Priya Talreja Wins Prestigious Fulbright-National Geographic Award

India-West Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON, DC — Californian Priya Talreja, a Fremont native has been named one of just five researchers nationwide to receive the highly coveted 2025 Fulbright-National Geographic Award. The $20,000 fellowship will support her innovative work as an urban planner in the Azores, Portugal, where she will focus on sustainable transportation solutions.

Talreja, a graduate of Mission San Jose High School and University of California, Davis where she studied Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning, currently works in New York on transportation electrification initiatives. Through her fellowship, she will collaborate with local communities in the Azores to develop a geospatial mapping tool that identifies optimal locations for electric vehicle chargers. The project aims to support the islands’ transition to sustainable transportation while ensuring that no community is left behind in the move toward carbon neutrality.

“The Azores islands, with their farming, fishing, and tourism communities, are striving for carbon neutrality by 2050, but transportation remains their largest source of emissions,” Talreja said. “By adapting lessons from California and tailoring them to the islands’ unique needs, I hope to create a tool that reflects the priorities of the people who live and work there.”

Talreja’s work is part of a broader slate of projects selected for the 2025 award, spanning fields from ecology to cultural anthropology. Other recipients include Amrit Tamang, conducting an ethnographic study of Indigenous porters in Nepal, Katie Vyhnal, studying parasitic fungi in Malaysia; Kyrin Pollock, documenting Arctic soundscapes in Canada; and Taylor Bratton, investigating Tanzania’s sea cucumber economy.

The Fulbright-National Geographic Award, now in its 12th year, provides funding and resources to projects that foster global understanding in research, conservation, and storytelling. Recipients join a global network of National Geographic Explorers, gaining access to lifelong professional development and mentorship.