Persistence has paid off for UC Merced doctoral candidate Arabi Seshappan.
The graduate student from Fremont, about to start her sixth year, was selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program's Fulbright-Université Paris-Saclay Doctoral Research Award, which is only granted to three U.S. students each year.
“This was my third time applying. I applied once before coming to UC Merced and once during COVID-19,” Seshappan said. “I’m grateful to Becky Mirza and the Office of International Affairs. Becky formed a committee including physics faculty and they reviewed my application and helped inform how I applied for the Fulbright award.”
Along with the monthly stipend and relocation support, the fellowship also offers a dynamic network of past and present Fulbright fellows.
Seshappan’s research focuses on computational condensed matter theory in UC Merced physics Professor David Strubbe's lab. She has been looking at defects in solids to find possible candidates for qubits (quantum bits).
