Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Rajani Panchang

Dr. Rajani Panchang is an Assistant Professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University. She was recruited under UGC’s prestigious Faculty Recharge Program. She earned her PhD from CSIR – National Institute of Oceanography, Panaji, Goa, and secured tenured appointments as Woman Scientist at Agharkar Research Institute, Pune and SERB Fast-Track Scientist at IISER Pune under various research programs of the Government of India’s Department of Science & Technology. She is a geological oceanographer specializing in marine micropaleontology. While her forte remains Recent Benthic Foraminiferal taxonomy, her research interests are reconstruction of past climates, understanding human-climate interactions, monitoring coastal ecosystems and changing ocean dynamics, particularly coastal processes and ecosystems in light of climate change. She has research grants from the Ministry of Earth Sciences to study ocean acidification in the Arabian Sea. She is an ardent teacher and a PhD supervisor passionate about society-centric ocean research.

Dr. Panchang is a recipient of the Mani Shankar Shukla Gold Medal & Research Fellowships from DAAD, CSIR, Lila Poonawalla Foundation and Hindustan Unilever. She has been felicitated by former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for being an outstanding LILA Fellow in the field of Oceanography.

During her fellowship, Dr. Panchang is quantifying the responses of marine bio-calcifiers, essentially coral reef foraminifera, to ocean acidification through field studies in the Florida Reef Tract and laboratory experiments. Her work will also integrate analysis of atmospheric data and bio-calcifying specimens collected since the 1980s.

Suddhasatwa Basu

Prof. Suddhasatwa Basu completed PhD in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI) Chair Professor on Clean Energy at IIT Delhi. He was the Director of CSIR-Institute of Minerals & Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar and the Director of Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research, Dhanbad. He has vast work experience on development of materials for energy conversion and storage devices – green H2 generation & fuel cell technologies and Na/Zn ion battery, electro-synthesis, and waste-to-wealth technologies for a circular economy. He has published more than 280 articles in high-impact journals with H-index 53, applied for 16 patents of which 10 were granted and transferred to technologies. He is a Fellow of National Academy of Science of India, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry UK. He has received many awards. He has been editor, associate editor and editorial board member of several international journals.

During the fellowship at Washington University in St Louis, Prof Basu is working on development of technology for conversion of biomass/stubble-derived chemicals to hydrogen and furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) using an electrolyzer. The simultaneous production of FDCA alongside hydrogen in an electrolyzer will not only help to establish hydrogen economy but disrupt the polymer industry by producing monomers of bioplastics. The electrolyzer stack development envisaged will be operated under ambient conditions, making it environment-friendly and less energy-intensive by utilizing electrical power from solar photovoltaic resources.

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.

Salvador Lyngdoh

Dr. Salvador Lyngdoh, Scientist E and Associate Professor, is a wildlife biologist specializing in carnivore ecology, movement ecology, habitat conservation, and human-wildlife interactions. With extensive research experience in the Indian Himalayas and other biodiverse regions, he has contributed significantly to understanding lesser-known species such as Himalayan wolves, dholes, snow leopards, pangolins and clouded leopards. He is a member of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) specialists’ groups on cats, canids, pangolins and small carnivores.

During his Fulbright-Kalam Fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence, Dr. Lyngdoh is studying the dynamics of wolf predation, prey behavior and habitat change in the context of climate change. Grey wolves play essential roles in most of their ranges by exercising top-down cascade effects on ecosystems. The proposed study aims to understand how climate change (past, present, and future) can affect predation by wolves (consumptive effects). It also aims to examine, if otherwise, climate-driven manifestations (environmental stressors) of non-consumptive nature can influence predation behavior (bottom-up cascades).

Anuradha Marwah

Anuradha Marwah, novelist, playwright, and professor of English at Zakir Husain Delhi College, Delhi, is known for her insightful exploration of contemporary issues, storytelling, and building enduring characters in the world of literature.

Her latest novel, Aunties of Vasant Kunj (2024) was shortlisted for the Ruskin Bond Best Fiction Award at the Banaras Lit Fest and long listed for the Times of India Best Fiction AutHer Award 2025. Her play Ismat’s Love Stories (2016) continues to be performed and had six housefull shows in Bengaluru last year. Her Hindustani adaptation of Euripedes’ Medea (2019), that she also directed, had fifteen shows and featured in India’s first community-curated theatre festival at Studio Safdar, New Delhi.

Anuradha’s work is taught in academic courses across American and Indian universities and schools. Her short story Womanscape in Tis Hazari is included in the Indian School Certificate textbook Treasure Chest. An excerpt from her novel The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta (1993, 2025) is part of Voices: An Anthology of Indian Women Writers, prescribed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training.

Anuradha was awarded the prestigious Charles Wallace Writer’s Residency (2001) in the UK and the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence (FNAPE) Fellowship to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (2017), where she served as Visiting Faculty at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Study of Global Change.

In Hollins University as Fall 2025 Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence she will teach a special interest course on her adaptation of Medea and engage the broader Roanoke community in a reading-performance project.

Gunanka Dundanayakanahally Basavaraju

Mr. Gunanka D. B., an Indian Forest Service officer, has served as Additional Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, with over 16 years of experience in technology and public administration. He has led state-wide programs in natural resource management, climate resilience, and digital governance.

Gunanka spearheaded the World Bank-financed Community-Led Landscape Management Project, which pioneered the Village Community Facilitator model, training more than 14,000 local champions in community-led natural resource management, spring mapping, bamboo resource assessments, and seedball-based afforestation. He led the launch of GREEN Meghalaya, India’s first state-scale Payment for Ecosystem Services program, empowering communities to conserve over 1,000 sq. kms of forest. He championed the conservation of over 150 living root bridges through cooperative federations and community co-nomination for UNESCO World Heritage status. Under the JICA-financed MegLIFE program, he strengthened community-based forest management, cooperative livelihood models, and climate-resilient bamboo value chains.

Gunanka advanced geospatial governance by promoting the State Geo Portal and UAV Centre, expanded open data policies, and developed agile management information systems with real-time monitoring tools. He played a key role in integrating service delivery, grievance redress, and community data collection through the MeghalayaOne digital governance platform.

An electronics and communications engineer from R.V. College of Engineering, Bengaluru, Gunanka is pursuing the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship to deepen his expertise in sustainable development, institutional reform, and technology-enabled governance. He aims to leverage this training to design scalable, community-driven governance systems that enhance climate resilience, inclusive growth, and data-driven policymaking in India’s public administration.

Shreyashi Ray

Ms. Shreyashi Ray is a lawyer and policy professional with experience in health, disability, and queer rights. As part of her work at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Delhi between 2021 and 2025, she has advised union and state governments on legal frameworks for public health emergencies, disability inclusion, and the right to health in India. She has also worked with CSOs and the medical community to recommend policies prioritizing ethical end-of-life care and queer-affirmative healthcare.

Prior to this, she worked with the District Administration of Ranchi from 2018 to 2020 to implement critical health initiatives in under-served areas. During the COVID-19 epidemic, she devised the district’s health and welfare plan with the district machinery and civil society, and established helplines for mental health, domestic violence, and migrant support.

Shreyashi graduated from The WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata with a BA, LLB (Hons.) degree in 2016, after which she worked at the National Law University, Delhi till 2018 on the first comprehensive open science report in India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Shreyashi is studying public health with a focus on health policy and aims to implement rights-based health policies in India that build a culture incentivizing inclusion and sharing of relevant, authentic data. Through this, she hopes to make the public health system in India more transparent, collaborative, inclusive of marginalized communities, and responsive to social needs.

Sujatra Bhattacharyya

Mr Sujatra Bhattacharyya is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He has a keen interest in understanding the physics behind the large-scale dynamic and thermodynamic processes associated with tropical systems, such as the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and monsoons. Currently, he is conducting research on South Asian monsoons.

Sujatra’s research aims to identify and understand the mechanisms behind the dominant modes of the seasonal rainfall cycle over India. Simultaneously, he is examining the zonal and meridional shifts of precipitation bands during the boreal summer in the South Asian region using an energetics approach.

As a Fulbright-Kalam fellow, Sujatra is investigating the roles of MJO (Madden-Julian Oscillation) and ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) in Indian monsoons after the onset phase is established. He is also comparing the influences of various Intraseasonal Oscillations (ISO) on the development of the spatio-temporal moisture field over India.

Sujatra earned his Bachelor of Science (BSc Hons.) in Physics from the University of Delhi and MSc Tech) in Geophysics with a specialization in meteorology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) since August 2022. He also teaches various Mathematics and Physics courses on national platforms such as NPTEL and Andhra University as part of the PMRF program. He has presented his work at several international and national conferences. He enjoys teaching, table tennis and travelling.

Shailina Srivastava

Ms. Shailina Srivastava is a PhD scholar in the Aerosol Group of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. Under the mentorship of Prof. Sachin S. Gunthe, her research focuses on the intricate interactions between aerosols from diverse regions across the Indian subcontinent, water vapor, and UV radiation under subsaturated conditions. She has conducted extensive measurement campaigns, ranging from southern India to the Himalayan region, collecting ambient aerosol samples to investigate how variations in aerosol properties influence cloud formation, precipitation processes, and the atmospheric evolution of these particles.

Shailina holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences (Environmental Technology) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and a bachelor’s degree in Botany and Industrial Microbiology from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The unique climatic conditions of India inspired her to delve into this critical area of research, contributing to a better understanding of the nation’s climate dynamics. Beyond her academic pursuits, she enjoys reading and traveling.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Fellow, Shailina is conducting experimental work at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, under the supervision of Dr. Pengfei Liu. Her experiments focus on generating atmospherically relevant organic aerosols from various precursors and examining their interactions with water vapor and UV radiation. She employs advanced techniques and instruments, including the quartz crystal microbalance, to gain deeper insights into these processes.

Rinu Fathima

Ms. Rinu Fathima is a PhD candidate at the CSIR National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India. After finishing her master’s in Applied Geology from Pondicherry University, her passion for marine sciences took her to the National Institute of Oceanography in Panaji, Goa. Her research focuses on understanding past monsoon variability using marine microfossils known as foraminifera. She uses their assemblage and shell geochemistry to understand past climate. She studies the ecology of foraminifera in surface samples and further calibrates the proxies before using them in paleoclimate studies.

Rinu has published her work in multiple research journals and presented it at several national and international conferences. She was one of the two recipients of the American Geophysical Union-Berkner travel grant in 2024. During her master’s, she also received the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology-sponsored summer trainee grant, which helped her study tree rings to decode past climate. She has also participated in ocean expeditions onboard the research vessel Sindhu Sankalp.

At Rutgers during her fellowship, Rinu is using trace element geochemistry of the core top samples from the Andaman basin as a proxy calibration and will use this to understand past monsoon variability in a sediment core. Rinu is an avid consumer of fiction, cinema, and books. You can also find her watching sunsets or hiking during her free time. From one coastal city to the next, Rinu is looking forward to exploring the beaches of New Jersey during her time at Rutgers.