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Two from Team Science named Fulbright U.S. Student Program recipients

By Hannah Ashton

One College of Science alumna and one Ph.D. student have been named 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Student Program recipients, meaning they'll be funded to travel and conduct research abroad for a year.

Brenna Prevelige is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in integrative biology, and is expected to graduate in 2028. For her Fulbright, she will conduct transdisciplinary research on Gandomera mushrooms in Nepal with Shiva Devkota of the Gendaki Province Academy of Science and Technology. Prevelige's proposed research will shed light on the cultural role of the Ganoderma mushroom as well as generate biological data which she will share with a local nonprofit conservation organization. Prevelige hopes to co-develop affordable genomic technologies in Nepal. This work will directly inform her dissertation of Ganoderma ethnobiology in the U.S. and Nepal. She aims to become and international professor working at the intersection of scientific and place-based knowledge.

Headshot of Brenna Prevelige, long light brown hair and a blue shirt.

Brenna Prevelige is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in integrative biology, and is expected to graduate in 2028.

Sahana Shah graduated in 2024 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and biophysics and minors in chemistry and Spanish. With her Fulbright, Shah will travel to Spain to join the Institute for Research in Biomedicine with Xavier Salvatella to contribute to the institute's research on autism spectrum disorder. Shah's research will center on a protein that regulates over 200 genes involved in ASD development. She will work as a part of Salvatella's lab to investigate the use of a designed peptide to slow down the protein aggregation associated with the development of ASD. She hopes her work will lead to a therapeutic development and enhanced social and cognitive function for people with autism. In the future, she will pursue a career as a pediatric neurologist and continue research into mechanisms underlying ASD.

Sahana Shah smiles for the camera in a black shirt.

Sahana Shah graduated in 2024 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and biophysics and minors in chemistry and Spanish.

Read about the third OSU Fulbright recipient, Kenneth Kang from the College of Engineering.