roivant's vivek ramaswamy raises $1.1 billion to start pharma startups

 

indian-american vivek ramaswamy plans to raise a sizable amount of funds for roivant and to use that fund to start more companies, which in turn will do their own fundraising.

 

so far roivant has invested in a series of spinouts, including arbutus (viral diseases), axovant (neurology), myovant (women's health and endocrine diseases), dermavant (dermatology), enzyvant (rare diseases), and urovant (urology).  these new funds will go towarddatavant, which is focused on accumulating siloed data to help judge the odds of success for drugs in clinical trials.

 

axovant's alzheimer's drug, intepirdine is targeted to relieve alzheimer's symptoms and restore memory.  if this occurs, as ramaswamy expects, it could be a multi-billion dollar product.

 

ramaswamyhas been able to lure some of biotech's biggest management talent to run these new entities. david hung who sold medivation to pfizer, heads axovant and lynn seely, took the helm at myovant. jacqualynfouse, the former chief financial officer at celgene, was recently appointed the executive chairman at dermavant.

 

ramaswamy states, "the ball's in our court, but i hope we're going to be doubling down or tripling down on the business model in the coming months if not in the coming years."

 

indian american krishna rajagopal named dean of digital learning at mit

 

indian-american professor, krishna rajagopal has been appointed dean for digital learning at massachusetts institute of technology,

 

rajagopal,william a.m. burden professor of physics and former chair of the mit faculty, will empower the faculty to use digital technologies to enhance their teaching methods. he will be building and strengthening connections between academic departments and the office of vice president for open learning, to facilitate broad-based engagement and bottom-up changes.

 

 while he was a member of the mit faculty, rajagopal helped with a study of the role of algorithmic reasoning and computational thinking in the context of the education of mit undergraduates. he was also instrumental in building a new faculty governance website and led efforts to create a new master of applied science (masc) degree at mit.

 

rajagopal has done research in theoretical physics, focused largely on how quarks - ordinarily confined within protons and neutrons - behave in extraordinary conditions. his work links nuclear and particle physics, condensed matter physics, astrophysics, and string theory.

 

rajagopal is the author of about 100 papers and completed his phd at princeton university in 1993. after stints as a junior fellow at harvard university and a fairchild fellow at caltech, he joined the mit faculty in 1997.

 

 regarding his appointment as dean, he states "i am excited about this new challenge, as i will be helping mit faculty members take their passions for teaching and learning to new levels in ways that can have long-lasting impact across mit and around the world,"

 

emerging leaders named marshall fellows

 

the german marshall fund (gmf) has named 68 individuals as 2017-2018 marshall memorial fellows, among whom are indian-americans, suhail arastu, jaineybavishi and keerthika subramanian.

 

the fellowship program, created in 1982 to introduce a new generation of european leaders to the us, is the fund's flagship leadership development program.these awards recognize the best contributors in business, government, and civil society.

 

suhail arastu is the director of development at san antonio, texas-based musical bridges around the world (mbaw).  he got his bachelor's degree from u.c. berkeley. after his graduate studies, he worked in his family business-alamo gymnastics center and live oak allergy & asthma clinic.

 

jaineybavishi is the director of new york's office of recovery and resiliency. she most recently served as the associate director for climate preparedness at the white house council on environmental quality. earlier, she was the executive director of r3ady asia-pacific, based in honolulu, hawaii. she was also the director of external affairs and senior policy adviser to the administrator at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration in washington, d.c.

 

bavishi has a master's degree from the massachusetts institute of technology and a bachelor's degree from duke university.

 

keertikasubramanian is a corporate attorney based in the san francisco bay area. she is a member of the executive committee of the yale law school alumni association, a member of the corporate advisory board at powerstorm ess and a member of the yale club of san francisco board of directors.

 

subramanian earned a law degree from yale law school and a bachelor's degree from emory university.

 

arastu, bavishi, subramanian and the other 65 fellows will engage in six months of preparation designed to enhance their understanding of transatlantic relations before embarking on 24 days of policy immersion across the atlantic.

 

indian-american sravanth malla wins the 2017 south asian spelling bee

 

 after facing tough competition, indian-american teenager sravanthmalla, 13, of haverstraw, new york, won the 10th national south asian spelling bee in edison, new jersey. he clinched this by correctly spelling the winning word "chytridiales", which means an order of simple, aquatic fungi of the phylum chytridiomycota.

 

sreenikethvogoti, of st. johns, florida came second and navneeth murali, of torrance, california came third.

 

 although many of the children had participated in the spelling bee in earlier years, it was a proud moment for the youngest, first-time participant and finalist, aarana tailor, 7, of accra, ghana.

 

 the winner, sravanthmalla told news india times that he planned to save his winnings of $3,000 for college. 

 

"i feel ecstatic" he stated and added that the spelling bee is really a competition against the dictionary and not other spellers.

 

dev patel and prince agha khan are recipients of 2017 asia game changer awardees

 

the talented indo-british actor, dev patel and his highness the aga khan, spiritual leader to the world's 15 million ismaili muslims, are among the nine recipients of the 2017 asia game changers awards. this award recognizes those who make a transformative and positive difference for the future of asia and the world.

 

 "in a world of challenges, it is important to honor the dreamers and leaders, those who take action and those who inspire us to build a better world," said asia society president, josette sheeran. she stated, "this year's game changers have each made a significant difference through a unique vision, perseverance, and courage."

 

dev patel, who became the face of indian actors in hollywood after his role in slumdog millionaire, is transforming the lives of many people in india, with his charitable endeavors.  his campaign has raised over $250,000 in support of india's millions of homeless children.

 

shanti bhavan, a k-12, free, residential school for poor children founded by indian-american, abraham george has been featured in a documentary 'daughters of destiny'.  this documentary is an eye-opener for those who want to contribute to india and help fight the ravages of poverty.

 

while there are many organizations doing some commendable work to help the poor in india, it is heartening to note that the efforts of people such as abraham george, aga khan and dev patel are being brought forward to a global audience.

 

indian-american anantha chandrakasan appointed dean of mit's school of engineering

 

dr. anantha p chandrakasan, the indian-origin head of the department of electrical engineering and computer science (eecs) at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit), has been named dean of the university's school of engineering, effective july 1, 2017

 

chandrakasan earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the university of california at berkeley.

 

since joining the mit faculty in 1994, chandrakasan has worked on making electronic circuits more energy efficient. his early work on low-power chips for portable computers helped to develop smartphones and other mobile devices.

 

chandrakasan has spearheaded and launched a number of initiatives on behalf of the department's students, such as the eecs' rising stars program. this is an event that convenes graduate and postdoctoral women to share advice about the early stages of an academic career

 

chandrakasan currently lives in belmont, massachusetts, with his wife and three children.

 

indian american google ceo sundar pichai joins alphabet's board of directors

 

alphabet has announced that google ceo, sundarpichai will be joining its board of directors.google is alphabet's prime moneymaker, contributing approximately 90% of revenue. this move gives the key company another vote in the decision-making process.

 

pichai is best known for doubling down on google's commitment to artificial intelligence, which has led to many improvements for google's consumer and enterprise services.

alphabet ceo larry page stated "sundar has been doing a great job as google's ceo, driving strong growth, partnerships, and tremendous product innovation. i really enjoy working with him and i'm excited that he is joining the alphabet board."

former carnegie mellon head dr. subra suresh named president of singapores's nanyang technological university

 

former carnegie mellon university president subra suresh, who stepped down from his post last month, will be the next president of nanyang technological university (ntu) in singapore.ntu, a research-intensive public university, has been ranked the 11th best university in the world and the first in asia by qs world university rankings

 

"i am excited to have the honor of leading ntu, with its rich history, heritage and beautiful, cosmopolitan campus in a vibrant city state, serving as a global hub for finance, commerce, education, research and culture at the crossroads of asia, at a time when asia is poised to take a significant leadership role in shaping the 21st century," said the indian-american academic leader in a press release issued by ntu.

 

according to koh boon hwee, chairman of the ntu board of trustees, "prof. suresh understands the singapore higher education and research systems, as well as those in north america, europe, china and india, having actively engaged with various public and private agencies and boards, and as a member of a number of national academies of science and engineering."

 

while suresh served as president of cmu, the university built a new quadrangle, which was partly funded by a $67 million gift from an alumnus. suresh also created the swartz center for entrepreneurship with a $31 million gift from another alumnus. he was able to secure $200 million in new contributions to support the university's presidential fellowships and scholarships program, which he established in 2014.

 

indian-american dr. thomas zacharia named as director of oak ridge national laboratory

 

dr. thomas zacharia has been named the new director of the oak ridge national laboratory (ornl), the u.s. department of energy (doe)stated.

 

zacharia, who also serves as a professor at the university of tennessee, was unanimously selected by the ut-battelle board of governors. 

 

he holds a b.s. in mechanical engineering from the national institute of technology in karnataka, india; an m.s. in materials science from the university of mississippi, and a doctorate in engineering science from clarkson university.

zacharia's career at ornl started in 1987 as a postdoctoral researcher. since then he has worked in a variety of roles that made him extremely well-versed with ornl, its programs and the doe national laboratories system.

 

according to the doe, zacharia has been successful in extending ornl's reach as one of the world's leading research institutions, and in broadening partnerships with the academic community across multiple disciplines.

 

u.s. sen. lamar alexander of tennessee stated, "tennesseans know that oak ridge provides thousands of jobs for our state and higher family incomes.
dr. thomas zacharia is the right person to lead the oak ridge national laboratory, where he has already helped steer the lab to excellence in supercomputing, science and energy research, and advanced manufacturing."

 

sanjeev kulkarni named dean of the princeton university faculty

 

sanjeev kulkarni, the dean of the princeton university graduate school and an electrical engineering professor, was named the university's dean of the faculty. the indian american educator has developed a number of opportunities for collaborative teaching between princeton faculty and graduate students.

 

kulkarni has been dean at the graduate school since april 2014. he serves as an associated faculty member in the department of operations research and financial engineering and in the philosophy department.

 

as graduate school dean, kulkarni led the strategic planning task force on the future of the graduate school and implemented a funding program for graduate students in the humanities and social sciences.

 

under his leadership, the graduate school created an assistant dean position for professional development and developed a number of new programs. these included the university administrative fellows, opportunities for collaborativeteaching between princeton faculty and graduate students and a partnership with mercer county community college to provide teaching opportunities and mentorship for princeton graduate students.

 

kulkarni, who holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from clarkson university, joined the university as a faculty member in 1991. after completing a master's degree in electrical engineering at stanford university, he earned his doctorate in electrical engineering at the massachusetts institute of technology.

 

"faculty are the foundation of any great university, and it will be a pleasure and an honor to work with and support princeton's outstanding faculty," kulkarni said. he added "i look forward to working with scholars, teachers, and researchers across the full range of academic departments and programs at the university."