Fulbright celebrates 75th anniversary of the program and its mission to forge lasting connections.
The United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) has announced the opening of its annual competition for Fulbright-Nehru and other Fulbright fellowships for the 2022-23 academic year.
Outstanding Indian students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply, said an announcement by the US embassy in India.
Selection committees comprising American and Indian subject-matter experts and Fulbright alumni award these fellowships to students, academics, teachers, policy makers, administrators, and professionals in a variety of disciplines across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields.
Alumni of exchange and scholarship programs administered by USIEF have demonstrated strong leadership in their academic disciplines and professions, the announcement said citing the experiences of three scholars.
Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellow Gowthaman Ranganathan shares that “The generous support from the US and Indian governments made it possible for me to pursue my LLM in the United States.”
“My time at the University of Texas at Austin was a life-changing experience,” he was quoted as saying.
“In addition to excellent classes and my association with research centers at the law school, I benefitted from taking courses in history and government, which broadened my perspectives on law.”
For Akarsh Verma, the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellowship at Pennsylvania State University enabled him to “conduct research that will help improve capability to desalinate water.
“The exposure to high-quality research and academic infrastructure in the United States helped me gain a global exposure to tackle engineering problems,” he wrote.
Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence scholar Abid Banday “made new contacts and learned novel techniques for target-specific chemotherapy of cancer cells using antibodies as drug delivery vehicles.”
“This will enable me to forge collaborations that can help in solving issues surrounding global public health,” he wrote. “On a personal front, the interactions with the local community have helped me understand the ways I can contribute to make the world a better place.”
Funded by the US Department of State and India’s Ministry of External Affairs, such exchanges have helped bring the people of India and the United States closer together through opportunities that enrich fellows’ academic, research, teaching, and professional capacity, the announcement said.
This year, the Fulbright program participants, partners, and friends celebrate the 75th anniversary of the US government’s worldwide Fulbright program and its mission to forge lasting connections, counter misunderstandings, and help people and nations work together toward common goals, the announcement said.
This celebration renews USIEF’s commitment to fulfill Senator J. William Fulbright’s goal of bringing “a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs,” as well as increasing “the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship,” it said.
For more details, visit www.usief.org.in.
Applicants may also send any queries to ip@usief.org.in or contact one of the USIEF offices in New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, or Mumbai.
Prospective applicants from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and the Union Territories of Lakshadweep Islands, Puducherry, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands can write to usiefchennai@usief.org.in.