Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Research) Archives - Page 5 of 6

Pavana Prabhakar

Dr. Pavana Prabhakar is the Charles G. Salmon Associate Professor in the departments of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she leads the Manufacturing and Mechanics Lab. She received her PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan in 2013 and her MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California in 2008. She received her BTech in civil engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in 2007.

Dr. Prabhakar has more than 15 years of research and teaching experience in composite materials with a specific focus on mechanics and advanced manufacturing. Her vision is to advance fundamental science for engineering damage-tolerant and resilient lightweight structures and materials for diverse applications in the aerospace, marine, wind, and automotive sectors. Her research occurs at the intersection of solid mechanics, advanced manufacturing, materials science, and computational science, and has been published regularly in reputed journals like Composites Part B, Composites Science and Technology, Materials & Design, Composite Structures, and Communications Materials.

Dr. Prabhakar has received numerous awards for her research, including the prestigious NSF CAREER (2021), ONR Young Investigator Program (2019), and AFOSR Young Investigator Program (2015). She is also the recipient of the 2019 American Society for Composites’ Young Composites Researcher Award given to an early-career member of the composites community who has significantly impacted the science and technology of composite materials through sustained research efforts. She also serves as an associate editor for Composites Part B. She is actively involved in the American Society for Composites and serves on its executive board as the membership secretary.

Dr. Prabhakar’s Fulbright-Nehru project is conducting fundamental research toward enabling greener and more sustainable solutions for next-generation composite materials, particularly natural fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, a critical study and opportunity area. This project is set to establish the fundamental process–structure–property relationships of natural FRP composite materials, thereby accelerating their widespread use and durability.

Sirish Namilae

Dr. Sirish Namilae is a professor of aerospace engineering at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). He obtained his MS in materials science from the Indian Institute of Science and a PhD in mechanical engineering from Florida State University. He joined the Aerospace Engineering Department at Embry-Riddle in 2014 after 10 years of experience in industry (Boeing) and national lab (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). At ERAU, Dr. Namilae leads the Advanced Materials and Mechanics Group and directs the composites lab. His research has focused on areas of composite materials and complex systems, as well as multiscale modeling. He has authored about 100 journal and conference publications in these research areas and has trained eight PhD and 20 MS thesis students. He has generated more than USD 6 million in research funding over the last few years. Dr. Namilae won ERAU’s Abbas–Sivjee Outstanding Researcher award in 2022. He is also an AIAA associate fellow.

In his Fulbright research fellowship, Prof. Namilae is collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras researchers to establish a novel foundation for interfacial design of next-generation composites. The research is pioneering the development of biodegradable natural fiber composites featuring nanoscale interfacial features. Additionally, Prof. Namilae is conducting novel experiments and formulating models to study interfacial mechanics and creating design maps that correlate nanoscale features with the desired composite properties. The outcomes of this research will provide guidance for optimal interface design of robust, multifunctional composites, including eco-friendly natural fiber composites.

Priya Nambisan

Dr. Priya Nambisan is a tenured associate professor at the Joseph J. Zilber College of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the founder and director of two labs: the Social Media and Health Research & Training (SMAHRT) Lab; and the Aging Research & Digital Technologies (ARDT) Lab. She has a multidisciplinary background in terms of her education, work experience, and research. She has an undergrad degree in public health and extension education from India, a master’s degree in nutrition from Syracuse University, a PhD in communication and technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a postdoc in health informatics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has also been a registered dietitian. She has lived and worked in India, Singapore, and the U.S..

Dr. Nambisan has conducted extensive research in areas like public health; wellness and prevention; personal health information management; patient–provider communication; online communities; and digital technologies for self-care. Her current research focuses on the use of new digital technologies and data analytics techniques (prediction modeling and machine learning) for providing social, emotional, and informational support to health consumers and patients. She has over 60 research publications and over 20 conference presentations. She has also delivered several invited talks, organized special sessions at conferences, and written invited book chapters on the above topics.

For the last few years, Dr. Nambisan has been immersed in building and validating a digital self- care platform for older adults who are dealing with multiple chronic conditions. The platform – known as Comprehensive Digital Self-care Support System (CDSSS), aka myHESTIA (my Healing Ecosystem for Self-care and Therapeutic Integration for the Aging) – enables older adults to keep track of their health, reduce stress, and improve sleep using digital healing tools.

Dr. Nambisan’s Fulbright-Nehru project is adapting the CDSSS-myHESTIA platform to fit the Indian context. The aim is to provide support for the physical, mental, and social health needs of older adults. The project also aims to enhance CDSSS-myHESTIA by incorporating elements such as Indian ways of healthy aging.

Mainak Mookherjee

Dr. Mainak Mookherjee obtained his BSc (1997) from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and his MSc (1999) from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. He went on to earn his PhD (2003) from the University of Cambridge. He moved to the U.S. in 2003 for postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan (2003–2005) and Yale University (2006–2008). Dr. Mookherjee then joined Bayreisches Geoinstitut, Bayreuth, Germany, as a visiting researcher in 2008. He returned to the U.S. in 2012 as a research scientist at Cornell University. Since 2015, Dr. Mookherjee has been a faculty member at Florida State University. In 2019, he was tenured and promoted from assistant to associate professor, and in 2024, to full professor.

Dr. Mookherjee’s primary research interest lies in understanding the processes that occur in the Earth’s interior. He uses a combination of experimental methods and complementary numerical simulations to understand the cycling/exchange of volatiles such as hydrogen/water and carbon dioxide between the Earth’s exosphere and its interior.

Geophysical observations have often indicated a presence of low viscosity channel which explains the southward extrusion of the Himalaya. The likely cause of this low viscosity channel is partial melting. In his Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Mookherjee is examining whether Himalayan crustal rocks contain trace quantities of water. This will help Earth scientists to gain insight into collisional dynamics and volatile cycling. He is also attempting to constrain the water contents in nominally anhydrous minerals of Himalayan crustal rocks. In addition, he is providing constraints to the physical properties of water-bearing melts which will enable geophysicists to test the low viscosity channel hypothesis.

Urmila Mohan

Dr. Urmila Mohan is a public anthropologist of material culture and studies how sociocultural values are circulated through cloth, bodily practices, and belief. She earned a PhD in anthropology from University College London, an MFA in studio arts from Pennsylvania State University, a BA (hons) in anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington, and a BFA in communication design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Mohan’s research includes an ethnography of devotees who make garments for their deities and also wear specific clothing; this was published as Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism. She also undertook a curatorial study of Balinese ritual textiles at the American Museum of Natural History, resulting in an exhibition and catalogue, Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles. Besides, she is the author of the monograph, Masking in Pandemic U.S..

Dr. Mohan has written extensively on material practices and theorizes them in her edited volume, The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices. Earlier, she had co-edited The Material Subject: Rethinking Bodies and Objects in Motion and a special issue of the Journal of Material Culture titled “The Bodily and Material Cultures of Religious Subjectivation”.

As part of her commitment to interdisciplinarity, Dr. Mohan founded the digital, open-access publication, The Jugaad Project. She is also a member of several global working groups, including the Matière à Penser network for embodiment studies.

Dr. Mohan’s Fulbright-Nehru project is an ethnographic study of weavers of silk ikat (resist-dyed) textiles in Gujarat, India. She is contextualizing ikat handloom innovation as a process of socio-technical ‘enchantment’ that engages weavers, traders, and consumers. She is also connecting woven cloths’ agency with changing socioeconomic and spiritual practices via weavers’ technical, bodily, and material adaptations. Her research adds to studies of how artisanal communities and heritage are shaped in India; it is doing so by analyzing shifts in practices/meanings due to migration, the influence of kinship on technology adoption and craft expansion, changing roles of women in weaving families, and the effects of the geographical indications patenting system.

Phanikumar Mantha

Dr. Phanikumar Mantha is a professor of civil and environmental engineering (College of Engineering) and professor of MSU AgBioResearch (College of Agriculture & Natural Resources) at Michigan State University (MSU), East Lansing. He obtained his PhD in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and worked as a scientist at the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, where he developed models of estuarine and coastal ocean processes and received the Sir C.V. Raman Young Scientist Award for his work in 1996. His research interests encompass the scientific, technical, societal, and policy aspects of water involving water quantity, water quality, public health, and water–energy–food systems. As a faculty member at MSU for over 25 years, he has worked with students and colleagues to address societally relevant water issues. Examples include: the development of process-based, coupled, physical–chemical–biological models and their applications to understand and predict coastal water quality in the Great Lakes region of North America; quantifying the effects of droughts on crop yields in Kenya and in Cambodia in the Mekong River Basin; and integrated hydrologic modeling of watersheds in the U.S. and UK. He has published in journals like JGR Oceans, Limnology and Oceanography, Water Resources Research, and Journal of Hydrology. Prof. Mantha was also a Lilly Teaching Fellow at MSU.

Prof. Mantha’s research is funded by grants from agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the United States Department of the Interior. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the International Association for Great Lakes Research and a fellow of the Geological Society of America.

The ecological products and services of India’s coastal environments are increasingly being impacted by harmful algal blooms (HABs). Effective strategies for their mitigation call for an understanding of the key factors behind their formation. Prof. Mantha’s Fulbright-Nehru project is studying coastal water quality with a focus on HABs and the use of mathematical models and field observations to gain novel insights into important processes and drivers.

Asif Majid

Dr. Asif Majid is a theatre researcher, educator, maker, and consultant who scripts, stages, and traces local and global nodes of history, power, performance, race, and (de)coloniality, particularly by attending to the intersection of Islam and performance; devising community-based participatory theatre; and making improvisational music. Currently, he is assistant professor of theatre and human rights at the University of Connecticut where he is also affiliate faculty in anthropology; Asian and Asian American studies; interdisciplinary indigeneity, race, ethnicity, and politics; and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. He received his PhD in anthropology, media, and performance from The University of Manchester and his work has been funded by organizations like the Fulbright Commission, the Wallace Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Dr. Majid has served as an Arts Research with Communities of Color Fellow, Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow, and Lab Fellow. He has also published in numerous journals like The Drama Review, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, and Contemporary Theatre Review. His performance credits include association with The Kennedy Center and the Royal Exchange Theatre. His book, Making Muslimness: Race, Religion, and Performance in Contemporary Manchester, is forthcoming with Routledge in 2025. He can be found online at www.asifmajid.com.

Muharram commemorations of the death of Hussein ibn Ali – Shi’a Muslims’ third imam and Prophet Muhammad’s grandson – in Lucknow and Hyderabad represent India’s largest iterations of the world’s biggest, transnational, annual, public mourning ritual. In his Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Majid is conducting a performance-based study of Muharram processions and poetry via participant observations, interviews, and autoethnography to examine how these practices make, unmake, and remake Indian transreligious harmony. This research will result in scholarly/public essays and a book project involving: Shi’a, Sufi, and Hindu studies and performance studies; Muharram studies in the under-researched Indian context; and transnational comparisons of Muharram within Indian disaporas.

M.J. Levy Dickson

Ms. M.J. Levy Dickson is an artist and educator. She explores global interconnectedness through her artwork and discovers common denominators in the natural world. She finds in nature patterns of color, light, mood, subject, texture, and sound that transcend conventional boundaries, such as those between sight and sound, land and water, or time and space. These discoveries are reflected both in her artwork and her teaching.

Ms. Dickson’s body of work is deep and varied, and questions the boundaries between abstract, representational, and expressionist art forms. It was while illustrating the book Wildflowers of Nantucket, as well as many brochures for conservation organizations, that Ms. Dickson became aware of the global similarity between flowers and plants in nature and textile patterns. She has exhibited her installations with New York Parks and Recreation Art in the Parks Program, as well as with the Historic House Trust of New York. She has also worked with poets and musicians to foster combined sensory communication.

Ms. Dickson has held teaching positions as artist-in-residence in Tangier and with The Farm in Jaipur. She has designed and taught in the art studio at Michael Graves College, Wenzhou-Kean University, in China. She has also taught at MIT and the Boston Architectural Center, and was the first artist-in-residence at the Perkins School for the Blind. She is currently teaching in the Studio One Program of Fountain House in New York. She has always welcomed opportunities to work with people who have special needs.

Ms. Dickson received a diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; her BFA from Tufts University; and her MFA from Boston University.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Ms. Dickson is illustrating how people can be brought together through nature and art. Beginning her project from a woodblock printing studio in Jaipur, she is preparing a catalog of its design motifs by identifying each plant species and where it grows. She is also working with artists in India to create sculptures inspired by wildflowers using repurposed materials.

Vinay Lal

Dr. Vinay Lal is a cultural critic, writer, and professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He earned his BA and MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1982. This was followed by a year-long stint in Australia and India on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship studying cinema. He earned his PhD with distinction from the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Prof. Lal was the William R. Kenan Fellow (1992–93) at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University and immediately thereafter moved to UCLA where he has remained ever since.

Prof. Lal’s intellectual and research interests include comparative colonial histories, the politics of knowledge systems, cinema, cultures of sexuality, the global histories of nonviolence, and the thoughts of Mohandas Gandhi. He has authored and edited 21 books, including the two-volume Oxford Anthology of the Modern Indian City (2013); The History of History (2003); The Fury of Covid-19: The Politics, Histories, and Unrequited Love of the Coronavirus (2020); and Insurgency and the Artist: The Art of the Freedom Struggle in India (2022). Prof. Lal is a founding member of the Backwaters and Metaphysics Collective and the editor of the three volumes that emerged from this initiative. He is also the Academic India (Humanities) Delegate (2022–25) of the Oxford University Press. He maintains an extensive academic YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/dillichalo. He also writes frequently for the Indian Express and Open Magazine. His forthcoming books include two volumes of his collected papers on Gandhi.

Gandhi’s march to the sea at Dandi has long been recognized as a pivotal moment in India’s anti-colonial struggle. Prof. Lal’s Fulbright-Nehru study, based on archival, museum, and field research in India, is attempting to furnish a different understanding of this paradigmatic instance of nonviolent resistance in world history. The argument is that the Salt March can be read more productively – interculturally and intertextually – alongside Gandhi’s satyagraha march in South Africa (1913) and the traces it has left around the globe.