SANTA CRUZ, CA - -- The Templeton World Charity Foundation, announced that Sandra Nair 20, from Kerala, India is the first 2019 Templeton–Ramanujan Fellowship recipient. She will get $5,000 monetary grant for furthering educational pursuits and development in STEM. The award, part of the highly competitive Spirit of Ramanujan STEM Talent Initiative, is the first of 30 financial grants to be issued yearly for the next three years, totaling $550,000.
Nair, an international student, is in her third year of undergraduate studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she majors in physics and mathematics. The Templeton–Ramanujan Fellowship will support her research with Shamit Kachru — the Wells Family Director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics at Stanford, in summer 2019. Under his mentorship, Nair will study the physics of black holes, exploring the interplay of mathematics and physics as found in string theory and quantum field theory.
“I am delighted that the first Spirit of Ramanujan winner hails from India and will be working with my good friend and collaborator Shamit Kachru,” said Ken Ono, the director of the Spirit of Ramanujan and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Mathematics at Emory University. “He is a fabulous mentor and leading figure at the interface of mathematics and string theory. And I’m particularly pleased that Shamit has been using Ramanujan’s math in his study of black holes.” “Professor Kachru is a wonderful mentor as well as a world-renowned theoretical physicist, whom I feel extremely privileged to work with,” said Nair. “One day, I hope to have made extensive and successful collaborations among those in theoretical physics and mathematics communities and am confident that the Spirit of Ramanujan community will be a huge help in actualizing this goal.” “Stanford has programs to support its own students, but there are gifted students who don’t match up with existing funding streams. Sandra is a prime example, as she is not a Stanford undergraduate, and is not eligible for US citizen-restricted funding as an Indian national,” said Professor Kachru. “Programs like the Spirit of Ramanujan offer a wonderful opportunity to get involved with the education of such students.”
“I am delighted that the first Spirit of Ramanujan winner hails from India and will be working with my good friend and collaborator Shamit Kachru,” said Ken Ono, the director of the Spirit of Ramanujan and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Mathematics at Emory University. “He is a fabulous mentor and leading figure at the interface of mathematics and string theory. And I’m particularly pleased that Shamit has been using Ramanujan’s math in his study of black holes.” “Professor Kachru is a wonderful mentor as well as a world-renowned theoretical physicist, whom I feel extremely privileged to work with,” said Nair. “One day, I hope to have made extensive and successful collaborations among those in theoretical physics and mathematics communities and am confident that the Spirit of Ramanujan community will be a huge help in actualizing this goal.” “Stanford has programs to support its own students, but there are gifted students who don’t match up with existing funding streams. Sandra is a prime example, as she is not a Stanford undergraduate, and is not eligible for US citizen-restricted funding as an Indian national,” said Professor Kachru. “Programs like the Spirit of Ramanujan offer a wonderful opportunity to get involved with the education of such students.”