Convention of Asia Scholars in Surabaya, she has also published in multiple reputed journals.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Anjana is conducting her research in the Department of Asian Studies, College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Her project employs an innovative methodological framework that integrates quantitative techniques for terminological frequency analysis of spatial categories with qualitative archival research, supported by digital humanities tools and a database of rare manuscript variants housed in U.S. repositories. Moving beyond prevailing notions of ‘status’, ‘dignity’, and ‘reputation’ as analytical parameters, Anjana examines social hierarchies and spatial marginalization through the conceptual lenses of ‘deviant spaces’ and ‘spatial outliers.’ In her spare time, Anjana enjoys birdwatching, wildlife safaris, trekking in the Western Ghats, and underwater diving.