Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Guyanese-born wins Fellowship
Guyanese-born Vishagan Ratnaswamy
– Intends to Pursue PhD in Aeronautical Engineering
Twenty-two-year-old, Guyanese born, Vishagan Ratnaswamy, a recent New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) graduate who did groundbreaking research in granular science, has won a fellowship to pursue a Doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech).
According to the university’s posting, Ratnaswamy, who received a Master’s this year and a Bachelor’s Degree last year in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT, was also accepted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern. However, the ambitious young man chose Cal Tech, where he will specialise in solid mechanics. After his Doctorate, Ratnaswamy revealed that he intends to work as a research professor. In fact he hopes to one day design materials for either space exploration (carbon alloys for space rovers), the military (more resistant body armor), or industry (the next generation of carbon fibers).
Ratnaswamy found his calling – research – while just a freshman at NJIT. At that point he was involved in doing research for Anthony Rosato, a professor of Mechanical Engineering, who directs NJIT’s Granular Science Laboratory. Rosato, according to reports, accepts only top students to work in his laboratory. And although Ratnaswamy was just a freshman, Rosato was impressed with his drive, energy and intellect and invited him to work in his lab, where students study the mechanics of flowing granular particles.
Ratnaswamy’s research was in fact so successful that he co-authored three peer-reviewed papers on granular materials, the last of which will appear in an upcoming issue of Physical Review E. He will also present the results of his research at an upcoming Gordon Research Foundation conference in Maine.
“In my 23 years of teaching at NJIT, I’ve had a lot of great students work in my classes and in my lab but Ratnaswamy is undoubtedly the best overall student I’ve ever supervised. He started taking graduate courses with me during his junior year and his work in the lab was outstanding. He’s a real NJIT success story,” Rosato has offered.
Several of Rosato’s former students have gone on to do doctorates at top universities such as MIT, Virginia Tech, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder. And all those students, like Ratnaswamy, first honed their research skills in his Granular Science Lab. It was the experience the students got working in his lab that paved their way to graduate school.
When he was a senior in high school, Ratnaswamy knew he wanted to do research once in college. He picked NJIT, in large part, because it was a prominent research university, whose professors he hoped would give him the chance to do research early on in his academic career.
He was right as Rosato gave him that chance — Ratnaswamy capitalized on it — and now his future is bright and his potential unlimited.
Ratnaswamy, who grew up in Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, attended the Providence Primary School where he wrote the Common Entrance Examinations and was awarded St. Roses High School. It was soon after that he migrated with his family to the United States of America. He is the son of Christina and Jeyakumaran Ratnaswamy, nephew of Victor Arjune of the Demerara Life Group of Companies and Lloyd Arjune of the Guyana Revenue Authority. His aunt Pam, cousins Jason and Jelena Arjune have all expressed their satisfaction with the young Ratnaswamy achievements and anticipate that he will continue to do well.
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