PHS Grad Awarded Fulbright Scholarship

Dr. Bhaswati Bhattachary, a 1983 graduate of Princeton High School, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant for her work in Ayurvedic Medicine.  

Bhattachary is director at The DINacharya Institute in New York.

Her Fulbright scholarship will allow her to lecture and conduct research in Ayurveda based at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, during the 2013-2014 academic year, the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced.

Bhattacharya is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2013-2014. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. 

At Princeton High School, Bhattacharya earned the Gold Key award, membership to Quill & Scroll, and several college scholarships. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's degree in pharmacology with a concentration in neuroscience at Columbia University and master's in international public healthy at the Harvard School of Public Health. She later earned an MD at Rush Medical College in Chicago. 

She completed her residency at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in preventive medicine to train in clinical research. She trained in holistic medicines, including nutrition, homeopathy, botanical medicine, energy work, mind-body medicine, yoga, and began her studies in Ayurveda.

Bhattacharya will further her work as a holistic physician by exploring the Ayurvedic concept of Ojas, roughly correlated with current understandings of immunity. The education portion of her work will explore the use of pedagogical methods such as problem-based learning and student-centered curriculum design for teaching in the clinical profession of Ayurveda.

Bhattacharya's three sisters also graduated from PHS: in 1982, 1989 and 1993. Her family still lives in Princeton.