NITR student receives Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship

Rourkela: Manoj Hariharan, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela NITR) under the supervision of Prof Bhishma Tyagi, has received a highly competitive and prestigious Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship for Doctoral Research for 2022-2023. He receives a fully funded fellowship to work with any host institution situated in the US.

The first student of NIT Rourkela to receive the fellowship, Hariharan also became the first fellow of NITR to undertake research in climatology at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research - NCAR Earth System Laboratory, Colorado (US) for nine months.

Hariharan is one among the four who has received this prestigious fellowship from India this year (2022-23). The NCAR is the most advanced and well-equipped research institution for all atmospheric scientists across the globe. It is prestigious to get a chance to work with renowned scientists of NCAR.

The US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) administers the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowships. The objective is to promote a wider exchange of knowledge and professional talents by engaging scientific and technical by research scholars from both countries related to climate research and education. The fellowship is for those Indian scholars who are perusing a PhD at an Indian institution.

Recently, adding a few more achievements to the department, three former PhD students--Dr Kasturi Singh, Dr Sudhansu Sekhar Rath and Dr Bijay Kumar Guha--received post-doctoral fellowships to conduct research at Grantham Institute, the UK, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the US and the UAE University respectively.

Dr Singh is the first scholar from the department to receive the Imperial Climate and Energy Early Academic Fellowship as a part of the British Council Women in STEM programme. Dr Nand Kishore Reddy got post-doc positions in the Typhoon Warning Centre. Dr Dibyashakti Panda got a prestigious post-doctoral 'Humboldt Fellowship'. Konda Gopinadh, who has submitted his PhD thesis is also selected for a scientific position at Graz University of Technology Austria.

Congratulating the achievers, head of the department Jagabandhu Panda said, "the department has been set up to provide state-of-the-art education and research in earth, ocean, climate and planetary sciences. It will continue providing the best of education in earth and atmospheric sciences with an eye on strong fundamentals, research aptitude, devotion to the profession and high ethical standards, so that more of our students get this kind of opportunity and global recognition."