Five South Asian Students Among Inaugural Cohort of UH-Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows
- The fellowship program is funded by Chevron, and supports graduate students’ research efforts through a one-year, a $12,000 fellowship, and the opportunity to engage with subject matter experts at the company.
Five South Asian students are among University of Houston’s inaugural cohort of UH-Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows. Aparajita Datta, Chirag Goel, Meghana Idamakanti, Swapnil Sharma, and Kripa Adhikari are among eight selected fellows “who are actively involved in innovative energy-related research across the campus,” according to a University of Houston press release. “They showcase a broad range of energy-related research at UH and their work focuses on scalable innovations for transformational impact on the energy industry,” the press release said.
The fellowship program is funded by Chevron, and “supports graduate students’ research efforts through a one-year, $12,000 fellowship which includes mentoring by faculty experts and the opportunity to engage with subject matter experts at Chevron,” the university release added.
Aparajita Datta is a political science Ph.D. candidate whose research focuses on the intersection of energy, climate and redistributive policies in the U.S. along with socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity in American politics. “Her submitted proposal focuses on the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a redistributive welfare policy designed to help households pay their energy bills,” according to the university press release. She has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in India; and master’s degrees in energy management and public policy from UH.
Chirag Goel, a doctoral student, “has long been fascinated by the nuclear fusion reactions that power the sun and stars and has been driven to replicate a similar process on Earth. His research proposal stems from this passion,” the university said.” His research focuses on upscaling high-performance ReBCO (Rare-earth Barium Copper Oxide) HTS tapes and optimizing manufacturing processes. The goal is to enable the widespread application of HTS in clean energy systems.”
Meghana Idamakanti is a third-year Ph.D. student in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research focuses on the material aspects and intrinsic kinetic analysis of electrically heated steam methane reforming for cleaner hydrogen production. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2020. Her past research experience includes bio-oil synthesis, studying its properties and upgradability. Before coming to UH, Idamakanti worked as a process engineering intern at Glochem Industries in India, contributing to maintenance and equipment testing. She hopes to contribute to sustainable energy initiatives, focusing on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.
Swapnil Sharma is a Ph.D. student in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His work with Professor Vemuri Balakotaiah, funded by the U.S Department of Energy, focuses on thermal modelling of large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tanks. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in India in 2019. He co-founded CovRelief with two friends in 2021, a web-based non-profit app that tracked the availability of hospital beds, oxygen suppliers, updated list of state helpline numbers and more. It amassed millions of hits and helped fellow citizens get resources during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Previously, he worked at Sterlite Technologies Limited or STL, an optical fiber cable company, in India for two years.
Kripa Adhikari is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering. AT UH she has been engaged in pioneering research involving thermal regulation and its practical implications in real-world scenarios and in the field of emerging green energy solutions, specifically enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). She has experience with computational science utilizing mathematical principles, data analysis, and natural language processing with some project experience in machine learning and deep learning. She has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. She previously worked as a civil engineer with the Nepal Reconstruction Authority.
(Top photo, eight University of Houston graduate students were selected as 2023-24 UH Chevron Graduate Energy Fellows (L to R): Kripa Adhikari, Aparajita Datta, Chirag Goel, Meghana Idamakanti (top row), Erin Picton, Mohamad Sarhan, Swapnil Sharma, and Larkin Spires (bottom row). Photo credit: University of Houston).