To mark the late President APJ Abdul Kalam’s birth anniversary, the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa has announced the fifth Kalam Postgraduate (PhD) Fellowship. The Fellowship, named in memory of his 2012 visit to USF, is offered to students who have graduated (or are in the process of graduating) from an Indian university in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programme.
The PhD programme can be applied for online, by submitting a research proposal in the areas of applied physics, applied anthropology, business PhD programmes, microbiology, cell biology, molecular biology, chemistry, computer science & engineering, engineering, criminology, integrative biology, marine science and psychology.
The fellowship which is awarded to one student every academic year, waives off tuition fee for all four years, covers health insurance and also provides a stipend of $22,000 for 12 months.
Avijit Sengupta of IIT Bombay, Veena Subramanian of the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and Arjun Kadian from the University of Pune are three students who were awarded this fellowship and are presently pursuing their research at USF.
The University of South Florida, which was established in 1956 in Tampa, includes three, separately accredited institutions— USF; USF St. Petersburg; and USF Sarasota-Manatee. It caters to over 49,000 students, including about a 1000 Indian students. With an an annual budget of $1.6 billion and an annual economic impact of $4.4 billion, the USF system is amongst the Top 30 institutions known for research expenditures among public universities, as per the National Science Foundation.
