Eleven MIT undergraduates, graduate college students, and alumni have received Fulbright grants to embark on tasks abroad within the 2024-25 grant cycle. Two different college students have been supplied awards however declined them to pursue different alternatives.
Funded by the U.S. Division of State, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program affords year-long alternatives for American citizen college students and up to date alumni to conduct impartial analysis, pursue graduate research, or educate English in over 140 nations.
MIT has been a Fulbright Prime-Producing Establishment for 5 years in a row. MIT college students and alumni thinking about making use of to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar 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 may examine completely different statistical methods to deduce the enlargement 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 captivated with 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 staff. 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 is going to educate 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 season in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, funded by MIT Worldwide Science and Know-how Initiatives (MISTI). She is worked up to assist her college students be taught English to foster integration into the worldwide educational group. 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. Outdoors of teachers, she has been an energetic member of her sorority, Sigma Kappa, and has served on the MIT Well being Shoppers’ Advisory Council for 2 years. After Fulbright, McMillan hopes to attend legislation faculty, 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 wanting ahead to enhancing his Spanish and getting the chance to stay overseas. At MIT, McTigue grew to become thinking about condensed matter physics analysis with the Checkelsky group, the place he centered on engineering supplies with flat bands that exhibited correlated electron results. Outdoors of analysis, McTigue has been a mentor within the physics division’s mentoring program and a member of the heavyweight males’s crew staff. 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 objective of creating 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 would possibly compute modular arithmetic. He was additionally a member of the lads’s heavyweight crew staff 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 is 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 staff with no prior expertise. Her time spent on the water led her to pursue marine analysis at MIT Sea Grant, and she or he ultimately 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 is 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 staff, 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 is going to develop on the abilities she developed in Fletcher’s lab by contributing to a challenge utilizing optical tweezer arrays to review dipolar interactions. After Fulbright, Rosenstein plans to return to the USA to pursue a PhD in experimental AMO at Caltech.
Jennifer Schugwillreceive this spring an MEng diploma within the Local weather, Surroundings, and Sustainability observe inside the MIT Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Throughout her Fulbright 12 months in Italy, she is 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 the moment investigating the effectiveness of forestation as a carbon sequestration technique. She additionally appears ahead to enhancing her Italian language expertise and studying about Italian historical past and tradition. Earlier than starting Fulbright this fall, Schug will examine ecological preservation in Sicily this summer season 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 components 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 turning into a neurosurgeon-scientist. After Fulbright, Shah will full her remaining 12 months of medical faculty.
Charvi Sharma is a senior finding out laptop 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 trade whereas furthering her expertise as a instructor and as a frontrunner. Along with instructing, Sharma appears ahead to immersing herself within the nation’s vibrant traditions, enhancing her Spanish proficiency, and delving into the native arts and dance scene. At MIT, by way of International 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 instructor of each STEM and dance. Her ardour for making a distinction in her group can also be evident by way of her work with Boston Medical Heart’s Autism Program by way of the PKG Public Service Heart 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 is 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 sort 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 Know-how Program, and volunteered as a Medlink. After her Fulbright fellowship, she plans to pursue a PhD in organic engineering.
