Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship 2025 Awarded to SPPU Faculty Member
Pune, 12th November 2025: Dr. Rajani Panchang, UGC Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence 2025.
As part of the nine-month fellowship beginning in mid-November 2025, Dr. Panchang will collaborate with distinguished marine scientist Prof. Pamela Hallock and will be hosted by Dr. Michael Martinez-Colon at Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida.
During her tenure in the United States, Dr. Panchang will focus on quantifying how marine bio-calcifiers, particularly coral reef foraminifera, respond to ocean acidification. Her research will involve both field studies in the Florida Reef Tract and controlled laboratory experiments. The project will also integrate atmospheric data and biological samples collected since the 1980s to assess long-term environmental changes.
Explaining the significance of her research, Dr. Panchang said that understanding the resilience or vulnerability of shelled marine organisms to acidification caused by rising anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions could help shape realistic models of biological impact, supporting informed financial and policy decisions for ocean sustainability.
She added that empowering local youth to identify biological responses to ocean acidification offers a sustainable approach to marine monitoring, saving time, costs, and carbon emissions typically associated with advanced analytical methods.
The Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship is administered by the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF). It enables Indian faculty and researchers to conduct climate-related research in the U.S. for 8 to 12 months, fostering long-term collaboration between the two countries to address climate change challenges.
Dr. Panchang is the only Earth scientist from India and one of four researchers nationwide selected for this fellowship in 2025. She earned her PhD from the CSIR–National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, in 2008 and has previously served as a Woman Scientist at the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, and as a SERB Fast-Track Scientist at IISER Pune under various programs of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Her academic achievements include the Mani Shankar Shukla Gold Medal (2015) from the Palaeontological Society of India and research fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), CSIR, Lila Poonawalla Foundation, and Hindustan Unilever. She was also felicitated by former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2005 for being an outstanding LILA Fellow in Oceanography.
