US President Barack Obama named three Indian American scientists as the recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards. These three Indians are among the 96 researchers selected as recipients for the esteemed award for Scientists and Engineers.
This is highest honor given by the US government to science and engineering professionals who are in their early phases of their research careers. Sridevi Vedula Sarma from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, Pawan Sinha and Parag A Pathak both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are going to be bestowed with this award.
Obama in his statement said that major discoveries in science and technology field not only strengthen the economy of a country but they inspire the people also to work for a better future.
The award was established in 1996. All the awardees are selected on the basis of their innovative research in science and technology field including their commitment towards the community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.
Sinha is an associate professor of computational and visual neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He received his undergraduate degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and then his Master’s and doctoral degrees from the Department of Computer Science at MIT. He has also launched a humanitarian project named “Prakash”.
Sridevi Sarma on the other hand is an assistant professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Computational Medicine at the John Hopkins University.
Sarma received her BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, in 1994 followed by her MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997 and 2006, respectively.
Sridevi Sarma was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, Cambridge, from 2006-2009.