Indian scholar bags South Florida varsity fellowship

​New Delhi/ Florida: The University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa celebrated President Abdul Kalam’s 87th birth anniversary on October 15 in a special way. The university will formally announce the name of the winner of the 2018 USF Abdul Kalam Postgraduate Fellowship and also declare the 2019 Kalam Fellowship open for applications.   

Arjun Kadian was selected from an impressive group of candidates to receive this year’s fellowship for his PhD research proposal on “how misinformation spreads on social media…exploring the phenomenon of fake news and its impact.”   

A Master’s degree graduate in Business Analytics and Information Systems from USF’s Muma College of Business, Kadian received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pune in 2008. He worked for Infosys for 8 years  before joining USF.  Kadian is the third winner of the Kalam Fellowship which was launched in 2015. 

The first two winners, who are currently pursuing their PhDs at USF, are Avijit Sengupta, an IIT-Bombay graduate, and Veena Subramanian, who graduated from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Kadian considers it “an honour to get a Fellowship associated with Dr. Kalam, one of our foremost scientists.” 

Dr. Roger Brindley, USF System Vice President and a frequent visitor to India, says:  “USF is delighted to honor the life of President A.P.J. Kalam with our 2018-19 recipient, Arjun Kadian. The president was a good friend to our university and was a visionary scientist. 

He visited USF in 2012 and gave an inspiring talk to our students.  We are proud to recognize his legacy and to promote an opportunity for the best and brightest students in India to study at our globally engaged university.” The President A.P.J. Kalam Postgraduate Fellowship is open to Indian college graduates who plan to pursue a Ph.D. in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs at the University of South Florida. The prestigious fellowship, which is only awarded to one student each academic year, offers an annual stipend of $22,000 and free tuition for up to four years.