Fulbright-Nehru Grant Category India: Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowships

Kashish Dua

Ms. Kashish Dua is a doctoral candidate in English at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and Assistant Professor, Department of English, Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi. Her Ph.D. examines the intersections of queerness, personal narratives, and citizenship in the context of post-Independence India. This project aims to expand the current theorizations on citizenship in India by interrogating the forms citizenship takes in the case of queer individuals. It particularly focuses on the construction of the subject and the process of subjectivation in personal narratives in print by queer individuals of Indian origin. She has an M.Phil. with distinction in English from Jamia Millia Islamia and a master’s and bachelor’s in English from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. Her research interests are queer studies, gender and South Asian literature, and partition literature.

Ms. Dua has conducted several workshops and delivered talks on queer theory and queer literature, including a panel discussion at the first Awadh Queer Literature Festival, Lucknow in 2019. Some of her publications include an edited critical edition of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It published by Prentice Hall India in 2019; a co-authored encyclopedia entry on “LGBTQ and Hinduism” for Oxford Bibliographies, published online by the Oxford University Press in 2022; a chapter titled “Rainbow Waters: Towards a Queer Coalition between India and Botswana” in a Routledge India book Cosmopolitan Cultures and Oceanic Thought (2023) edited by Dilip Menon and Nishat Zaidi; and an article on “Ismat Chughtai’s Obscenity Trial” forthcoming in The LGBTQ+ History Book by DK London. Ms. Dua was a member of the organizing committee of an international conference titled “Language Ideologies and the ‘Vernacular’ in South Asian Colonial and Post-colonial Literature(s) and Public Spheres” in 2021 that was organized through the collaborative efforts of the University of Heidelberg, Germany and the SPARC project on “Debating and Calibrating the Vernacular in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asian Literature and Culture” by the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Ms. Dua is striving to decolonize the genre of queer memoirs through a comparative study of queer personal writings in India and the “coming out” narratives of the Global North.

Prateek Dey

Mr. Prateek Dey is a Ph.D. candidate at Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Through his doctoral thesis, he aims to assess genomic variations in select species of wild and domestic quails. Utilizing a combination of field data, next generation sequencing methods and bioinformatics tools, he aims to comprehensively map differences amongst morphologically similar quail species at a genomic scale. The findings of his doctoral thesis have been presented and published in various national and international conferences and journals.

Mr. Dey graduated with a degree in Integrated M.Sc. in life sciences from the Central University of Tamil Nadu. He has qualified for national level examinations such as GATE, CUCET and BU-CET with top ranks. Apart from academic interests in genetics, he likes to spend time trekking, birding and exploring serene or unexplored nature reserves. He also has a keen interest in cooking and in reading books related to historical events and personalities.

During his Fulbright Nehru Doctoral Research fellowship, Mr. Dey is studying the demographic history and phylogenetic topology of Coturnix quails through whole genome approaches. He is working on assembling a high-quality genome of Coturnix coturnix, tracing its demographic history through coalescent modelling and generating a species level phylogenetic tree of the same. Through collaborative efforts, the findings of this study will bring forth a plethora of genome based evolutionary inferences that will be of high conservation importance for a wide variety of co-generic species in India.

Nikhil Dev Narendradev

Mr. Nikhil Dev Narendradev is a graduate student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His research interests lie broadly in mitochondrial homeostasis with a focus on understanding the cross-talk between endosomal E3 ligases and mitochondrial proteins. He co-authored some of his findings as publications in peer-reviewed international journals and at international conferences.

Mr. Narendradev holds an integrated master’s degree (BS-MS) in biological sciences with physical sciences as minor from IISER Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was awarded a very competitive INSPIRE-SHE fellowship by the Government of India as an undergraduate. He is recipient of fellowships from the Indian Academy of Science and the National University of Singapore to pursue his research interests during summer in India and Singapore. Outside the laboratory, he takes satisfaction in working with the underprivileged, participating in outreach activities, and in teaching. He likes to spend time traveling, meeting new people, understanding diverse cultures, and enjoys beaches and mountains.

During the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellowship period, Mr. Narendradev is employing cutting-edge proteomics technology tools to investigate signaling events involved in mitochondrial homeostasis, with a particular focus on identifying post-translational modifications that regulate mitochondrial structure and function. Research findings from this work are expected to unravel novel regulatory mechanisms required for maintaining a healthy population of mitochondria and to help identify potential targets for therapeutic intervention in pathological conditions.

Vaivab Das

Vaivab Das is a UGC Senior Research Fellow in sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. They have interdisciplinary training in Human Rights Law (NLSIU, Bangalore), Women and Gender Studies (TISS, Hyderabad), and English Literature (Ravenshaw University). They are interested in looking at the role of data cultures, law, gender and sexuality in the making of histories and policies for LGBTQIA+ persons in India.

They are an activist academician, who firmly believes that their academic goals are interwoven with fostering social change. They have worked towards the recognition of diverse gender and sexual minorities as protected categories, building gender-affirming infrastructures, and creating community spaces for LGBTQIA+ sensitization and awareness in various institutions. Recently, they worked on a writ petition for the horizontal reservation for transgender persons in public education and employment opportunities submitted to the Telangana High Court. In the past, Vaivab has worked as a technical expert on projects on gender-based violence, inclusive and accessible quality education, state welfare programs and livelihood schemes for the World Bank, Oxford Policy Management, Stanford University, and the Government of Odisha.

Vaivab’s Ph.D. project is an anthropological exploration of the bureaucratic, institutional, and socio-cultural barriers that impact the participation of transgender persons in democratic processes like elections in India. The project examines the conflict between law (legal rationality) and identity in the experiences of citizenship, along with the historical trajectories and political technologies that underpin the politics of the body and the body of politics in plural democracies.

During Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellowship, Vaivab is focusing on drawing a comparative understanding of how transgender persons navigate citizenship and elections as voters, candidates, and political representatives in the USA and in India.

Koushikey Chhapariya

Ms. Koushikey Chhapariya is a doctoral student at the Satellite Image Processing Lab, Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering (CSRE), IIT Bombay, Mumbai. She is working on an object-oriented deep CNN-based model for detecting selective features on hyperspectral images as part of her Ph.D. research. She is also a recipient of the Indo-French Raman-Charpak Fellowship 2022. She joined LISTIC Lab, Université Savoie Mont Blanc as a visiting research scholar in France to conduct a part of her Ph.D. thesis work. There she worked on a multi-task deep learning model for hyperspectral data for six months.

Ms. Chhapariya received the Prime Minister Research Fellowship in May 2021 under the lateral entry scheme. She completed her Master of Technology (M.Tech) from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), ISRO, Dehradun. As part of her master’s project, she developed a kernel-based Modified Possibilistic c-Means (MPCM) algorithm in the fuzzy-logic-based domain to handle non-linearity in data. She was also an intern with the Indian Institute of Human Settlement (IIHS), Bengaluru, where she worked on a data management portal, administrating metadata and web-portal development. Her research interest lies in the processing and analysis of satellite images, such as hyperspectral, multispectral, and thermal data. She loves to travel, explore new places, and read in her free time.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellowship, Ms. Chhapariya is focusing on developing a deep learning-based object detection and feature extraction model for hyperspectral satellite image analysis.

Sreerupa Bhattacharya

Ms. Sreerupa Bhattacharya is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, where she examines the works of women photographers in twentieth-century India. By tracing a genealogy of women’s photographic practices, her Ph.D. seeks to explore hitherto obscured archives in order to engender the history of photography in India as well as provide fresh insights into the gendered lifeworlds of women in the twentieth century. Her research interests include visual culture, gender studies, technology studies and South Asian history.

Ms. Bhattacharya completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in English literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, where she was awarded the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) for an independent research project on the Jewish community of Kolkata. She was a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University, where she received a postgraduate diploma in liberal studies. She also worked as Teaching Assistant at Ashoka University and IIT Bombay for a range of courses on gender and sexuality, film studies, literary culture and language training.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, she is undertaking archival research, gaining interdisciplinary methodological insights into the study of visual culture, and engaging with a global community of scholars and curators working on gender and photography.

Porkizhi Arjunan

Ms. Porkizhi Arjunan is a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for Stem Cell Research, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. Her doctoral research focuses on targeted non-viral vector-based gene therapy for hemophilia A and B (HA and HB) disorders, and her goal is to reduce bleeding in hemophilia patients while avoiding additional complications. During her Ph.D., she has also worked on other projects, such as making innovative nano-lithocholic lipidoids—a potential class of therapeutics for treating psoriasis. Furthermore, using novel liposomes, she assisted in the production of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirions during the Covid-19 outbreak and contributed to the finding that Omicron infection increases IgG binding to spike protein of predecessor variants. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed international journals and has been presented at several national and international conferences.

Ms. Arjunan holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in biotechnology from Pondicherry University, Puducherry and Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu respectively. She also holds a diploma in computer applications and training. In addition to her work, she has a strong interest in social work, and likes traveling and meeting people from different cultures.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Ms. Arjunan is exploring the potential reach of the proposed “Development of Lipid Nanoparticle guided chemically modified Factor FVIII mRNA/NE-DNA Nucleic Acid Therapeutics for Hemophilia A.”

Kirti Saluja

Kirti Saluja is a Ph.D. candidate at the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Haryana. Her Ph.D. research focuses on investigating the interaction between the heart and the brain in aging individuals and those with epilepsy, involving the utilization of cognitive experiments, multimodal neuroimaging, and a data-driven approach. She has presented her research at various national and international conferences and workshops.

Before pursuing her Ph.D., Kirti completed her BSc in biochemistry from the University of Delhi, and MSc in neuroscience from the National Brain Research Centre. During this period, she actively participated in an innovation project led by the University of Delhi in collaboration with IGIB, focusing on utilizing zebrafish as a biosensor for assessing the water quality of the river Yamuna in the Delhi-NCT region. Additionally, she contributed as a teaching assistant at the Neuromatch Academy for their computational neuroscience course.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, Kirti will is collaborating with Dr. Mohammad Dastjerdi, aiming to elucidate the connectivity between the heart and the brain in epileptic patients using stereo encephalography (sEEG) as the neuroimaging technique. This endeavor is expected to aid in comprehending mechanisms underlying the development of cognitive and/ or cardiovascular comorbidities in epileptic patients, potentially opening avenues for utilizing cardiac signals in predicting seizure onset. Kirti enjoys hiking, trekking, creating science-related comics, and engaging with diverse individuals.

Saptarshi Saha

Saptarshi Saha is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. His doctoral research is focused on integrating causality into deep learning frameworks to enhance their utility. Beyond his immediate thesis goals, Saptarshi envisions a broader research trajectory aimed at utilizing deep learning for a deeper understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. His aim is to address various challenges such as improving the robustness, explainability, and interpretability of models, addressing issues with limited control over generative models, enhancing generalization performance under varying data distributions, dealing with learning using limited labelled data, promoting fairness in decision-making systems, and more. Saptarshi’s scholarly contributions extend to renowned journals such as TMLR and prominent conferences like ICLR. He has showcased his work at various research fora, such as Amazon Research Day 2023 and the Machine Learning Summer School in Okinawa, 2024.

Saptarshi holds a BS-MS dual degree in mathematics from IISER Kolkata. Throughout his BS-MS studies (2015–2020), he was a recipient of the INSPIRE fellowship from DST, Government of India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, Saptarshi is trying to utilize causal knowledge and principles to assess data quality and make informed decisions (in the context of learning with not enough data) regarding samples that need to be labelled (from the large unlabelled dataset) rather than selecting them randomly. He is primarily working on the challenge of efficiently selecting the most relevant samples for labelling while considering budget constraints. This challenge holds excellent relevance not only in academic research but also within the AI industry. Saptarshi is an avid nature photographer and finds solace in the wilderness. His interests extend to culinary adventures, globetrotting, and engaging with diverse cultures. His leisure activities also include playing football and cricket.

Wasim Niyaz Munshi

Wasim Niyaz Munshi obtained his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, in 2021. He then joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras to pursue an integrated MS + Ph.D. in civil engineering. His doctoral thesis focuses on developing a robust phase-field model for fracture propagation. The developed model will leverage parallel computing on distributed memory environments and adaptive mesh refinement to offset the high computational costs.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Colorado State University, Boulder, CO, Wasim is addressing the key limitation of the phase-field method, which is its high computational cost. The eventual outcome of this research will result in a unique 3D subsurface fracture propagation capability that addresses a key bottleneck for several industrial applications such as geothermal energy, shale gas exploration, and composites. Wasim has presented his initial work at reputed conferences like CFRAC 2023 and ISTAM 2023. In addition to several high-impact research publications, this research will also facilitate long-term collaborations between the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the host laboratory in the U.S. in a strategic area of national importance for both nations.

Coming from the picturesque valley of Kashmir, Wasim has a deep appreciation for nature. He loves spending time in nature and is particularly enthusiastic about hiking and camping. He enjoys travelling to new places and is very keen to learn about different cultures.