Eleven MIT undergraduates, graduate college students, and alumni have received Fulbright grants to embark on initiatives abroad within the 2024-25 grant cycle. Two different college students had been supplied awards however declined them to pursue different alternatives.
Funded by the U.S. Division of State, the Fulbright U.S. Pupil Program presents year-long alternatives for American citizen college students and up to date alumni to conduct impartial analysis, pursue graduate research, or train English in over 140 international locations.
MIT has been a Fulbright High-Producing Establishment for 5 years in a row. MIT college students and alumni all in favour of making use of to the Fulbright U.S. Pupil Program ought to contact Julia Mongo, MIT Fulbright program advisor, within the Workplace of Distinguished Fellowships in Profession Advising and Skilled Improvement.
April Cheng is a junior finding out physics with a minor in arithmetic and is fast-tracked to graduate this spring. They may take their Fulbright analysis grant to the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, the place they are going to research totally different statistical strategies to deduce the growth charge of the universe from gravitational waves. They first developed an curiosity in gravitational waves and black holes on the MIT LIGO and Caltech LIGO labs, however their analysis spans a variety of matters in astrophysics, together with cosmology and quick radio bursts. Cheng is enthusiastic about physics schooling and is closely concerned in growing instructional supplies for highschool Science Olympiads. At MIT, they’re a member of the Physics Values Committee, the physics mentorship program, and the MIT Lion Dance crew. After Fulbright, Cheng will pursue a PhD in astrophysics at Princeton College, the place they’ve obtained the President’s Fellowship.
Grace McMillan is a senior majoring in literature and mechanical engineering with a focus in Russian language. As a Fulbright English Instructing Assistant Award recipient, she’s going to train at a college in Kazakhstan. McMillan’s curiosity in Central Asia was sparked by a Russian language immersion program she participated in throughout her sophomore summer time in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, funded by MIT Worldwide Science and Expertise Initiatives (MISTI). She is worked up to assist her college students be taught English to foster integration into the worldwide educational neighborhood. Throughout her time at MIT, McMillan has carried out analysis with school in nuclear science; earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences; and the Digital Humanities Lab. Exterior of teachers, she has been an energetic member of her sorority, Sigma Kappa, and has served on the MIT Well being Customers’ Advisory Council for 2 years. After Fulbright, McMillan hopes to attend regulation college, specializing in schooling reform.
Ryan McTigue will graduate this spring with a BS in physics and arithmetic and a focus in Spanish. With a Fulbright award to Spain, he’ll do analysis on the College of Valencia’s Institute of Molecular Science specializing in the physics of two-dimensional multiferroic nanodevices. He’s trying ahead to bettering his Spanish and getting the chance to dwell overseas. At MIT, McTigue grew to become all in favour of condensed matter physics analysis with the Checkelsky group, the place he centered on engineering supplies with flat bands that exhibited correlated electron results. Exterior of analysis, McTigue has been a mentor within the physics division’s mentoring program and a member of the heavyweight males’s crew crew. After his Fulbright grant, McTigue will start a PhD in physics at Princeton College.
Keith Murray ’22 graduated from MIT with a BS in computation and cognition and linguistics and philosophy. He’ll obtain his MEng diploma in computation and cognition this spring. As a Fulbright Hungary analysis grantee on the HUN-REN Wigner Analysis Centre for Physics, Murray will design generative AI fashions impressed by the first visible cortex with the purpose of constructing AI fashions extra interpretable. At MIT, Murray’s analysis experiences spanned from coaching mice to carry out navigation duties in digital actuality to theorizing about how neurons may compute modular arithmetic. He was additionally a member of the boys’s heavyweight crew crew and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After Fulbright, Murray will pursue a PhD in neuroscience at Princeton College.
Maaya Prasad ’22 accomplished her undergraduate schooling at MIT with levels in each electrical engineering and artistic writing and can graduate this month with an MS in mechanical and ocean engineering. Her thesis analysis focuses on microplastic detection utilizing optical sensing. Prasad’s Fulbright fellowship will take her to Mauritius, an East African island nation positioned within the Indian Ocean. Right here, she’s going to proceed her grasp’s analysis on the College of Mauritius and can work with native researchers to implement a microplastic survey system. Whereas at MIT, Prasad joined the varsity crusing crew with no prior expertise. Her time spent on the water led her to pursue marine analysis at MIT Sea Grant, and she or he finally earned an honorable point out to the 2023 All-American Crusing Group. After Fulbright, Prasad hopes to pursue a PhD in utilized ocean engineering.
Anusha Puri is a senior majoring in organic engineering. Her Fulbright award will take her to Lausanne, Switzerland, the place she’s going to conduct most cancers immunology analysis on the Swiss Institute for Experimental Most cancers Analysis. At MIT, Puri’s work within the Weinberg Lab centered on understanding mechanisms that drive resistance of breast most cancers to immunotherapy. On campus, she based and serves as president of MIT’s premiere stand-up comedy group, Stand-Up CoMITy, leads MIT’s Bhangra dance crew, and is the editor-in-chief of the MIT Undergraduate Analysis Journal. She appears ahead to participating with instructing outreach and practising her French in Switzerland. After her Fulbright grant, she plans to pursue a PhD in biomedical science.
Olivia Rosenstein will graduate this spring with a BS in physics and a minor in French. Her Fulbright will take her to ENS Paris-Saclay in Palaiseau, France, the place she’ll deepen her schooling in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. At MIT, Rosenstein has labored in Professor Mark Vogelsberger’s group researching fashions of galaxy formation and the early universe, and in Professor Richard Fletcher’s group on an erbium-lithium experiment to research quantum many-body dynamics in a degenerate combination. In France, she’s going to broaden on the talents she developed in Fletcher’s lab by contributing to a challenge utilizing optical tweezer arrays to check dipolar interactions. After Fulbright, Rosenstein plans to return to america to pursue a PhD in experimental AMO at Caltech.
Jennifer Schugwillreceive this spring an MEng diploma within the Local weather, Atmosphere, and Sustainability monitor throughout the MIT Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Throughout her Fulbright yr in Italy, she’s going to conduct analysis on carbon storage within the Venice lagoon on the College of Padua. Schug is worked up to construct upon her analysis with the Terrer Lab at MIT, the place she is at present investigating the effectiveness of forestation as a carbon sequestration technique. She additionally appears ahead to bettering her Italian language expertise and studying about Italian historical past and tradition. Earlier than starting Fulbright this fall, Schug will research ecological preservation in Sicily this summer time by way of an MIT-Italy collaboration with the College of Catania. After Fulbright, she hopes to proceed researching nature-based options as local weather change mitigation methods.
Vaibhavi Shah ’21 earned a BS in organic engineering and in science, expertise, and society at MIT, the place she was named a Goldwater Scholar. She is now a medical scholar at Stanford College. As a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellow in Public Well being, Shah will use each her computational and humanities backgrounds to research sociocultural elements underlying traumatic surgical accidents in Nepal. Whereas at MIT, she was on the manager board of GlobeMed and the Society of Girls Engineers, and she or he hopes to make use of these experiences to amplify various voices in drugs whereas on her journey to changing into a neurosurgeon-scientist. After Fulbright, Shah will full her closing yr of medical college.
Charvi Sharma is a senior finding out pc science and molecular biology with a minor in theater arts. As a Fulbright English instructing assistant in Spain, she is worked up to have interaction in cross-cultural alternate whereas furthering her expertise as a trainer and as a frontrunner. Along with instructing, Sharma appears ahead to immersing herself within the nation’s vibrant traditions, bettering her Spanish proficiency, and delving into the native arts and dance scene. At MIT, by way of World Instructing Labs Spain and her roles as a dynaMIT mentor, an affiliate advisor, and a captain and president of her dance groups Mirchi and Nritya, Sharma has served as a trainer of each STEM and dance. Her ardour for making a distinction in her neighborhood can be evident by way of her work with Boston Medical Middle’s Autism Program by way of the PKG Public Service Middle and as an undergraduate most cancers researcher within the Yaffe Lab. After Fulbright, Sharma plans to pursue an MD and, in the end, a profession as a clinician-scientist.
Isabella Witham is a senior majoring in organic engineering. As a recipient of the Fulbright U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative Award, she’s going to conduct analysis at Seoul Nationwide College’s Biomimetic Supplies and Stem Cell Engineering Lab. Her work will contain creating biomimetic scaffolds for pancreatic cell transplantation to deal with kind I diabetes. Whereas in South Korea, Witham goals to enhance her language expertise and discover cultural websites and cities. At MIT, she labored within the Belcher Lab on nanoparticle formulations, was a tutor for MIT’s Girls’s Expertise Program, and volunteered as a Medlink. After her Fulbright fellowship, she plans to pursue a PhD in organic engineering.
