Johns Hopkins has long been a top producer of Fulbright scholars, but this year’s cohort is exceptional: Twenty-six students and alumni (including five Hopkins Engineers!) were offered grants this spring, the largest number from Johns Hopkins in a single application cycle since the program’s inception just after World War II
Named for U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, who sponsored legislation creating the prestigious scholarship, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the country’s largest educational exchange program, offering opportunities for students and young professionals to meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of the host country. The program awards approximately 2,000 grants annually and operates in more than 130 countries worldwide.
More information about the Fulbright application process can be found on the university’s National Fellowship Program website.
Here are the latest Fulbright Scholars from Hopkins Engineering:
Study/Research Grant Recipients
Winners of the Fulbright Study/Research Award design their own research or academic course of study in a specific country. The program aims to facilitate cultural exchange and promote mutual understanding by supporting study or research abroad.
Renee Liu, a 2022 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, has won a research grant to the Netherlands to explore using tomography angiography (OCT-A) to measure the health of retinal blood vessels as a means to achieve earlier and less invasive detection of cardiovascular problems, a project based at the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Maastricht University. (She has declined the grant having also been named a Schwarzman Scholar.)
Ikshu Pandey. A 2024 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering and neuroscience, Pandey has won a research grant to spend the next year at the University of Bern in Switzerland to study the role of the choroid plexus in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s.
Emily Sperring, a 2024 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, has won a research grant to Germany to work with Gunnar Luderer at the Potsdam Institute Climate Impact Research, where she’ll use life cycle assessment and integrated assessment models to characterize impacts of decarbonization.
Samhita Vasu. A 2024 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, Vasu has won a research grant to India to develop an at-home creatinine sensor for increasing access to early screening for chronic kidney disease, working with mentors at Mehta’s Children’s Hospital in Chennai.
Maxwell White, an MD/PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has won a research grant to Spain to work at the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona to characterize novel coagulases produced by two common and frequently multidrug resistant hospital-acquired bloodstream infections.