Two Indian American mysicuans, New York-based businesswoman Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon and pianist-composer Vijay Iyer - have been nominated for this year's Grammy awards. The annual awards, given by the US National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, recognize outstanding musical works. The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on February

While Tandon's "Om Namo Narayanaya: Soul Call", featuring Sanskrit chants, has been nominated in the Best Contemporary World Music Album category, Iyer's "Historicity" has been shortlisted for the Best Jazz Instrumental Album award.

"Soul Call" takes the listener on a healing journey with Sanskrit slokas and an important chant from ancient Indian texts - eight phonemes, Om Na Mo Na Ra Ya Na Ya. While the vocals and the composition are by Tandon, the complex orchestral arrangements are by Tejendra Narayan Majumdar assisted by Snehasish Majumdar.

A classical singer and an alumni of Madras Christian College, Tandon is the chairman of US-based financial advisory firm Tandon Capital Associates Inc. Pepsi CEO India Nooyi is Tandon's sister.

"Historicity" is a trio album combining Iyer's searing originals with a surprising batch of covers - Bernstein's "Somewhere," Andrew Hill's "Smoke Stack," MIA's "Galang" and others. Featuring his longtime collaborators, Marcus Gilmore (drums) and Stephan Crump (bass), this album became one of the most acclaimed jazz works of the decade.

US-born son of Indian immigrants, Iyer is a self-taught creative musician grounded in American jazz and popular forms and drawing from a wide range of Western and non-Western traditions.

Most recently, in the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards, he was named the 2010 Musician of the Year, an honor previously given to greats like Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter and Dave Holland.

Music composer A R Rahman, sitar expert Ravi Shankar and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain are among the Indians that have won a Grammy. In February this year, Rahman won two Grammys - for 'Best Film Song' and 'Best Soundtrack' -- for composing the soundtrack of multiple Oscar-winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire.

The year's highest science honor for high school students today was awarded to astrophysics research on star formation and computer science research on identifying emotion in the human voice in the 2010 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, America's premier science research competition for high school students.

The Siemens Competition, a signature program of the Siemens Foundation, is administered by the College Board. The twelfth annual awards were presented this morning at The George Washington University, host of the 2010 Siemens Competition National Finals.

Benjamin Clark, a 15-year-old senior at Penn Manor High School in Millersville, Pennsylvania, won the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Individual category for research that sheds new light on how stars are born. Akash Krishnan and Matthew Fernandez, juniors at Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon, will share the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Team category for developing a computer algorithm to more accurately detect emotion in the human voice.

"The team built a computer algorithm that allows us to listen to an auditory signal from a human, analyze it and assess the emotional state of the speaker," said competition judge Gert Lanckriet, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego. "It can help identify, for example, if the speaker is angry, sad, bored, anxious or happy. They came up with a strong creative idea and brought it from theory into practice."

The team was inspired by the movie I, Robot, in which a robot can sense when its user is under stress. Using an emotional speech database with 18,215 files and five emotions (anger, positive, neutral, emphatic, rest), the team developed, trained and tested a classification engine to determine emotions from an input signal. The team achieved a 60% accuracy rate in identifying emotions versus 41% with a previous award-winning system. Their work has a broad range of applications, from autism research to computer games and lie detection.

"Their work could even be used to enhance cell phone technology," said Dr. Lanckriet. "With cell phones today most encoding is designed to ensure words are understood, but the emotional background of the conversation may be lost. Their work could help ensure the emotion comes through."

Krishnan and Fernandez have been working together as a team since the seventh grade. Dr. Bevin Daglen served as their mentor on the project. While continuing to improve on methods used in their study, the team has filed for a patent and is developing a device designed to help autistic children identify and interpret emotions they are hearing. The students indicate they have also had interest in their project from the US government.

Krishnan is a veteran of numerous science competitions. He placed first in his district's First Lego League competition for four years running, was a semifinalist in the 2010 Oregon Computer Science Competition, and was awarded Best of Fair with Mr. Fernandez in the Intel ISEF Competition. He plans to pursue computer science and electrical and mechanical engineering in college. He speaks Telegu, plays the piano and clarinet, and has a black belt in Okinawan-style karate.

A number of Britons of Indian origin figure in the New Year's honours list announced on December 31^st. This years list includes, for a change, many ordinary hard-working "unsung" heroes and heroines from different walks of life.

They include artistes, rights activists, doctors, teachers, public sector workers and charity volunteers who have quietly worked to improve the quality of life around them.

London-based Indira Patel has been appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) for her services in the field of human rights.

Ravi Parkash Chand, Head of Equality and Diversity, Home Office in Northamptonshire; and Dr. Minaxi Sharad Desai, Consultant Cytopathologist and Clinical Director at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, have been made Commanders of the British Empire (CBE).

Among those who have been appointed Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) are Buckinghamshire-based Nirpal Singh Riat for services to charity; and Purnima Tanuku for services to families in Lancashire.

Sarup Singh Dhandia, a Leicester-based artist, is among the three NRIs who have been made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Others are: Carolyn Dhanraj for services to the public and voluntary Sectors, and Surinder Kaur Dhillon for services to community relations.

Doctors honoured in various categories include Dr. Sanjoy Kumar, Dr. Ashok Pathak and Dr. Satya Vrat Sharma.

Leicestershire-based sitar player and teacher, Dharambir Singh Dhadyalla, has been recognised for services to Indian music; and Ratilal Devchand Shah for services to the Indian community in London.

Also honoured are Adil Rajput, executive officer, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and Pensions, Durham; Dr. Jacques Rangasamy, senior lecturer, University of Salford, for services to multicultural arts education, in Greater Manchester; Urmila Thakkar for services to the community; Pam Vedhara for services to local government; and Chelliah Yogamoorthy of Highways Agency, Department for Transport.

FOUR INDIAN AMERICANS AMONG 2011 RHODES SCHOLARS

Four Indian-American students have been selected for the Rhodes Scholarships for 2011 for studying at the University of Oxford, the award which is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship".  The Rhodes Trust named Aakash K Shah of New Jersey, Prerna Nadathur & Priya M Sury, and Varun Sivaram of California.

Aakash K Shah, Cliffside Park, graduated from Ursinus College is a first year student at Harvard Medical School.

Prerna Nadathur, Roseville, is a senior at the University of Chicago where she majors in mathematics and minors in linguistics and philosophy.

Priya M Sury, Roseville, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in May, summa cum laude, in anthropology and Spanish. She is currently studying for an MD degree at the University of Minnesota.

Varun S Sivarum, Monte Sereno, is a senior at Stanford majoring in engineering physics and international relations. A Truman Scholar and junior mentor at Phi Beta Kappa, Varun has won Stanford prizes for excellence in humanities and political science, as well as in engineering.

The thirty-two Rhodes Scholars chosen from the United States will join an international group of Scholars chosen from fourteen other jurisdictions around the world.

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford in the UK.

Approximately 80 scholars are selected worldwide each year, including several non-US Scholars who have attended American colleges and universities.

The value of the Rhodes Scholarship varies depending on the academic field and the degree (BA, master's, doctoral) chosen. The Rhodes Trust pays all college and university fees, provides a stipend to cover necessary expenses while in residence in Oxford as well as during vacations, and transportation to and from England. The total value of the Scholarship averages approximately $50,000 per year.