Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Anupama Ghosh

Dr. Anupama Ghosh is Associate Professor in the Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Kolkata. Her primary research interests include virulence mechanisms of different phytopathogens and defense responses from the respective host plants. Her research group at Bose Institute is engaged in understanding the role of various molecular players from a biotrophic plant pathogenic fungus, Ustilago maydis, which are involved in the invasion and colonization of the host plant Zea mays.

Dr. Ghosh earned her bachelor’s in microbiology, and master’s and Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of Calcutta. For her postdoctoral studies, she joined the Department of Organismic Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany, where she contributed significantly to studies involving functional characterization of secreted effector proteins from Ustilago maydis. She received the DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the Early Career Research Award from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India for carrying out her research in plant-microbe interactions. Ongoing research projects at her laboratory are funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India and SERB.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Ghosh is studying the role of extracellular vesicles in Zea mays in the defense response of maize towards Ustilago maydis infection.

Ranabir Das

Dr. Ranabir Das is Associate Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. He has worked extensively on the mechanisms used by viruses and bacteria to hijack the human cell signaling pathways and shut off the host’s immune response. Dr. Das’ laboratory has shown how the family of Herpes simplex viruses uses human proteins to transcribe the viral DNA and produce viral proteins. His lab showed how the proteins from Shigella shut down the immune response in a human and replicated efficiently. These studies have provided novel insights into how pathogens survive inside the host and have helped identify new therapeutic targets for drug discovery.

Dr. Das has published 23 papers in the last five years in several journals, like Nature Communications, the Journal of American Chemical Society, eLife, ChemComm among others. Multiple grant agencies have generously funded his research work. Dr. Das has received the prestigious Prof. S. Subramanian 60th Birthday Lecture Award, the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship and the NCI Director’s Innovation Award among several others. He has been a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Biophysical Society, and the NMR Society of India.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Das is working to understand how the pathogenic bacteria Shigella silences the inflammatory response in the intestinal cells to multiply effectively. This work may help identify new therapeutic targets to counter multi-drug resistant Shigella infection.

Venkat Raman Gundumella

Dr. G Venkat Raman is currently a Professor at the Humanities and Social Sciences Area, Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He is primarily a sinologist, with a focus on themes related to China’s interface with global governance. Apart from China studies, Prof. Raman has developed a keen interest in business ethics pedagogy through more than eleven years of his association with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore and IIM Kozhikode.

Prof. Raman offers core courses like “Introduction to International Relations” to undergraduate students and “Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility” to postgraduate students. In addition, he offers elective courses like “Power Rivalries and Global Governance in the Twenty-first Century”, “Understanding the China Challenge”, and “Political Risk Management in an Uncertain World”.

Prof. Raman completed his doctoral studies at the School of Government, Peking University, Beijing. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker. He has served as a visiting fellow at the Center for BRICS Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, and a visiting faculty member at ICN Business School, Nancy, France.

Prof. Raman has co-authored a paper published in the Journal of Business Ethics arguing for a novel pedagogy called the “Integrated Live Case Method”. He has also co-authored case studies at prestigious case centers like the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and China Europe International Business School, Shanghai. He is a member of the Board of Trustees, Azad Foundation, New Delhi, which works to financially empower women below the poverty line by training them in non-traditional livelihoods.

Lalitagauri Kulkarni

Dr. Lalitagauri Kulkarni is Director, Centre for Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Development at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. Her recent books, co-authored with Vasant Chintaman Joshi, include Inclusive Banking in India: Re-imagining the Bank Business Model (2021), and The Future of Indian Banking (2022) published by Palgrave Macmillan. These books examine the possibilities for a more inclusive business model for banks in a digitalized environment. As Director of the deAsra Centre of Excellence in Nano entrepreneurship, she researches policy alternatives for problems of nano businesses in India.

Dr. Kulkarni’s Ph.D. on secondary market trading in life insurance was an investigation into how the institutionalization of unregulated money lending could prevent the exploitation of poor policyholders. She has published papers on inclusive development, finance, and banking policy and has been involved in several research and consultancy projects.

Dr. Kulkarni’s Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship project aims to understand how financial technology has helped remove credit barriers for low-income women entrepreneurs in the United States. Dr. Kulkarni is examining how US FinTech innovations can be adapted in India to reduce the gender gap in financial inclusion. Applying quantitative and qualitative techniques, her research indicates how the positive externalities of FinTech can be maximized in financing women-led micro businesses in both countries. Through her findings, she aims to help the emerging FinTech industry in India in designing suitable business models for financing women’s micro businesses. Her research also proposes a roadmap for Indian policymakers to take affirmative action to reform the “one-size-fits-all” policy of digitalization.

Neetu Goel

Dr. Neetu Goel is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh. She completed her Ph.D. in 2005 with a concentration in theoretical chemistry under the supervision of Prof. B. M. Deb. Dr Goel’s research area is theoretical and computational chemistry that focuses on the structure-property relationship of clusters and nanomaterials. Her research endeavors rely on density functional theory to understand/tailor materials at atomic scale and to design efficient heterogeneous catalyst for reactions of industrial importance.

Dr. Goel has established a strong research group at her home institute that is actively engaged in scientific pursuits of varied dimensions. Dr. Goel has in the past collaborated with Prof. Michael Springborg from the University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany. She was also awarded the Mercator fellowship for a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Dr. Goel’s Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship project is a combination of teaching and research with clearly defined goals. Her project is aimed at bioconjugated nanomaterials for application in health-related areas. She is investigating the structure and dynamics of biomolecule/nanosurface interface through quantum mechanical and atomistic simulations. Through successful execution of this project, Dr. Goel strives to make an enormous economic impact as the computational modeling of bioconjugated nanomaterials saves plenty of time, effort, and cost involved in the trial-and-error approach employed in laboratories. State-of-the-art computations envisioned in the project seek to provide reliable pointers for successful culmination of derived outcomes into successful clinical trials. Dr. Goel is also teaching a course on quantum mechanics and numerical/theoretical methods in computational physics to the students at MTU, with the goal of developing synergy between teaching and research, and strengthening teacher-student relationships.

Mallika Chatterjee

Dr. Mallika Chatterjee is Assistant Professor at the Amity Institute of Neuropsychology and Neurosciences, Amity University, NOIDA. Her lab focuses on identifying molecular mechanisms underlying various neurodevelopmental phenomena and disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.

Dr. Chatterjee completed her B.Sc. in human physiology from Presidency College, Kolkata, her M.Sc. in genetics from Calcutta University, Kolkata, and her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Connecticut Health Center (UConn Health), USA. During her Ph.D., she explored the genetic mechanisms underlying the development of the mouse thalamus – a sensory relay center in the brain. As a Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Early Career Fellow (2013) at TIFR, she gained experience on in-vitro culture systems in addition to utilizing her in vivo expertise in determining signaling factor roles in forebrain development. Dr. Chatterjee joined Amity University in 2018. She has been developing a zebrafish facility there to understand neurodevelopment combining neurobehavioral, biochemical, and histological techniques. She has received Young Scientist awards from the Society for Neurochemistry, India and the Singapore Neuroscience Association. She has a keen interest in neuroscience outreach and has held brain awareness sessions on depression in Delhi-NCR schools, funded by an IBRO-DANA grant.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship project, Dr. Chatterjee is utilizing her expertise on zebrafish tracking to develop a high-throughput neurobehavior imaging facility in India. Specifically, her project is working to identify carbohydrate roles in neurobehavior to potentiate further studies for the amelioration of various neurodevelopmental disorders. She is also involved in teaching related graduate courses at Brown University.

Aashraya Seth

Aashraya Seth is the Founding President of Impact91 NGO, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (https://www.theintelligentindian.org/). An award-winning social innovator and inventor of India’s most affordable sanitary pad vending machine, he has over eight years of experience in advising the British, Indian, and Australian governments, and leading the transformation of education and social systems. He is India’s Climate Ambassador, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Yenching Global Symposium China Scholar, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeeper (SDG 5) and Queen’s Commonwealth Trust’s Young Leader. For his work on menstrual and educational rights of tribal and underserved people, he was placed amongst the top 80 social innovators in India, top 50 emerging policy leaders in the world, and honoured at the UK Parliament in 2024.

Apart from his professional accomplishments, Aashraya has professionally played 10m Air-Rifle shooting and writes for The Times of India. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and master’s in business administration. He has fellowships from University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, KDI School, and UN.

As a Hubert H. Humphrey fellow at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Aashraya will focus on public policy analysis and public administration. He aims to study evidence-based policy making to advocate for gender-friendly policies interpreting data that will contribute to menstrual equity and STEM for girls.

Liyi Marli Noshi

Born into a family of 12 in remote Arunachal Pradesh, India, Liyi Noshi has defied societal expectations to become a lawyer and activist in New Delhi.

In her 16 years of legal career, Liyi has focused on social justice issues, particularly racial discrimination, child sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence and human trafficking, as an acclaimed champion for marginalized communities in India. She has secured legal representation for over 400 victims of sexual abuse and trafficking. Notably, her advocacy led to the establishment of a special police unit for Northeast Indians in Delhi. She has co-founded Helping Hands, a legal team working with Delhi Police to combat racial discrimination. Her dedication has also seen her collaborate with inspiring figures like senior advocate Indira Jaising, and various organizations which are working on issues of women and children.

Committed to long-term impact, Liyi seeks to empower vulnerable communities through policy changes and upskilling initiatives. As a Hubert H. Humphrey fellow at the American University, Washington, DC she is continuing with this endeavor. The fellowship will equip her with the knowledge and network to refine these goals and create lasting change.

Rajamanickam Marimuthu Gurusamy

M. G. Rajamanickam is an esteemed Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, renowned for his strategic vision and transformative leadership. Hailing from the humble village of Thiruvathavur in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, Rajamanickam’s journey is marked by the firm belief in the power of determination and hard work. His academic accomplishments include a gold medal in MTech from Anna University, and a master’s in public policy from King’s College, London, providing him with a solid foundation for innovative governance.

Throughout his tenure in the Kerala government, Rajamanickam has been deeply committed to addressing environmental challenges and mitigating the impacts of climate change. Notable initiatives like Ente Kulam Ernakulam for pond conservation and Anbodu Kochi for disaster relief underscore his dedication to sustainable development and community engagement. His efforts have garnered recognition, including the prestigious ‘Best District Collector Award’ from the Government of Kerala, acknowledging his outstanding contributions to administration and public service.

Rajamanickam’s commitment to environmental stewardship has been acknowledged by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which lauded his initiatives as best practices in youth volunteering for disaster relief operations. Additionally, he has received the Jala Mithram award from the Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) for his significant contributions to water conservation. Guided by a holistic approach rooted in sustainability and inclusivity, Rajamanickam continues to lead efforts toward building resilient communities and a brighter future for all.

As a Humphrey Fellow, Rajamanickam aims to deepen his expertise in sustainable development and environmental conservation, focusing on water resource management and climate change adaptation. Committed to addressing India’s challenges, he seeks to contribute significantly to environmental sustainability.

Prashant Ram Jadhao

Dr. Prashant Ram Jadhao is a postdoctoral researcher at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Previously, he worked as a project scientist at the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology, Hyderabad. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, Maharashtra. Subsequently, he pursued his master’s and doctoral degrees at IIT Delhi.

Dr. Jadhao has received the prestigious Gandhian Young Technological Innovation appreciation award. Additionally, in 2022, he was conferred the Sumant Sinha Sustainability Leadership Award by IIT Delhi for his outstanding contribution to research in the domains of sustainability, environment, and climate change. His research endeavors have garnered recognition on both national and international platforms.

During his Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Jadhao is developing eco-friendly technology for recycling of spent batteries. The exponential increase in the use of electronic devices and electric vehicles has resulted in increased battery production, leading to a significant volume of spent batteries. These spent batteries contain valuable metals and potentially hazardous materials. Ensuring the sustainable management of spent batteries is crucial for resource recovery, conservation, and the mitigation of environmental hazards.