Other Fulbright Grants USA: Fulbright Specialist Program

Merideth M. Sellars

Ms. Merideth Sellars, MS, is a professor in the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences at Columbus State Community College, where she has dedicated over 20 years to advancing STEM education, outreach, and student success. She has also served as the principal investigator for the Future Scientists of Ohio Scholars Program, as faculty advisor to the STEM Club, and as coordinator for STEM Community Outreach and Engagement. Currently, she leads her college’s participation in the Destination Ohio State University (DOSU) and Researcher Mentor Teacher (RMT) programs, which support student pathways into research and higher education.

Ms. Sellars has co-authored 11 interactive iBooks and three laboratory manuals in human anatomy and physiology. She has also served as her department’s distance learning lead instructor. She is an active member – and past five-year vice-chair – of the Ohio State University’s Biomedical Engineering External Advisory Council and also contributes to the STEM Industry Council’s Career Readiness Program for Columbus city schools. Additionally, she coordinates the “We Are STEM” annual event, which connects high school students to hands-on STEM experiences and career exploration opportunities.

Her commitment to teaching excellence has been recognized through multiple awards, including the Columbus State Distinguished Teaching Award (2002, 2011, and finalist in 2024) and the Outstanding Woman Leader Award (2016). Ms. Sellars is especially passionate about mentoring new faculty and championing innovative, inclusive teaching practices that foster student engagement and success.

Ram Mohan

Professor Ram Mohan earned his BSc in chemistry from Hansraj College in Delhi, India, an MSc in organic chemistry from the University of Delhi, India, and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (under Professor Dale Whalen), USA. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (in Professor Robert Coates’s lab) and started his independent academic career at Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU). He is currently the Wendell and Loretta Hess Professor of Chemistry at IWU.

Professor Mohan’s research, carried out exclusively by undergraduate students, focuses on environmentally friendly organic synthesis using bismuth compounds. To date, he has supervised over 140 IWU undergraduates and published 68 manuscripts co-authored by them. He is especially committed to raising awareness about green chemistry in rural India and often travels to remote parts of India.

He is also the recipient of several awards, such as: the University of Maryland, Baltimore County 2002 Distinguished Alumni Award; the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award; the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals (St. Louis Green Chemistry Team) Green Chemistry Award; Chemist of the Year 2011 (Illinois Heartland Section of the American Chemical Society); the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Environmental Improvement Award for incorporating sustainability into chemistry education; the 2023 Kemp Award for Teaching Excellence (from IWU); and the Fulbright Teacher Scholar Award in 2012, 2019, and 2023.

Feler Bose

Dr. Feler Bose is an economics and finance professor at Indiana University East. His undergraduate studies culminated in degrees in engineering physics and chemistry from Hope College, Michigan. He then completed his MS in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia. He worked for a few years in the paper industry before realizing his interests were not in engineering. He returned to school and received his PhD in economics from George Mason University, Virginia.

Dr. Bose’s research is multifaceted, encompassing applied microeconomics, political economy, law and economics, and the economics of religion. His current investigations delve into the impact of legislative structures on power dynamics, the significance of culture in societal development, and the opportunity cost associated with sexual freedom. His scholarly contributions extend beyond the academia. He has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and has authored book chapters, law briefs, a book, and regulatory analyses. He has also presented his research at several national and international outlets, addressing a diverse audience of both professionals and lay people. He is a member of various professional organizations, and his outstanding contributions to teaching and research have earned him multiple awards at his university.

Ramasamy Perumal

Dr. Ramasamy Perumal is the professor of sorghum and pearl millet breeding at Kansas State University. He is associated with the release of several seed and pollinator parents tolerant to drought and chilling stresses, and also with mapping such populations. He completed his PhD in plant breeding and genetics in 1993 from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. Dr. Perumal is the recipient of several awards: the Fulbright Specialist Award (2025); the Rockefeller Foundation postdoctoral fellow award in sorghum biotechnology (1998–2000); and the senior research fellowship of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (1988–1990). He is currently serving as an adjunct faculty in four Universities: Texas A&M University, Texas; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu; SRM University, Tamil Nadu; and SKUAST-Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir. Dr. Perumal was the chief editor of a pearl millet monograph and is currently the editor of The World Millets: Crops for Food, Nutrition and Sustainability (Wiley Publishers). He is also serving as a member of the advisory committee for the compendium of sorghum diseases (third edition, a publication of the American Phytopathological Society). Dr. Perumal has published 124 research articles, 20 book chapters, 73 abstracts/posters, and six extension materials. He is also serving as a potential reviewer for 21 journals and has reviewed over 200 research manuscripts.

Karan S. Surana

Dr. Karan Surana, born in India, received his BE in mechanical engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India, in 1965. He then attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he obtained his MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering in 1967 and 1970, respectively. For 15 years, he worked in industry in research and development in various areas of computational mechanics and software development: SDRC, Cincinnati (1970–1973); EMRC, Detroit (1973–1978); and McDonnell-Douglas, St. Louis (1978–1984). In 1984, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty at the University of Kansas, where he is currently the Deane E. Ackers University Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Surana’s areas of interest and expertise are computational mathematics, computational mechanics, and continuum mechanics. He is the author of over 350 research reports, conference papers, and journal articles. He has served as advisor and chairman of 50 MS students and 25 PhD students in various areas of computational mathematics and continuum mechanics. He has delivered many plenary and keynote lectures in various national and international conferences and congresses on computational mathematics, computational mechanics, and continuum mechanics.

Dr. Surana has also served on international advisory committees of many conferences and has co-organized mini symposia on the k-version of the finite element method, computational methods, and constitutive theories at the U.S. national congresses of Computational Mechanics organized by the U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM). He has also organized a mini symposium on classical and non-classical continuum mechanics at the Society of Engineering Science (SES). He is a member of the International Association of Computational Mechanics (IACM), USACM, and SES, as well as a fellow and life member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Dr. Surana’s most notable contributions to his field include: large deformation finite element formulations of shells; the k-version of the finite element method; operator classification and variationally consistent integral forms in methods of approximations for BVPs and IVPs; and ordered rate constitutive theories for solid and fluent continua. His present research work is on non-classical continuum theories for solid and fluent continua and associated constitutive theories. He is the author of recently published textbooks: Advanced Mechanics of Continua (CRC/Taylor & France); The Finite Element Method for Boundary Value Problems: Mathematics and Computations (CRC/Taylor & Francis); The Finite Element Method for Initial Value Problems: Mathematics and Computations (CRC/Taylor & Francis); and Numerical Methods and Methods of Approximation in Science and Engineering (CRC/Taylor & Francis).

 

Jeffrey P. Friedman

Dr. Jeff Friedman is a dance artist and scholar, and has been professor of dance studies at Rutgers University, New Jersey, since 2003. His research includes developing an embodied oral history interview methodology to serve the dance communities of the San Francisco Bay Area as founding director of the LEGACY Oral History Program (https://www.mpdsf.org/). He has received numerous grants and awards for his contributions to dance-related oral history documentation, including seven grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, ten years of grants from the California Arts Council, and the Forrest C. Pogue and James V. Mink service awards for oral history from the north-east and south-west regions of the National Oral History Association. His documentary dance film titled Muscle Memory, choreographed based on LEGACY’s oral history collection, has been performed worldwide, creating a new protocol for converting oral histories into documentary dance works. Over the course of his career, Dr. Friedman has been a Fulbright Fellow (in Germany) and a visiting lecturer and visiting dance critic in several institutions and countries.