US university launches APJ Abdul Kalam grant

To honour the late president APJ Abdul Kalam, the provost and executive vice-president at University of South Florida (USF), Professor Ralph C Wilcox, announced the launch of President APJ Abdul Kalam Postgraduate Fellowship on his recent visit to the national capital, New Delhi.

“I met our Indian partners to take our relationship to the next level and interact with students planning to study at USF,” says Wilcox. “This fellowship is to honour the late president’s vision,” he adds.

The award will be offered to an Indian graduate student seeking to pursue a PHD degree in the following subjects and disciplines at the university—applied anthropology, applied physics, business PHD programmes, cell biology, microbiology and molecular biology, among others. The fellowship provides a tuition fee waiver for up to four years, a stipend of $18,000 or approximately Rs 12.5 lakh over the nine months of the fall and spring semesters ($2,000 per month or Rs 1.33 lakh) for up to four years.

Wilcox also threw light on some of the new developments specific to India. “The most recent ones would be our College of Engineering’s development of the “NEW generator” for India, which converts waste into nutrient fertilisers, renewable energy and clean water, providing a modular and self-sustaining machine that operates completely off-grid, requiring no water, power or sewer system,” he says.