Gandhinagar: In yet another outstanding feat by alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), Rahul Kumar, who completed his PhD in Mathematics from IITGN in 2021 under the supervision of Prof Atul Dixit, has bagged the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2022-23. As a part of this fellowship, Rahul Kumar, who is currently working as a postdoc fellow at the IBS Center for Geometry and Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea, will get to spend two years at the Penn State University, USA, to advance his research.
Rahul’s PhD research at IITGN focused on Analytic Number Theory and Special Functions, and he is further working on it at the POSTECH, South Korea. The Department of Mathematics at Penn State University, where he will be working for two years starting from November 2022, is one of the best departments in the USA in his area of research.
Expressing his thoughts on this achievement, Rahul Kumar said, “I am delighted to know that I have been selected for this prestigious fellowship. I sincerely thank USIEF for selecting me for this fellowship. I also thank Prof Bruce Berndt, my PhD guide Prof Atul Dixit, Prof Balasubramanian, and Prof Akshaa Vatwani for writing recommendation letters for me. I express my gratitude to Prof Winnie Li from Penn State University for supporting my application as a host. I am excited to visit and work with the faculty there. This two-year fellowship will provide me a golden opportunity to broaden my research area and build new academic collaborations there, which will help me throughout my career. Apart from academic benefits, this visit will also allow me to gain insights into American society and its culture, which is also one of the aims of this fellowship.”
Sharing his thoughts Prof Atul Dixit, Associate Professor of Mathematics at IITGN and PhD supervisor of Rahul, said, “I am very glad that Rahul will be visiting the Department of Mathematics at the Penn State University through this fellowship. It will add a new dimension to his research work and help him grow as a researcher and an individual.”
It is also worth noting that currently, there are only two other fellows with the Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the area of Mathematics in the USA, and one of them is again an Early Career Fellow from IITGN.
As a recipient of this fellowship, Rahul will also receive J-1 visa support and round-trip air travel, a monthly stipend, a professional allowance, and accident and sickness support as per the US government guidelines. Besides, the fellowship may also provide him with a dependent allowance and international travel for one accompanying eligible dependent.
The esteemed fellowship, instituted by the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF), Fulbright Commission in India, is awarded only to a handful of candidates every year after a rigorous application and interview process. This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship is designed to provide opportunities to the talented early-career Indian faculty and researchers to strengthen their research capacities and access some of the finest resources in their areas of interest.