Pranav Pattatathunaduvil is a first-year student in Jackson’s BA/MPP program. He is passionate about analyzing Asia, especially U.S.-India-China relations and the region’s tech potential. He is the co-founder and co-director of the GeoTech Initiative, an organization dedicated to getting students engaged at the intersection of tech and international relations. Pranav spearheaded the inaugural GeoTech Forum in Washington, D.C., which convened more than 100 students from 26 universities nationwide and more than 30 speakers to analyze tech cooperation and competition in the Indo-Pacific. This summer, Pranav interned at the State Department’s Office of Pakistan Affairs and, last summer, he interned at the Special Competitive Studies Project, supporting their efforts to set up the Quad Tech, Business, and Investment Forum for the White House. Pranav also interned for over a year with the Hudson Institute, researching the evolution of India-U.S. relations for Dr. Aparna Pande and Ambassador Husain Haqqani and analyzing imperial China's foreign policy for Eric Brown. 

At Yale, Pranav is the president of the Alexander Hamilton Society, former president of the Yale Policy Institute, and a dancer on Rangeela, Yale's Bollywood fusion dance team. He received the 2024 Beck Prize, given annually by the Jackson School to a junior demonstrating deep interest in global affairs and national security. In 2021, he was the national champion in International Extemporaneous Speaking, and he was one of four students nationwide who received the 2020 Calvin Coolidge Presidential Scholarship, a full-ride merit scholarship to attend any U.S. university. Pranav is from Plano, Texas.