Six Indian American students have been named recipients of the 2026 Davidson Fellows Scholarship, which recognises outstanding work by gifted young people. The students received scholarships worth $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 for projects spanning aviation safety, agriculture, nuclear energy, malaria prevention and drug discovery.

The scholarship recognises students aged 18 or younger who have completed significant projects with the potential to make a meaningful contribution to society.

What is the Davidson Fellows Scholarship?

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship is an annual programme run by the Davidson Institute, a nonprofit organisation that supports profoundly gifted young people.

The programme awards scholarships of $100,000, $50,000 and $25,000 to students whose work demonstrates significant achievement. Projects are assessed on their quality, importance and potential contribution.

The scholarship covers several fields, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature, music, philosophy and the “Outside the Box” category.

Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents living in the US, or meet the programme’s eligibility provisions for those stationed overseas on active US military duty.

Projects by the six Indian American students The six students worked on projects addressing challenges in areas ranging from aviation and agriculture to healthcare and energy.

Aditya Sengupta, 18, of Bellevue, Washington, received the top $100,000 Davidson Fellow Laureate award for ForeCAT, a machine-learning system designed to improve predictions of clear-air turbulence.

Tanishka Aglave, 17, of Valrico, Florida, received $50,000 for research into citrus greening disease. Her project combines a bactericide derived from curry leaf extract, localized thermal treatment and computer vision to help assess disease severity.

Hitaishi Chillara, 17, of Leander, Texas, won $50,000 for a computational framework examining the relationship between galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centers. His research combines cosmological simulations, telescope observations and machine learning.

Praadhyumn Indaana, 17, of Montvale, New Jersey, also received $50,000. He developed a physics-guided neural network aimed at improving predictions of critical heat flux, a key safety threshold in nuclear reactors.

Rajarshi Mandal, 16, of Lexington, Massachusetts, won $50,000 for a mathematical model focused on improving the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for malaria prevention.

Pavan Subramani, 17, of Morgantown, West Virginia, received $25,000 for computational drug-discovery research targeting the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products, or RAGE, a protein associated with inflammatory diseases.