INDIAN AMERICAN SCIENTIST WINS LEMELSON-MIT PRIZE

 

An Indian-origin scientist has bagged the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize worth USD 500,000. This prize honors outstanding mid-career inventors who improve the world through technological invention and demonstrate a commitment to mentorship in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

 

Ramesh Raskar, 46, is founder of the Camera Culture research group at the MIT Media Lab and an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences.

 

With more than 75 patents to his name, and having authored more than 120 reviewed publications, Raskar is the co-inventor of radical imaging solutions, including Femto-photography, an ultra-fast imaging system that can see around corners; low-cost eye-care solutions for the developing world; and a camera that allows users to read the pages of a book without opening the cover.

 

He now plans to use a portion of the prize money to launch a new effort using peer-to-peer invention platforms that offer new approaches to help young people in multiple countries to co-invent in a collaborative way.

 

OBAMA NOMINATES INDIAN AMERICAN WOMAN AS FEDERAL JUDGE

 

US President Barack Obama has nominated a 47-year-old Indian-American woman attorney to the US District Court bench in New York. If confirmed, Diane Gujarati will be the first Article III Judge of South-Asian descent in New York.

 

Gujarati has been the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the US Attorney's Office for the southern district of New York since 2012. From 2008 to 2012, she served as Deputy Chief and later, Chief of the White Plains Division of the United States Attorney's Office. From 2006 to 2008, Gujarati was Deputy Chief of the Appeals Unit in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

 

Gujarati received her JD from Yale Law School in 1995 and her BA summa cum laude from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1990.

 

SOUTH AFRICAN PIO IS HEAD OF GLOBAL BLOOD SERVICE

 

Ravi Reddy, an Indian-origin South African, has become the first person from the African continent to head a global organization of medicine professionals, working for the safety of blood transfusion.

 

Currently the Chief Operations Officer of the South African National Blood Service (SANBS), Reddy will head the International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT), headquartered in Amsterdam. The ISBT was established in 1935 as a platform for exchanging knowledge and advancing blood-transfusion practices. Reddy's campaign to ensure stringent testing and education among donors is important, since South Africa has a high incidence of HIV/AIDS.

 

"Mr. Reddy has played a key role in South Africa's high level of blood safety," said Raju from SANBS, who stated that there has been only one confirmed case of HIV caused by blood transfusion out of nine million units of blood donated in the past decade.

 

Reddy began his career at SANBS as a volunteer and later qualified as a medical technologist with an MBA from the University of Natal in South Africa. He represented the African region on the board of the ISBT and is also a member of the Working Party on Transfusion and Transmissible Infections. He has presented and published a large number of scientific papers.

 

INDIAN-ORIGIN PEER WINS 'LIFETIMNE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD'

 

Lord Narendra Babubhai Patel, an Indian-origin, British obstetrician and member of the UK Parliament has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Asian Business Publications Limited (ABPL)for his work in the medical profession and for being an incredible role model for social justice and equality for the less fortunate.

 

The Asian Achievers Awards are organized by ABPL every year to honor British Asian achievements across different fields. The other winners were Selva Pankaj, CEO of Regent Group,  a London-based education skills and training development group; Manjit Gill, CEO of Binti, a social enterprise that works for women's causes in India and Africa; and Paralympian Ryan Raghoo, a long jumper who suffers from cerebral palsy.

 

"This is a celebration of the enormous contribution British Asians make to our country. We see their success in sports, in enterprise and running of multi-million-pound businesses, media, public services and our Armed Forces," British Prime Minister Theresa May said in her message  for the awards event. This event raised 180,000 pounds through a live auction for Indian Ocean Disaster Relief, to provide immediate relief and long-term projects in case of natural disasters.

 

"This is a real honor. It feels like the bigger the award, the less deserving we may be," said Patel, who is a member of the House of Lords and also serves as Chancellor of the University of Dundee.

 

SINGAPORE INDIAN SUNNY VERGHESE JOINS BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

 

Singapore-based Indian-origin businessman, Sunny Verghese has joined the Business and Sustainable Development Commission, which aims to help accelerate sustainable growth in agri-business.

 

The Business Commission's mission leverages rigorous research and real-world examples to persuade business leaders to seize upon sustainable development, as the opportunity of a lifetime.  It endeavors to show how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the private sector with a framework to address major developmental challenges. They aim to end hunger and poverty, reduce inequality and tackle climate change by 2030.

 

Verghese, co-founder and CEO of Singapore's agri-business group, Olam International Limited, joins other leaders from the private sector, academia and civil society, who are committed to accelerating the world's transition to inclusive and sustainable growth. He feels that by putting sustainability at the heart of their business, Olam can live up to its name, which means "enduring". This drives Verghese's core purpose of "growing responsibly", thereby pursuing profitable growth in an ethical, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable way.

 

According to Lord Mark Malloch Brown, Chair of the Business Commission, "Sunny's leadership in agri-business will be essential to increase the number of leaders who understand the incredible opportunity for both growth and sustainability in this sector."

 

INDIAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS TO GET MACARTHUR FELLOWSHIP

 

Two Indian-American scientists, Manu Prakash and Subhash Khotare among 23 scientists who have won this year's prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for exceptional creativity in their respective fields. It includes a stipend of USD 625,000, given over five years, designed to give the recipients the flexibility to pursue their activities in absence of specific obligations.

 

Prakash, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. According to Stanford President, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Prakash harnesses a wide array of technologies, including optical physics, computer science, fluid dynamics, biology and chemistry, to solve tangible human and scientific problems.

 

Prakash attributes his ideas to growing up in India. According to him, "Being in the field gives meaning to working in global health. It teaches you empathy, a driving force so strong that it transforms ideas into actions."

 

Khotare, an alumnus of IIT Mumbai, is a theoretical computer scientist at New York University and has a Ph.D. from Princeton University. The MacArthur Foundation stated that Khotare's work provides critical insight into unresolved problems in the field of computational complexity and that his ingenuity and tenacity will drive this important and fruitful area of research for many years.

 

Ahilan Arulanantham, a Sri Lankan-American was also one of the receipts of this award. As an attorney working to secure the right to due process for individuals facing deportation, he has expanded immigrant detainees' access to legal representation and limited the government's power to detain them indefinitely. He plans to donate his USD 625,000 prize for the welfare of immigrant children.

 

INDIAN AMERICAN ABRAHAM VERGHESE WINS NATIONAL HUMANITIES MEDAL IN THE US

 

Abraham Verghese, an Indian-American physician and author has been awarded the National Humanities Medal, America's highest humanities award by US President, Barack Obama for his contribution to medicine.

 

This National Humanities Medal "honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects".

 

According to Stanford University, Verghese has a reputation for his emphasis on empathy for patients in an era in which technology often overwhelms the human side of medicine.

Verghese was born in Addis Ababa and began his medical training there. After working for a brief period in the US, he completed his medical training in Chennai, India at Madras Medical College and later returned to the US for a medical residency.

 

Currently a professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine, Verghese also directs the Stanford interdisciplinary center, Presence. He has also authored several books including 'My Own Country' and 'Cutting for Stone'.

 

SEVEN INDIAN-AMERICANS AMONG 2016 DAVODSOPN FELLOWS

 

Seven teenagers of Indian origin were among the 20 young people who were recognized by the Davidson Institute with fellowships for their breakthrough discoveries that have potential to benefit society.

 

They are Meena Jagadeesan of Naperville, Illinois. Sriharshita Munsunuri of Mill Creek, Washington, Anurudh Ganesan of Clarksburg, Maryland, Raghav Ganesh of San Jose, California,  Maya Varma of Cupertinio, California. Surabhi Mundada of Olympia, Washington and Kavita Selva of Houston, Texas.

 

Davidson Fellows not only represent some of the brightest young minds in the country, but they also represent kindness, compassion and a strong desire to improve the world around them. Many of their projects are inspired by personal experiences that drove them to find solutions to problems.  This has inspired them to use their passion and intelligence to make the world a better place.

 

For instance, Anurudh Ganesan, as an infant in India, had to be carried 10 miles to a remote health clinic to receive a vaccination.  When he and his care-givers arrived at the clinic, there were no viable vaccines left because they could not be refrigerated. Fifteen years later, Ganesan realized that this is still a serious problem, and created VAXXWAGON, a non-electric vaccine transport system.  Now his aim is to see VAXXWAGON in the field, actively saving lives.  His invention can not only safely store and transport vaccines but can help many remote villages that need the scarce resources that are often used for vaccine transportation, such as water and electricity.