The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University has announced its 2026 faculty research grant winners, selecting 11 projects that address critical environmental and social challenges across South Asia.
The grants support interdisciplinary research with a strong focus on climate adaptation and public health. This year’s projects range from studying the impact of extreme weather on mental health in West Bengal to using machine learning to mitigate human-elephant conflict.
Several recipients have deep professional and personal ties to India. SV Subramanian, a professor of population health and geography at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will lead a project titled “Granular Estimates of the Health Impacts of Environmental Risks in India.”
Subramanian, who received his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Delhi before earning a PhD in the United Kingdom, aims to provide more precise data on how environmental stressors affect public health across the country.
Rahul Mehrotra, the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, is another recipient. A renowned architect who studied at CEPT University in Ahmedabad before coming to Harvard, Mehrotra’s project, “Architectures of Transition: Emergent Practices in South Asia,” examines how design can adapt to rapid urban changes.
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In the realm of technology, Venkatesh N. Murthy, the Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor at Harvard, is applying machine learning to study human-elephant interactions.
Murthy, who grew up in southern India and earned his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, seeks to find sustainable solutions for wildlife coexistence in shrinking habitats.
Healthcare innovation is also a priority. Professor Pawan Sinha of MIT, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, is developing “CHIRON,” a rapid health screener for children.
Sinha is well known for Project Prakash, an initiative in India that provides sight-restoring surgeries to children while studying how the brain learns to see.
The grants also fund humanities research. Vishal Khandelwal, an assistant professor of art history who grew up in Kolkata, will investigate the historical relationship between textiles and architectural design in postcolonial India.
Additionally, Eric Moses Gurevitch will explore the “technical lives” of artisans and architectural cultures in early modern South Asia.
By facilitating these collaborations between Harvard faculty and regional partners, the Mittal Institute continues to support research that provides practical insights into the complex issues facing South Asian communities today.