An engineering graduate from Tumakuru has bagged a $458,000 (₹3.8 crore) fellowship for pursuing doctoral studies in bioengineering at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, U.S., an ivy league school.
At present, Yeshwanth Mahesh is a research assistant at Cancer Systems Biology Laboratory, BSSE, at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. He got his engineering degree in biotechnology from Siddalinga Institute of Technology (SIT), Tumakuru, in 2020.
“I will be doing a Ph.D. in bioengineering. It is an inter-disciplinary umbrella programme between engineering and medical schools. The course duration is 5 years (2023-28),” he said. “I got selected for direct Ph.D. and full fellowship support.”
University of Pennsylvania is one of the oldest institutions for higher education in the U.S. The breakthrough mRNA vaccine technologies were developed in the university, which led to the development of an efficient Covid-19 vaccine.
Student hails from agricultural family
Mahesh hails from an agricultural family in Kembalau village in Hebbur hobli in Tumakuru district of Karnataka. He won the gold medal for his project at Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS), National Science Fair 2012, New Delhi. He was one of the youngest students to represent Team India at the annual Intel International Science of Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2013, in Phoenix, U.S., the world’s largest pre-college research fair & STEM competition.
He won the Junior Scientist award from Department of Science and Technology of the Karnataka government, and the Avishkara award from Intel Foundation, India.
He has published half-a-dozen research articles in international journals.
Mahesh thanked his teachers at SIT and scientists K. Sekar and Mohit Kumar Jolly at IISc. for nurturing him.
