Five Indians named 2012 Rhodes Scholars

Updated on: Saturday, November 26, 2011

Five Indians are among 83 students choosen for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship for the year 2012.

Apart from them, five Indian-Americans students and a Tibetan are among those selected for the scholarship.

The students who are selected from India are: Vrinda Bhandari from National Law School of India University, Bangalore; Akul Dayal from IIT New Delhi; Nikita Kaushal from the University of Pune; Amit Kumar from IIT Roorkee; and Sujit Thomas from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi.

Indian-American students Ishan Nath, Aysha Bagchi, Nabeel Gillani, Anand Habib, Mohit Agrawal and Tenzin Seldon, an emerging leader in the Tibetan diaspora, are selected from the US for the scholarship.

The selected students will now begin courses at the Oxford University next year across the entire range of Oxford's academic disciplines.

Vrinda Bhandari is completing the fifth and final year of her law degree.

Driven into the study of law by her keen interest in using the legal system as a tool for social change in India, she has already published a number of articles.

Besides her course-work, Vrinda has acted as Chief Editor of the Socio-Legal Review and Editor for the Indian Journal for Alternate Dispute Resolution.

Akul Dayal is in the final year of the BTech, focusing on Thermodynamics and Manufacturing Practices.

He hopes to undertake research in aero-thermal engineering at Oxford and longer-term would like to contribute to developing and designing aerospace technologies.

Nikita Kausahl completed her Master's in Geology in 2010, specialising in Quaternary Geology and Climate Change.

Her fascination with the beauty of nature, and consequent love of the Earth Sciences, led to her travelling across India as an instructor for a wildlife and trekking organization, and working for ACWADAM - the Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management - a not-for-profit organization which develops solutions for groundwater problems.

Amit Kumar is in the final year of the five-year Integrated MSc in Chemistry.

Akul is a keen writer and reader of Hindi poems and articles. In 2008 he was selected as one of the top 10 Hindi poets of Uttarakhand.

Sujit Thomas is in his final year of a Master's in Sociology. In Oxford he hopes to focus on modern British and European history.

His long term ambition is to mentor, research and develop the facilities and resources necessary for students to study European history in India.

Elliot F Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said Rhodes Scholarships are "the oldest and best known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates."

Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England, and may allow funding in some instances for four years.

Mohit Agrawal from Indiana received his BA in Mathematics at Princeton and is currently reading for the Master's in Economic Policy Evaluation and Planning at the National University of Ireland.

Aysha N Bagchi from Texas graduated from Stanford earlier this year, with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and History and Honours in Ethics in Society.

She is now studying at the Rothberg International School in Jerusalem.

Nabeel Gillani from Virginia is a senior at Brown majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science.

He has served as a research assistant on a biotechnology project, as a Microsoft project manager, and is conducting research in Brown's Optimisation Laboratory on electricity restoration for disaster relief.

Anand R Habib graduated from Stanford in June with a B S in Biology and honours in International Security Studies.

He is currently on a global health fellowship in Haiti where he is working in a variety of community health programs.

Ishan Nath from Georgia is a senior at Stanford where he will receive Bachelors degrees in Economics and Earth Systems, and with a minor in Mathematics.

His senior thesis focusses on clean energy and a national cap-and-trade emissions trading system.

Tenzin Seldon from is a senior at Stanford University majoring in honors Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, with a Feminist Studies minor.

A Truman scholar, she is an emerging leader in the Tibetan diaspora, having served as Regional Coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet and executive member of San Francisco Team Tibet.

Five Indians named 2012 Rhodes Scholars

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