Applications open for Purdue Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellows program

Applications for the Purdue Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellows (OVDF) program are being accepted through Nov. 18. The program aims to provide meaningful international research experiences for PhD students enrolled in top Indian institutions while fostering collaborations among researchers to strengthen institutional partnerships between Purdue and institutions in India.

Qualifying PhD students must be jointly nominated by a Purdue faculty member and a faculty member at the Indian partner institution. In addition to covering the visiting scholars’ travel expenses and stipends for their year at Purdue, the program also covers travel costs for the Purdue and home advisor to spend two to four weeks visiting each other’s labs. Complete application instructions for this competitive program are available on the Purdue-India Partnership website. 

Purdue began hosting PhD students from India through OVDF in 2019. Thanks to an agreement between Purdue and India’s Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), the annual program, now in its third edition, has facilitated the research of 74 fellows from 38 leading Indian institutions. Purdue is the only U.S. university to host this prestigious scientific mobility program. 

Thirty-five PhD students from 20 institutions across India involved with OVDF participated in a research symposium on Oct. 20 in Purdue’s Discovery Learning Research Center. In lightning-talk format, each fellow was allotted two minutes and one slide to share the research they have been working on at Purdue over the past year on diverse scientific challenges ranging from intelligent health monitoring of deep space habitats to autonomous robotic systems for complex medical procedures.

India’s Department of Science and Technology scientist Praveenkumar Somasundaram, who oversees OVDF at SERB, and SERB’s director of finance Madhu Wadhawan Sinha traveled to Purdue from New Delhi to take part in the symposium, meet with faculty hosts and visit laboratories to see firsthand the fellows’ research.

Questions about the program can be directed to Heidi Arola, director of global partnerships, harola@purdue.edu.