Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Madhushree Dutta

Madhushree Dutta is a Ph.D. candidate at the CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India. She is dissecting complex gene regulatory networks underlying potato tuberization under high-temperature stress. In her doctoral thesis, she is implementing plant physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology tools to investigate redox regulation in tuber development. Her key areas of research interest include plant stress physiology, climate change biology, and epigenomics. So far, she has published in reputed journals and participated in several science outreach events to communicate science to a broader audience.

Madhushree obtained her master’s degree in botany from the University of Calcutta. Her dissertation was on understanding the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism in rice cultivars under arsenic stress. Thereafter, she worked as a project scholar focusing on the utilization of brassica seed meal as a bioherbicide for weed management in wheat. Madhushree devotes time to teaching research aspirants through social media platforms, using smart strategies to make learning more interesting. Madhushree is a recipient of honorary awards including, the Max-Planck Gesellschaft Travel award, Dr. Parimal Kumar Roy Memorial award, and Dr. Ramendra Krishna Sarkar Memorial award for her excellent academic and research projects.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, Madhushree is exploring how the PGR5-dependent cyclic electron transport pathway operates under high-temperature stress to protect the photosynthetic apparatus of potatoes, translating into physiological fitness and improved tuber yield to ensure global food security.

Swarnali Dey

Swarnali Dey is a third year Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. As a part of her master’s dissertation project, she developed a new seed invigoration technique that she likes to call “iron pulsing,” and thereafter she has been working on it. Her study mainly involves understanding the role of iron supplementation during rice seed germination and deciphering the molecular mechanism of “iron pulsing” induced growth enhancement in rice. She has published over ten research and review articles in reputed journals and presented her work at various national and international conferences.

Swarnali obtained her bachelor’s degree in botany from Bethune College, Kolkata, and her master’s degree from the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. She had secured second position in her bachelor’s and first position in her master’s programs. She qualified CSIR-UGC NET examination in life sciences and secured an All-India Rank 1. She has been awarded the DST INSPIRE fellowship, DBT JRF, the prestigious CSIR Shyama Prasad Mukherjee fellowship, and the Raman Charpak fellowship (for six months in France) by CEFIPRA.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Swarnali is analyzing the potential of “iron pulsing” in minimizing cadmium accumulation in rice. Besides, she will be trying to understand the iron distribution and homeostasis in rice seeds subjected to “iron pulsing.” She aims to develop a user-friendly and affordable technique to enhance the yield and nutritional quality of rice plants to achieve food security. Swarnali is a travel enthusiast, and also fond of listening to music and cooking.

Sinchan Chatterjee

Sinchan Chatterjee is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s in English from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and Jadavpur University respectively. As a Junior Research Fellow in the discipline of English, Sinchan analyzes narratives of neurodivergence with a special focus on autistic autobiographies.

Sinchan’s research has been published in journals like Didaskalia (funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland), SETU Pittsburgh, and the Mizoram University Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, and as book chapters by Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming) and SUNY Press. Additionally, he has also presented his work at many international and national conferences in CUNY, Indiana University, Bloomington, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kanpur, Rajasthan University, and Siliguri College. Sinchan’s creative works have been awarded, funded and published by the University of Toronto Press, WordIt Art Fund, Penguin Random House India, the University of Exeter Press, the International Poetry Digest, Avenel Press, and Writers Workshop.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of California, Berkley, CA, Sinchan is formulating a comparative framework for studying the modalities of representing autism in the Global North in contrast to those in the Global South, examining the underlying socio-political and cultural discourses which influence such representations. Employing theoretical frameworks from the interdisciplinary fields of autobiography studies, critical disability studies, phenomenology, crip theory, queer theory, and posthumanism, he seeks to explore how autistic narratives can destabilize ableist myths and dehumanizing stereotypes about autistic individuals. As a poet, rapper, drummer, photographer, and (part-time) stand-up comedian, Sinchan believes in preserving as many stories in as many ways as possible.

Shreya Chakraborty

Shreya Chakraborty is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. Her doctoral thesis focuses on understanding genetic architecture of manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases, with a specific focus on human cognition, considering age-associated metabolic risks. She has publications in peer-reviewed international journals with high reach and has presented papers at national and international conferences. She is a recipient of the Prime Minister Research Fellowship from the Government of India, which funds her research at IISc Bangalore.

Shreya holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in statistics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and the University of Calcutta. She received the South-East Asia Subsistence fellowship for securing the highest marks at the undergraduate level in her university. Before starting her doctoral studies, she worked as an analyst at Marketing Management Analytics, Ipsos Research Pvt. Ltd.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Shreya is focusing on building statistical models that enhance the translation of genetic risk prediction (polygenic risk portability) of cognitive decline across diverse contexts, taking underlying genomic architecture and interactions into account. Since polygenic risk score prediction has direct clinical utility, drawing context-specific predictions, would form a knowledge base for specific target genetic regions for accelerated cognitive decline during aging. Apart from research, she takes a great interest in participating and organizing cultural events, especially when they involve music. Shreya loves spending time with her friends and family, and also enjoys travelling and meeting people from various cultures.

Arka Banerjee

Arka Banerjee is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Studying Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sample quality by computationally efficient estimation of the asymptotic covariance matrices in the multidimensional MCMC setup is the main focus of his doctoral thesis. He has published in reputed journals and has participated in and presented papers at national and international conferences.

Arka holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in statistics from the University of Calcutta. Before joining IIT Kanpur, he was a data analyst at Infosys Limited for a year where he worked on a financial modeling project that dealt with the prediction of default payments in a banking institution.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Minnesota, Arka is exploring the computationally efficient and optimized procedures in the estimation of asymptotic covariance matrices in MCMC for a better understanding of MCMC sample quality. During his grant period, he will be studying MCMC sample quality in a high dimensional setting. Arka enjoys travelling and cooking different culinary dishes.

Kaushiki Arha

Kaushiki Arha is a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has a master’s in political science from the same centre, and a bachelor’s from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi. She is interested in researching the intersection of gender, politics, and law. Her doctoral project explores the politics of rape law reform in India with a focus on the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013. Her work seeks to investigate how rape myths enter legal discourse and its political implications for women demanding a world without sexual violence.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Kaushiki is working with Prof. Vera Bergelson to develop a comparative analysis of the criminal justice systems in India and the United States of America with a focus on rape cases.

Supongsenla Ao

Supongsenla Ao is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam. Her research focuses on utilizing waste materials to synthesize biofuels, driven by the imperative to find sustainable energy solutions amidst escalating global energy demands and environmental concerns.

With a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from St. Joseph’s College, Nagaland University, and a master’s degree from Kumaon University, Uttarakhand, Supongsenla has actively engaged in building the gaps between her Naga community and diverse Indian culture throughout her college days. She was ranked 10th in chemistry honours during her bachelor’s degree and also served as a class representative.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, Supongsenla is exploring large-scale biofuel production for industrialization in India, particularly investigating the limitation of microwave reactor mechanism for bulk synthesis, aiming to overcome challenges such as active site leaching, water by-product interference and catalyst stability for sustainable biofuel production. She enjoys hiking and gardening in her free time.

Lubhanshi

Lubhanshi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai. Her thesis focuses on the specificity of effector proteases towards host proteins that are crucial in host proteasomal degradation pathways. Using techniques such as fluorescence spectroscopy and mutational analysis, she is looking for the mechanism of selective recognition of ubiquitin-like proteins by deubiquitinating enzymes.

Lubhanshi holds a bachelor’s degree in science from Kurukshetra University, and a master’s degree in chemistry from Guru Jambeshwar University of Science and Technology, Haryana. As a researcher, she likes to participate in science outreach programs.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Lubhanshi is exploring the host pathways that are affected by the deubiquitinating enzymes. Primarily, her focus lies in understanding how various effector proteases impact the host’s ubiquitination machinery, thereby facilitating the pathogens’ survival and replication. In her leisure time, she likes to sketch and paint. She enjoys travelling and exploring nature and diverse food from various cultures.

Satyajit Sahu

Dr. Satyajit Sahu has been serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, IIT Jodhpur since 2021. He earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute for the Cultivation of Science in 2009 and completed his postdoctoral research at the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan, in 2012. He then joined the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur as an Assistant Professor in 2013. Dr Sahu has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the SPARC DUO fellowship in 2019 and the BRICS Young Scientist Forum award in 2020. In 2022, he was awarded the SERB SIRE fellowship for collaborative research at the University of Toronto. His current research focuses on the study of semiconductor devices utilizing quantum dots, 2D materials, and organic materials, with a particular interest in exploring the use of single molecules for electronic applications. He has authored over 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence scholar, Dr. Sahu is concentrating on the synthesis and characterization of double halide perovskite materials to develop memristors with enhanced performance. He aims to explore the potential application of these memristors in neuromorphic systems, seeking to improve their efficiency and functionality.

Sriparna Saha

Dr. Sriparna Saha is currently serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Patna, India. She has authored or co-authored more than 400 papers. Her current research interests include machine-learning, deep-learning, natural-language-processing, and biomedical-information-extraction. She is the recipient of Google-India-Women-in-Engineering-Award-2008, NASI-Young-Scientist-Platinum-Jubilee-Award-2016, BIRD Award-2016, IEI-Young-Engineers’-Award-2016, SERB-Women-in-Excellence-Award-2018, Pattern-Recognition-Letters-Editor-Award-2023, prestigious “Young-Faculty-Research-Fellowship” under Visvesvaraya-PhD-Scheme for Electronics-&-IT for-5-years (Jan 2019-Jan 2024), Humboldt-Research-Fellowship, Indo-U.S.-Fellowship-for-Women-in-STEMM-2018. She won the best paper awards in ICONIP 2023, CLINICAL-NLP workshop of COLING 2016, and Area-chair-award (Information Extraction) at IJCNLP-AACL 2023.

With her Fulbright fellowship, at University of South Carolina, Sriparna is working towards developing some unified large language models (LLM) for low-resource settings. In general, it has been shown in the recent literature that the existing LLMs are not performing well for low resource Indian languages like Bengali. This disparity raises concerns about the fairness of LLMs, as it may lead to biased outcomes and unequal access to information and resources for speakers of low-resource languages. In this project Sriparna aims to develop some LLMs for low-resource language setting by developing a scalable training approach using reinforcement learning from human feedback.