Students and Faculty

Purdue is currently home to 2,782 Indian students—876 undergraduates and 1,906 graduate, and 73 online students, 23.9% of international student body, up 3.1% from 2022. Purdue’s Indian-origin students hail from every major metropolitan area in India and from six continents. Indian students represent 21.9% of our international student body—up from 18.2% two years ago. Thanks to the generous contributions of Purdue alumni, since 2016, Purdue has offered merit-based scholarships to students from India, through the Indian Emerging Scholar fund.

Indian students play an active role in campus activities. There are dozens of student organizations in which students can become involved. For example, Indian Graduate Students at Purdue (IGRASP) is a campus cultural organization that aims to build a sense of community away from home for Indian graduate students at Purdue by easing the initial transition to U.S. university life while celebrating the major Indian holidays. Visit their Facebook page.

Purdue has several other clubs and associations that are geared toward Indian students and/or celebrate Indian culture. Check them out.

Student Profile

Advaitika Badruka

Advaitika Badruka is an undergraduate student pursuing a double-major in Supply Chain, Information, & Analytics and Marketing, coupled with a minor in Computer Science and Real Estate Finance. With a flair for written and verbal communication, she worked as a copywriter for several magazines in India and has had her work published in three magazines.

Advaitika believes in contributing to her community and is the treasurer of Boilermaker Food Rescue – an organization promoting a circular food-economy on the Purdue campus. She has a keen interest in design and art – having pursued it in high school – and serves as Treasurer and Head of Marketing at Fictional Projects Club of Purdue. Alongside her academic and extra-curricular endeavors, she juggles being a barista at Starbucks and writing her first novel.

As a proud Indian, she continues to serve her local community in India as the founder of the Chubby Cow Company – a small business that sells organic dairy products and produce. Advaitika hopes to continue thriving and looks forward to contributing to her communities at Purdue University and in India.

Faculty Profile

Vilas G. Pol

Vilas G. Pol completed his BSc (1994), MSc (1996), and MPhil (1999) degrees from the Pune University, India and earned his PhD from Bar-Ilan University, Israel (2005). He worked as a materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, IL (2007-2013) before moving to Purdue University in 2013 as an associate professor; in 2020, he became a full professor of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Pol has authored/co-authored 250+ research publications (h index 53) and is an inventor on 13 issued U.S. patents and 30+ applications. He has delivered hundreds of invited, keynote, and plenary talks worldwide including through TEDx.

Professor Pol directs ViPER (Vilas Pol’s Energy Research) laboratory, which focuses its research activities on the development of high-energy, density Li-ion, Li-S, sodium-ion, potassium-ion and solid-state batteries, their thermal safety, low temperature performance and upcycling. His areas of interest include synthesis and processing of novel materials utilizing sol-gel, microwave superheating, sonochemistry, solid-state, new Autogenic Chemical Reactions, and tailored electrolytes for their applications in energy storage. His research team collaborates with numerous Indian institutes including IIT Indore, IIT Hyderabad, Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, NCL, Pune, and more. His scientific breakthroughs have been featured in various media outlets including New Scientist, Discovery, Popular Science, ACS, MRS, DOE webpages and TV (PBS-NOVA, ABC7, Asia TV, WLFI and Univision) news.