Fulbright-Kalam Fellowship for Doctoral Research Archives

Pallavi Rachel George

Pallavi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where she specializes in the Public Systems Group (PSG). After three years of working as a policy researcher in the development sector, she turned to academia to follow her passion for research, teaching, and mentoring.

Pallavi’s research examines climate resilience in coastal cities with a focus on developing inclusive planning mechanisms and outcomes. Her work stands at the intersection of public policy, urban planning, and climate sciences, viewing coastal cities as socio-ecological systems with complex interdependencies that must be captured in urban climate resilience planning and policymaking. In her research, Pallavi utilizes various quantitative and qualitative methodologies, such as social network analysis, computational online text analysis, structural equation modelling, policy document analysis, and statistical methods.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow, Pallavi is studying select coastal cities in the U.S. and India to comparatively examine resilience planning processes and outcomes to further the common goal of achieving inclusive resilience in our cities. She did her bachelor’s in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and her master’s in public policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her studies in Singapore were supported by a scholarship from the Li Ka Shing Foundation. She has presented her work at various conferences, both national and international. In her free time, Pallavi enjoys practicing Bharatnatyam, playing badminton, painting, and travelling.

Shreya Shrikant Katre

Shreya Katre is a PhD candidate at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, where she works with Dr. Archana M Nair and Dr. Ravi K. She graduated from Walchand College of Engineering Sangli, Maharashtra, with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s degree in Earth System Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. Her current research focuses on the geological carbon sequestration in selected rock formations of India. The goal of her research is to estimate the carbon storage potential of Indian basins and to identify novel carbon storage pathways using various geophysical and geochemical techniques.

Throughout her career, Shreya has participated in many social activities, workshops, technical quizzes, and was rewarded on various occasions. She has also worked as a bridge designer on a Metro rail project while working at STUP consultants Pvt. Ltd. She has presented her research at many national and international conferences through travel grants and has published in peer-reviewed journal and book chapters. Apart from this, Shreya is a Marathi language writer and poet and takes a special interest in Indian classical music.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellow, her primary objective is to contribute to the science of carbon mineralization in ultramafic and basaltic rocks which paves a path to its applications in carbon management technologies. She will study the kinetics of carbonation and enhanced carbonation techniques to provide insights to the geochemistry of CO2-water-rock interactions. The application of this technology extends to in-situ carbon dioxide storage and ex-situ carbon dioxide removal methods.

Amritha M. S.

Amritha M. S. is a research scholar at the Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala, India. Her research is supported by CSIR in the form of a junior research fellowship, and her research is jointly supervised by Prof. (Dr.) Jos T. Puthur and Dr. Kishore Sridharan.

She is a proud alumna of St. Mary’s College, Thrissur, Kerala, India and St. Thomas College (Autonomous), Thrissur, Kerala, India, where she did her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Botany, respectively. For her doctoral research, she is studying the role of “Nanoscale graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) priming of rice (Oryza sativa L.) for enhancing abiotic stress tolerance”. She has publications in top-tier journals to her credit.

She is attempting to develop a cost-effective and farmer-friendly technique for protecting plants against various abiotic stresses using nanostructured priming agents, under the supervision of her guides. Apart from her research, Amritha enjoys teaching students and is an excellent mentor who has been successful in inspiring some of her students to pursue careers in science and research while working as Assistant Professor. Her hobby is to identify plants and learn about the flora of different places.

The Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship will help her explore how nano-structural material priming agents such as g-C3N4 and their relatively useful forms can help plants cope with adverse environmental conditions, as well as the molecular mechanisms behind this plant tolerance. It also allows her to examine how the study results will benefit farmers

Ammoose Kunjanparampil Jayan

Ammoose K. Jayan is currently conducting her research under the DST-Inspire Junior Research Fellowship at the Department of Geology, Central University of Kerala, Kerala. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geology and Water Management with first-rank from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. She is also a first-rank holder during her Master’s in Geology from Central University of Kerala, India. Her doctoral research mainly focuses on the paleoceanographic investigations of sediments from the Bay of Bengal (BoB). She studies the assemblages of planktonic foraminifera and its shells’ geochemical composition in order to understand the impact of climatic and environmental changes on modern and fossil organisms, particularly during the Holocene.

Ms. Jayan has published her research findings in the International journal Marine Micropaleontology and presented her work at several National and International conferences. In 2021, she was awarded with the TMS Grant-in-Aid, by The Micropaleontological Society, London. In the same year, she also participated in a scientific expedition to BoB Onboard Sagar Kanya Research Vessel, to collect gravity core samples for her research. During her Master’s, she was one of the recipients of the Indian Academy of Sciences’ Summer Research Fellowship, 2018, and had conducted research at the National Institute of Oceanography, Visakhapatnam.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Fellow, Ms. Jayan will work on the fate of the East India Coastal Current (EICC) during the Holocene and H1 event, correlating with excessively strong and weak phases of ISM variability. Another goal of this research is to test any offset in the elemental and isotopic composition of the morphotypes of Globigerinoides ruber, a mixed-layer planktonic foraminiferal species, from the BoB.

Manoj Hariharan

Manoj Hariharan’s love of science began with a trek in fall, with his father, when his eyes captured the changing color of leaves in the midst of sheets of rain that turned paths into bewitching rivulets. Pursuing a doctorate nurtures this fascination scientifically. It also brings a deeper glimpse into all the good nature can do, from uncovering our survival to understanding Earth’s processes that shape our world.

At the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Hariharan covers biosphere-atmosphere interactions and intends to understand how climate, pollution, atmospheric and geographic sciences shape and are shaped by the terrestrial carbon cycle. He tries to picture them mainly with the “eye in the sky.” He is a graduate of the Department of Geography at the University of Madras, Chennai, and a Project Fellow at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun. He loves stargazing in his downtime.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellow, Hariharan anticipates spending time with climate models at a supercomputer cluster to understand the dynamic traits of carbon. He will focus on the sensibility of the terrestrial ecosystems to environmental change, by attributing the processes to observed changes in the carbon pools using an integrated data platform. He expects the outcomes to draw him closer to better quantifying the trajectory of terrestrial carbon pools. Besides, he plans to explore the starry nights of the Colorado mountain trails and eagerly awaits experiencing a snowy Christmas eve.

Rizana Salim

Ms. Rizana Salim is pursuing her Ph.D. from the Aerosol group, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai under the guidance of Prof. Sachin S Gunthe. She completed her B.Tech. in civil engineering from the Royal College of Engineering and Technology, Kerala, and M.Tech. from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, in remote sensing and GIS. At present, her research focuses on experimental and modelling studies to investigate the role of atmospheric aerosols, as physiological sources of reactive oxygen and chlorine species, in producing oxidative stress in the lungs and the resulting health impacts.

Ms. Salim’s upbringing in the mountains made her closely connected to nature and instilled in her a strong belief that we always get what we give. Hence, she believes it is an individual’s responsibility to gift the environment a token of gratitude. Her subject of research is her token of gratitude for the air we breathe. She loves to paint, read and travel.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow, Ms. Salim is doing her experimental work at the University of California, Irvine under the guidance of Prof. Manabu Shiraiwa. Ms. Salim is conducting detailed analysis and advanced research using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer and high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS) and other experimental methods for the detection and quantification of radical species and to understand the toxicity and oxidative potential of these radicals.

Gagan Kumar Sharma

Mr. Gagan Kumar Sharma is working as a Ph.D. candidate under the DST-INSPIRE Fellowship program at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand. He is conducting research with Professor Davinder Kaur on 2D nanomaterial based composites for lead-free energy storage devices (supercapacitors). Mr. Sharma holds a bachelor’s degree (Honours) in physics from the University of Delhi. He is also a second-rank holder in his master’s in physics from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. During his HSC/Intermediate, he emerged as a third district topper, and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India has awarded him the INSPIRE Scholarship for UG & PG studies.

Mr. Sharma has published his research work in various peer-reviewed international journals, including Applied Physics Letters. He has presented his research findings at numerous international conferences, including AEM-2022 held at the Imperial College London. He is a recipient of the Best Poster Presentation Award for two conferences. He is also a sportsperson and loves to travel to new places.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow, Mr. Sharma is working on the next generation lead-free and environmentally friendly energy storage technology. One of the primary goals of his research on green energy is to benefit every section of human civilization. He expects that the collaborative work will provide a tactic for commercialization at low manufacturing costs and prevent environmental imbalance. He is further optimizing several nanohybrid materials for better capacitive properties, which may solve the current energy crisis of the world. He also plans to explore various metallic foil/mesh/foam as a flexible current collector for bendable supercapacitors.

Navinya Dilip Chimurkar

Mr. Navinya Dilip Chimurkar is a research scholar in climate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. He is working with Prof. Harish C. Phuleria and Prof. Chandra Venkataraman to understand the climate impact of highly overlooked non-cooking residential activities in India. He has conducted surveys and emission measurement campaigns to characterize the carbonaceous aerosol emissions from biomass and kerosene burning for water heating, space heating, and kerosene lighting.

Mr. Chimurkar has completed his master’s in climate science and technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Odhisha and his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering, Research and Technology, Chandrapur. He has published various articles, a policy brief and a book chapter on air quality. Apart from research, Mr. Chimurkar is a Hindi poet and has participated in many poetic events. He represented his master’s institute at Inter-IIT Cultural Meet for poetry. He is also a yoga enthusiast and has won a district-level competition.

During his Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellowship, Mr. Chimurkar is quantifying the climate impact of brown carbon particles from various sources using the state-of-the-science multi-wavelength spectrophotometer and Mie-theory modeling. The outcome of this research will improve climate assessment and aid in preparing a regional mitigation plan for India.

Abhisek Sahoo

Abhisek Sahoo grew up close to nature, in the coastal city of Puri, Orissa. He believes in creating a safe and healthy ecosystem for all species. Innovations in the field of solid waste management eventually led him to work in the area of sustainable development during his tenure at the esteemed laboratories of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and the Indian Institute of Petroleum Dehradun. Abhisek is currently working at IIT Delhi on the development of a process for the upgradation of bio-liquids via the thermo-catalytic route. Previously, he worked at University College London (UCL) as a Commonwealth fellow.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Abhisek is working on the thermo-catalytic conversion of waste biomass and plastic into aromatics and fuel-range hydrocarbons for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Employing green carbon-supported heterogeneous catalysts, his research aims to unlock the vast bioenergy potential inherent in waste substances. This breakthrough could pave the way for establishing biorefineries, supported by comprehensive techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessments.

Abhisek advocates for the idea that sustainability is our responsibility. His research endeavours reflect a dedication to addressing environmental challenges through innovative and practical solutions. His journey exemplifies the spirit of academic excellence and a deep commitment to the global pursuit of sustainable energy solutions. He is also interested in photography, traditional cuisines, and exploring historical sites.

Meenu Rajagopalan Nair

Meenu is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. Her doctoral thesis focuses on understanding the vertical wind and cloud variability under diverse monsoon convective environment over India. Her research interest is atmospheric phenomena, specializing in atmospheric convection, cloud dynamics, microphysics, and radar meteorology. She has presented her work at many national and international conferences.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Meenu completed her graduate studies at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences. She holds a double Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics and a master’s in physics. Meenu received the INSPIRE Scholarship from the Department of Science and Technology in 2013 and secured an INSPIRE fellowship for her doctoral research in 2020.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow at Stony Brook University, Stonybrook, NY, Meenu is investigating the role of mixed-phase cloud microphysics during monsoon, utilizing remote sensing instruments. Her objective is to broaden research horizons and foster cross-cultural collaborations. With a focus on understanding cloud variability in diverse convective regimes, particularly in the Western Ghats, she is eager to contribute meaningfully to cloud physics. Besides academics, Meenu enjoys movies, music, and trekking.