Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Pampa Panwar

Prof. Pampa Panwar is a Professor at IICD, Indian Institute of Crafts & Design, Jaipur, Rajasthan. Before completing her master’s from Slade School of Fine Art, University College London under Commonwealth Scholarship in 1993, Prof. Panwar earned her MFA from M.S. University, Vadodara and her BFA from Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan.

On a French Government Scholarship, Prof. Panwar was artist-in-residence at CAMAC, Centre d’Art, Marnay-sur-Seine, France and she did a Swiss Arts Council’s research residency at Lucerne School of Art & Design, Switzerland. She was also awarded a Senior Fellowship by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She conceptualized, directed, costume-designed and performed a dance-based video art – Gently, into the other side of time, which received the National Exhibition Award – Senior Category at 29th National Exhibition of Contemporary Art, South Central Zone Cultural Centre, Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Prof. Panwar aims to explore the importance of contemporary crafts as a continuing narrative with focus on narrative quilts, and how craft has merged into art and vice-versa in the contemporary context of both India and the US. By studying the case of the Gee’s Bend quilters of Alabama, her project considers the following questions: how have these quilts come to define a community and expression of a culture? Is it possible to apply the classic Indian understanding of nine effective states of Navarasa within an American context? Narrative quilts serve as a lens for exploring these questions. Ultimately, with the help of her research, she plans to develop an inter-disciplinary visual work at her host Institution.

Vinod Narayanan

Dr. Vinod Narayanan earned his Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, and is currently Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat. He joined IIT Gandhinagar in 2009, where he supervised two Ph.D. students and twenty master’s students.

Dr. Narayanan’s research expertise is in theoretical and computational fluid dynamics. His research interests are hydrodynamic stability and transition to turbulence, fully developed turbulence, mixing and combustion in high-speed flows. His team has developed various computational models in hydrodynamic stability and flow control. He has authored more than 20 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and more than 50 articles in conference proceedings.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Narayanan aims to develop numerical models and experimental techniques for suspensions in isotropic and wall-bounded turbulent flows. This project fundamentally investigates the fluid mechanics of suspension, its basic properties, and its effects on large-scale dynamics, using a combination of high-resolution numerical simulations and state-of-the-art laboratory experiments.

Ashish Kumar Srivastava

Dr. Ashish Kumar Srivastava is Scientific Officer-G at Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. In addition, he is permanent faculty at Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai and visiting faculty at the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, University of Mumbai.

His research work is focused on developing strategies for enhancing crop resilience towards different abiotic stresses. The stimulatory potential of thiourea has been demonstrated for enhancing stress tolerance and crop productivity through lab and small-scale field experiments. Further, using the “multi-omics” based systems biology and genome-wide association mapping, Dr. Srivastava has delineated the molecular basis of thiourea-mediated action. In addition, he has worked on peaceful application of radiation and demonstrated that gamma-irradiated chitosan can boost the productivity of different crops under realistic field conditions. He is a recipient of various national and international awards/fellowships, including Young Scientist Award of National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad, 2018; Newton-Bhabha International Grant from DBT-BBSRC, 2018; President International Fellowship from Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, 2016; Young Scientist Medal from Indian National Science Academy (INSA), 2014; Young Scientist Award from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), 2014 and EMBO Short-Term Fellowship, 2011. He has also edited books for reputable publishers, like Wiley and Springer.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence tenure, Dr. Srivastava is working to reduce arsenic accumulation in rice, using a combination of chemical and genetic approaches. The findings will help in developing arsenic-free rice, which is safer for human consumption.

Amit Kumar

Dr. Amit Kumar is an Assistant Professor of Geoinformatics at the Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi. He earned his Ph.D. in remote sensing technology from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. His research focuses on urban ecology and sustainability, and anthropogenic and climate change impacts on urban and forest ecosystems. Some of his current projects include DBT-Mapping and quantitative assessment of plant resources in Central India; R&D projects sponsored by Space Application Centre (ISRO) under AVIRIS-NG; L&S band SAR-NISAR; GISAT missions; a project sponsored by Columbia University; and IISc, Bengaluru coordinated Long-term Ecological Observatories program of forest dynamics and soil processes developed under the Climate Change Action Plan of MoEFCC at pan India scale. Dr. Kumar is also a member of the IUCN-Commission on Ecosystem Management, South Asia and Global Forests Biodiversity Initiatives, USA, as well as a recipient of Fellow and Young Scientist awards of SSCE, New Delhi, SERB-ITSS, Government of India among others. He has published more than 100 research articles in different journals and books of international repute, including Nature Ecology and Evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Science of The Total Environment, and CITIES.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Kumar is building an improved global forest above-ground biomass map in the Anthropocene using large-scale forest inventory data, high-resolution satellite observations, and machine learning techniques at Purdue University. His research will help in developing strategies to accomplish SDGs 13 and 15, which aim at sustainable forest management, by providing insights into the global carbon budget within diverse forest ecosystems.

Prabakar Krishna Murthy

Dr. Prabakar Krishna Murthy is a scientist at Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from Osmania University, Hyderabad in the year 2007 and joined IGCAR in the same year through the prestigious Dr. K. S. Krishnan Research Associate scheme.

His current research interests include microfabrication, microcantilever-based sensors, and semiconductor neutron detectors. He has extensively worked on the design, fabrication, and characterization of surface-enhanced SiO2 microcantilevers for ultrafast and ultrasensitive relative humidity (RH) sensing applications. Using this sensor, his group could demonstrate real-time monitoring of RH variation during human breath cycles. Dr. Krishna Murthy has also studied the photo-induced deflection in Au/Si microcantilevers for ultrasensitive temperature sensing applications and capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducers for NDE applications. He has published 38 research articles in national and international journals. He is also Assistant Professor in physics at Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai and has guided two Ph.D. students and several graduate/postgraduate students.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Krishna Murthy is developing a standoff (remote), ultrasensitive and extremely selective detection method for lung cancer by sensing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released in the human exhaled breath using photothermal cantilever deflection spectroscopy.

Tushar Kanti Dutta

Dr. Tushar Kanti Dutta is working as Senior Scientist at the Division of Nematology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Uttarbanga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKVV), Cooch Behar, West Bengal. He obtained his master’s (2005-2007) and doctoral (2007-2010) degrees from IARI. During his doctoral program, he visited Rothamsted Research, UK for 10 months under the aegis of UKIERI fellowship funded by the British Council. He has been a regular faculty member at IARI since the last 12 years. His research interests include investigating the molecular basis of plant-nematode interaction using RNA interference and CRISPR-Cas9 strategies. Additionally, he has characterized a number of novel bacterial toxins from insect-parasitizing bacteria that symbiotically associate with nematodes.

He has been conferred with Associateship from the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and has received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award (ICAR) in addition to several other young scientist awards from different academic societies.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Dutta aims to exploit a multiplex CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit, targeting multiple susceptibility or S genes, to confer root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) resistance in model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato via loss of host compatibility. Knowledge gained about the function of S genes in nematode-infected plants can be translated into future research endeavors on other plant-pathogen interaction models.

Upendra Harbola

Dr. Upendra Harbola is Associate Professor of Chemistry at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He received his Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. He was a Marie-Curie Senior Fellow at the University of Freiburg, Germany. His research interests are aimed at formulating theoretical models to study transport processes in molecular junctions, photoionisation dynamics in molecules and quantum effects in supercooled liquids. He has authored more than 60 publications in internationally reputed journals.

Dr. Harbola’s Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence project focuses on understanding how and in what ways a quantum source of light can be used to control transport in molecular junctions. Quantum light consists of photons that are entangled with one another and has been used to explore non-classical responses from molecules at equilibrium. Interaction of quantum light with molecular junctions, which operate in out-of-equilibrium conditions, pose interesting challenges that are explored in this study.

Kashif Hanif

Dr. Kashif Hanif is a Principal Scientist in the Department of Pharmacology at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He received his postgraduate degree (1998-2000) from Jamia Hamdard and completed his Ph.D. (2001-2006) from CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi. He has been a faculty member at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute since 2006. His primary research interest revolves around the patho-physiology of Pulmonary Hypertension (PH), which is quite common at high altitude and in lung disorders, especially in women. He developed the rodent model of PH and standardized techniques to study right ventricular pressure and pulmonary vasorelaxation. Over the past decade, he has explored the role of Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1, Fatty Acid Synthase, Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase -2 (MK2) and estrogen receptors in PH.

Dr. Hanif was awarded the Dr. DN Prasad Memorial Oration Award, Indian Council of Medical Research in 2019 and Prof. Suresh C Tyagi Award, Indian Academy of Cardiovascular Research in 2017 for his work in PH. He has received six competitive research grants from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM).

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Hanif aims to understand right ventricle hypertrophy, a common problem of PH in lung diseases in women. Therefore, he is developing a rodent model of right ventricle hypertrophy by pulmonary artery banding (PAB). He is further exploring the role of estrogen receptors in right ventricle hypertrophy by using Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). This approach will help to clinically repurpose SERMs for cardio-pulmonary complications in women.

Srubabati Goswami

Prof. Srubabati Goswami, Senior Professor at the Physical Research Laboratory, Gujarat, is an internationally acclaimed neutrino physicist and is recognized as a world expert in her field of research. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta in 1998. She has received several awards, including the Humboldt fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the J.C. Bose National fellowship of Departmental Science and Technology, India among others. She is an elected fellow of all the three science academies in India as well as The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

The Standard Model (SM) is exceptionally successful in describing the properties of the fundamental particles. However, Prof. Goswami is currently interested in pursuing theoretical motivations and experimental observations that tread beyond the SM. Among these, neutrino oscillations, observed in terrestrial experiments, which requires neutrinos to be massive and mix amongst different flavors, provided compelling evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). Apart from oscillations, there can be several other signatures of BSM physics, including non-standard interactions, existence of extra neutrino species, and decay of neutrinos. The signatures of dark matter can also be looked into in various neutrino experiments.

During her tenure as a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence scholar, Prof. Goswami is working on exploring BSM physics in neutrino experiments, specifically in the context of a liquid Argon detector, as in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. The novelty of the project is to consider both the beam and the atmospheric neutrinos, and to investigate the synergy between these in enhancing the sensitivity of the experiment.

Parikshit Gogoi

Dr. Parikshit Gogoi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Nowgong College (Autonomous), Nagaon, Assam. He obtained his M.Sc. in chemistry from Cotton University, Guwahati in 2001, M.Tech. in petroleum refining and petrochemicals from Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh in 2003, and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat in 2010. Before joining Nowgong College, he worked in the Department of Chemistry at IIT Guwahati as technical staff. His current research interests are biomass-based chemicals, fuels and materials, natural products chemistry, and nanomaterials synthesis for catalytic applications.

He received the INSA Summer Research Fellowship for Teachers in 2014 from the Indian National Academy of Science, Bengaluru, and worked at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad. In 2016, he was awarded the Raman Fellowship for Post Doctoral Research at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, by the University Grants Commission, and he contributed significantly to biomass conversion research. In 2021, he was awarded the Dulal Chandra Goswami Memorial Research Award by Nowgong College (Autonomous).

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Gogoi aims for the catalytic conversion of biomass/lignin bio-oils to aromatics and fuel range hydrocarbons using polyoxometallate catalysts. For upgrading bio-oil to high-valued hydrocarbon fuel or chemicals, catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO), an energy-intensive process that requires high temperature and hydrogen gas pressure, is essential. Dr. Gogoi is working on developing catalyst systems to achieve HDO at low temperatures and moderate hydrogen pressure. This process will bring a new understanding of effective utilization of lignin in a biorefinery, benefitting its economy.