Fulbright-Nehru Grant Category India: Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Research & Teaching)

Praveen Kumar

Dr. Praveen Kumar is working as an Assistant Professor at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences (IACS), Kolkata. He did his Ph.D. from the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, followed by postdoctoral research at ISOM, UPM Madrid, Spain, as a Marie Curie Fellow. He is an Editorial Board Member of Materials Letters (Elsevier) and Nanotechnology (IOP) Journals. He has served as a Chair, Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), Indian Chapter, funded by the European Commission from May 2017 to July 2021. He is also a member of The National Academy of Sciences (NASI), India and Indian National Young Academy of Sciences (INYAS).

Dr. Kumar’s research contribution covers a broad spectrum of materials science, including III-V semiconductors, 2D-Materials, MXenes, carbon nanostructures, etc., for various energy harvesting (PEC water splitting, CO2 reduction, broadband photodetectors) and storage (supercapacitors) applications. He has authored 89 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, filed 03 patents, more than 75 in conference proceedings, 09 books/chapters, and delivered around 52 invited talks around the globe. He is a recipient of several recognized awards and fellowships, including MRSI Medal 2021, MCAA Societal Impact Award (2019), DAE Young Achiever Award (2019), Micro Internal Travel Grants (MITG), European Commission (2018), BRICS Young Scientist Award (2017), INSPIRE Faculty Award (2014), and the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012).

Dr. Kumar’s Fulbright-Nehru project aims to develop facile synthesis processes for MXenes heterostructures and establish their optical, electronic, electrical, and magnetic properties by experimental and theoretical means for energy harvesting (water splitting and CO2 reduction) applications. He will also be teaching Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology courses at Drexel University.

Rayson Kayalvarathu Alex

Dr. Rayson K. Alex is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus, Goa. His academic work lies in the area of ecocriticism, or broadly environmental humanities (EH) with a specific focus on indigenous nature-cultures and eco-cinema.

Dr. Alex was awarded his Ph.D. in 2011 for his dissertation in ecocriticism from the University of Madras. He is one of the editors of Essays in Ecocriticism (Sarup & Sons, Delhi, 2007), Culture and Media: Ecocritical Explorations (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), Ecodocumentaries: Critical Essays (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), and Ecocultural Ethics: Critical Essays (Lexington Books, 2017). He has translated works from Malayalam: Ecocriticism in Malayalam (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022) and E for Elephant: Elephant Tales and More (Green Books, 2022). He is a recipient of the ASLE Translation and Media Subvention Grants and is the Founder and co-Director of the tiNai Ecofilm Festival.

Dr. Alex’s Fulbright-Nehru research in the US is a continuation of his research work in India that focuses on identifying ecological pedagogies in the humanities which will strengthen and systematize formal and informal teaching in the environmental humanities. These pedagogies will be structurally consolidated, evaluated and disseminated in a manner that is beneficial to the scholars and teachers, particularly in India. He also proposes to teach a course titled “Indian Films, Environmental Justice, and the Subaltern” at the Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University.

Bhangya Bhukya

Dr. Bhangya Bhukya is a Professor of History at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. He specializes in Modern Indian History. His research interests include community histories, the effects of power and knowledge, governmentality and dominance, the state and nationalism, intellectual histories of subaltern communities, identity politics by forest and hill people in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow (2003-06) and a British Council Visiting Fellow (2010).

Dr. Bhukya did his Ph.D. from the University of Warwick, UK, and his thesis has been published as a book, Subjugated Nomads. The Lambadas under the rule of the Nizams in 2010. He published quite influential books, including The Roots of the Periphery. A history of the Deccan Gonds (2017), History of Modern Telangana (2017) and A Cultural History of Telangana (2021). He is also a public historian and activist involved in India’s Adivasi human rights movements.

Dr. Bhukya proposes to study why British colonial protectionism and post-colonial integrationism/assimilationism did not bring tangible changes in Adivasi life, particularly how these development approaches outweighed Adivasi self-rule and self-determinism; and, consequently, also their political rights. The study is theoretical in its nature, and it interrogates the philosophy, assumptions, and approaches of what is termed ‘Adivasi development’ and proposes to re-investigate what development has actually meant to Adivasis.

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.

G.L. Samuel

Dr. G.L. Samuel is a distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he leads the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Laser Material Processing and Surface Engineering. He completed his PhD at IIT Madras in 2001 and pursued Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Kyungpook National University, South Korea, before joining the faculty at IIT Madras in 2005.

With expertise in Micro Manufacturing, Advanced Laser Material Processing, and Metrology, Dr. Samuel teaches a range of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels including Automation in Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Micro Manufacturing Technology, Machining and Metrology, as well as Modelling and Simulation.

Dr. Samuel has a strong publication record and holds patents in various areas of manufacturing. He has organized continuing education programmes, workshops, and international conferences, fostering academic development and collaborations with universities worldwide, including Texas A&M University.

As a part of the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Samuel will conduct research at Texas A&M, focusing on developing digital twins for smart factory entities. The project aims to create a virtual representation that mimics the behaviour of the physical machines, enabling real-time monitoring, analysis, and optimization of all the processes in an autonomous factory.

Rahul Mangal

Dr. Rahul Mangal serves as an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. He completed his PhD in 2016 from Cornell University with Prof. Lynden Archer, where he worked on exploring the structural and dynamic characteristics of nano-particle polymer composites. After his Ph.D., Dr. Mangal did his postdoctoral research with Prof. Nicholas Abbott at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he explored how the anisotropic properties of liquid crystals influence the behavior of active colloids.

Dr. Mangal’s team at IIT Kanpur is conducting experimental investigations on a diverse range of problems associated with soft matter systems, polymers, and colloids. Their recent focus is on the synthesis and dynamics of artificial micro-swimmers in complex environments.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence (Research and Teaching) fellowship at Cornell University, Ithaca, NJ, Dr. Mangal is investigating the synthesis of hybrid self-propulsion of Janus colloids and the rheological impact of active JCs on the viscoelastic medium. Through this project, Dr. Mangal will strive to facilitate the ongoing scientific endeavors in controlling the motion of artificial micro-swimmers in microscopic domains for their potential applications in cargo/ drug delivery, bio-diagnostics, and tuning material properties using active colloids as additives. Dr. Mangal is also set to teach a course on polymer physics at Cornell, aiming to foster a synergy between teaching and research.

Miriam Chandy Menacherry

Miriam Chandy Menacherry, filmmaker and founder of Filament Pictures, is known for her documentary films which celebrate everyday heroes, such as Stuntmen of Bollywood (2005), Robot Jockey (2007), The Rat Race (2011), Lyari Notes (2015), The Leopard’s Tribe (2022) and From the Shadows (2022). She was a Global Media Makers fellow (instituted by Film Independent) and a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) India fellow. She is also a masterclass panelist at IFFI on “Indian documentary on the World Stage”.

Miriam has completed her postgraduate degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Center, New Delhi. Her social documentaries shed light on invisible narratives to construct a complex reality overlooked by mainstream media, and they have been selected at leading film festivals and broadcast worldwide. Her films have also been screened in educational institutes in India and abroad such as IIT Mumbai, Mount Carmel College, AJK Mass Communication Research Center, New York University, the University of Texas at Austin, Oxford University, and SOAS.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence (Research and Teaching) fellowship at the University of Texas, Austin, TX, Miriam is engaging with students of film to develop a dialogue about critically important yet invisible stories from India and expand the scope of her research supported by the India Foundation for the Arts to visibilise the contribution of women in cinema to include parallel developments in Hollywood.