When Anjalee Bhuyan ’18 arrives in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley this year, she won’t just be admiring the breathtaking Himalayan views—she’ll be conducting life-changing research as a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellow in Public Health. A third-year medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine with a focus on global health, Bhuyan is spending 10 months in Nepal studying the health impacts of occupational pollutant exposure in brick kiln workers, specifically the systemic effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Her work blends clinical medicine, public health, and environmental science—roots that trace back to her Germantown Academy Upper School days when she had an initial interest in medicine as well as her research and clinical experiences as an International Relations major at the University of Pennsylvania.

Research & Clinical Foundations 

At Penn, Bhuyan explored how governments, NGOs, and local stakeholders interacted and addressed global health challenges. She traveled to The Gambia to conduct maternal and child health research with Penn veterinary faculty and later to the Dominican Republic through the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to work on child nutrition research in a rural pediatric office. “Being introduced to the clinical side of medicine solidified medical school as a next step for me,” Bhuyan said. “Leading a health survey and shadowing physicians in that resource-limited town deepened my interest in global health.”

Path to Fulbright Fogarty

Bhuyan learned about the fellowship, tailored to graduate students, through a friend. She reached out to potential mentors listed on the Fulbright-Fogarty webpage and connected with a researcher leading an environmental health project in Nepal. Together, they developed her proposal and she received her finalist notification in May 2025. Over the next 10 months in Bhaktapur,  located about a 20 minute drive outside of Kathmandu, Bhuyan will contribute to The Brick Kiln Project, which studies the effects of brick kiln pollution on workers, particularly looking at respiratory health. “There are limited worker protections, varied levels of exposure, and few local clinics,” she explained. Her research will track symptoms from PAH exposure, measure exposure levels, and analyze DNA damage through biomarkers. She hopes that better understanding of the problem will lead to sound interventions. She’s also eager to experience local culture, hike the Annapurna Circuit, and immerse herself in nature. After returning to the US in May 2026, she’ll begin fourth-year clinical rotations and apply for residency, potentially in ophthalmology—with global health remaining central to her career.