Page 13 - SAU Connect June 2019

The Quarterly Newsletter of South Asian University | Volume 3 Issue 4 June 2019

Achievements: Faculty, Students & Alumni

Faculty
Dr. Ritu Gaur, Associate Professor, FLSB has received an extramural fund titled “Studying water-soluble
(C70- and C60-) fullerene-porphyrin dyads as inhibitors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV):
synthesis, characterization and anti-HIV activity” from Department of Biotechnology, Government of
India. The work will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Devashish Sengupta of Assam University,
Silchar.

Dr. Ananda Mustafiz, Assistant Professor, FLSB, has received an extramural fund titled "Identification
and characterization of phytosulfokine receptor kinase gene family of rice vis-a-vis Arabidopsis and
elucidatingitsroleinabioticstresstolerance”fromDepartmentofBiotechnology,GovernmentofIndia.

Dr. Priti Saxena, Assistant Professor, FLSB, has received an extramural fund titled “Investigating
Functional Role of Polyketide Modifying Enzymes in Mycobacterial Biology” from Science and
EngineeringResearchBoard,DepartmentofScienceandTechnology,GovernmentofIndia.

AwardofDoctorofPhilosophy

Shamima Akter from Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology has been awarded the Doctor of
Philosophy on 2 May 2019 for her thesis titled "Exogenous ATP modulates inflammation through
synergistic effect on cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2)", completed under the supervision of Dr. Ravi Shankar
Akundi.
Students&Alumni

Surbhi Kesar, PhD Scholar, Faculty of Economics, is a co-organiser for the 'Development' stream of the
Asia Convening of Young Scholar Initiative (YSI), scheduled to be held on 12-14 August, 2019, in Vietnam
National University, Hanoi, Vietnam. The convening will provide a platform for scholars to present and
discuss their works across 16 streams in Economics. More than 250 young and senior scholars from Asia
and other parts of the world are expected to participate in the convening. YSI is an initiative of the
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), New York, which is aimed at fostering the development of
criticalapproachestoEconomics.

Ghulam Hazrat, an alumnus of 2015-17 batch in MA (Economics), has been appointed as Director of
NationalAccountsattheNationalStatisticsandInformationAuthorityofAfghanistan,IslamicRepublicof
Afghanistan.

RinniSharma,analumnusof2016-18batchinMA(Economics),willbejoiningUppsalaUniversity,Sweden,
forPhDinEconomicsonafellowship.

Vaishali Jain, an alumnus of 2016-18 batch in MA (Economics), will be joining University of California-
Riverside,USA,forPhDinEconomicsontheDean'sDistinguishedFellowship.

Pratyoosh Kashyap, an alumnus of 2015-17 batch in MA (Economics), will be joining Colorado State
University-FortCollins,USA,forPhDinAgriculturalandResourceEconomicswithscholarship.

Krishna Sharma, an alumnus of 2013-15 batch in MA (Economics), will be joining Southern Illinois
University-Carbondale,USA,forPhDinEconomics.

Rituraj Batth from Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, who was awarded her PhD degree in 2018,
has joined as postdoctoral fellow the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the Technical
UniversityofDenmark.

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