Scholars 2021: Kunal Gupta, Mohit Negi, Titas Sen and Virendra Nishad
After a hiatus of a year, we are pleased to have been able to resume awarding scholarships to outstanding young minds who wish to pursue excellence in their chosen fields of study.
In a two part series we will be featuring this year’s scholars.
This week we present, Kunal Gupta, Mohit Negi, Titas Sen and Virendra Nishad. Kunal will be pursuing an MSc in Physics at ETH Zurich, while Mohit will be pursuing an MSc in Economic & Social Sciences at Bocconi University. Titas will be attending the University of the Arts London for a MFA in Computational Arts and Virendra will be studying Performing Arts at the Contemporary Dance School of Hamburg.
Read more about them below.
Kunal Gupta
For Kunal, the most profound insight given by Newton in his Principia was that heavenly bodies and objects on Earth are governed by the same set of laws. After over 300 years of development of highly sophisticated physics, we are at odds with this postulate. On the one hand, we have general relativity that describes gravity and the large-scale structure of the universe. On the other hand, we have quantum mechanics and even more sophisticated quantum field theory governing fundamental particles and the forces between them, barring gravity. This gives us a discontinuous understanding of nature. The situation would have been simpler if we didn’t have unexplained phenomena like dark matter, dark energy and black holes since a lack of explanation implies that our task as physicists is not yet done and there is still hope for a unity. As a naturalist, this gives him motivation and joy since there is scope for improvement in our understanding of the world, both mathematically and conceptually.
Having pursued his undergraduate degree among highly intellectual peers at IIT Delhi, Kunal was able to learn the physics and mathematics required to understand the topics at the frontier of our current physical understanding. This pushed him much beyond what he could ever have expected, and he wishes to continue his education at ETH Zurich by pursuing a masters in physics. The Inlaks Shivdasani Scholarship will allow him to keep trying to understand nature without any financial burden, and he is highly thankful to the Foundation for giving him this opportunity.
Apart from trying to figure out the world around us, Kunal runs marathons and he used to play water polo for his hostel team. Further, he likes to make robots, do competitive coding and take part in debating tournaments during his free time.
Mohit Negi
Growing up with events such as the 2008 Financial Crisis, the Greek Debt Crisis and the rise of China in a family of scientists and engineers helped Mohit learn the value of the scientific method in studying economic phenomena. In 2018, Mohit joined a large chunk of his cohort at NM College, Mumbai on the journey towards becoming a Chartered Accountant. It did not take many Auditing classes for him to realize that this was not his calling and transitioned to Economics.
In the early 18th century, Euler solved the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem which launched the development of Graph Theory in Mathematics. From it, Network Theory emerged and quickly found a plethora of applications in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Physics. More recently, Economists searching for models that are better able to account for interactions between agents, incorporated the theory in their own work. It is not hard to see why Networks are so natural in the social sciences. People are connected in friendship networks, employees in work networks, firms in input-output networks, banks in debt-holdings networks, nations in alliance networks and so on. Networks pervade all aspects of society and it is hard for a social science to ignore them. How does providing opportunities to people affect the communities to which they belong, how real and financial shocks diffuse through economies, how international trade, conflict and cooperation networks form, and how connected agents learn and form opinions are just a few of the many interesting questions investigated by Network Economists.
Mohit aspires to pursue a PhD in Economics to work on some of these interesting questions and believes that the Master’s program at Bocconi University is uniquely well-suited for this. The program is rigorous and the university boasts one of the world’s top faculties in the field. He sees his time at Bocconi as an opportunity to build a foundation and solidify his research agenda before the PhD.
In his free time, Mohit likes listening to music, playing his favourite songs on the guitar, and learning stories from history – sometimes pointless but almost always interesting.
Titas Sen
Titas Sen is an illustrator and designer who has worked with organisations like UNICEF, Smashboard, and Yodapress, among others. Her work has appeared in Feminist Realities – an international magazine published by the Association of Women’s Rights in Development.
She has two degrees in history, and is an alumna of Miranda House College, Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. She grew up with her head firmly nestled between the pages of all kinds of books, which she suspects, might have led to her opting for more courses than she could handle.
In 2016, her interdisciplinary interests led her down a road that ended in journalism. She began working with The Wire.in, an online news portal, where she wrote about art, feminism and student politics. She also ran a history column called ‘The Time Machine’. During this time, her lived experiences began to shape her art practice. Later, she moved on to a more design-centric editorial role at the Economic and Political Weekly’s digital initiative, EPW Engage.
There were considerable calisthenics involved in the nascent stages of her practice as she experimented with various media and software. Sometimes, it was only a hack app on her phone. A year or so later, she began to illustrate professionally as an independent artist. Her art continues to be inspired by lived realities and the attempts she made to document her experience with mental health issues and wellness. Most of her personal work explores ideas of feminism, community and social justice. And of course, fun.
Having decided that it’s high time to receive proper training, Titas will be going to the University of the Arts, London this autumn to get another MA, this time in Fine Art. She will be specialising in Computational Arts, as an extension of her work conceptualising interactive digital art.
Virendra Nishad
Virendra is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and workshop facilitator, based in Bangalore. He has a Diploma in Movement Arts and Mixed Media with distinction at the renowned Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore, India, in 2018. To pursue his studies at Attakkalari, he was awarded a full scholarship for the entirety of his course. Virendra was awarded the "Student of the Year" prize for the 2016-18 batch upon his graduation.
Before Attakalari, Virendra was trained in street dance forms in Pune, Maharashtra. During this time he worked with some cultural institutes by developing choreographies for stage performances and competitive events. He presented my solo dance, "Mixed Elements" at multiple state level cultural events. He won Best Performer at the state finals of "All Karnataka Dance Championship 2016" for this dance.
In 2018, he won the Eurasia Dance Project Prize 2018, an event hosted by Dance Haus Milan (Italy), Contemporary Dance School of Hamburg (Germany), and Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore (India), supported by Instituto Italiano di Cultura Mumbai, India.
Ever since he started dancing, Virendra was told that one cannot build a reliable career from it. One of his aims, is to prove otherwise. He aspires to become an international contemporary dancer and collaborate with Indian and international artists alike. Growing up in a village and a humble background, he was not exposed to contemporary dance, therefore his dream to open a space for art for those who cannot afford it.
