Engineering 'Oscars' for 5 NRIs

The significance of Washington's decision to ease visa restrictions on foreign scientists and academics has been underscored again with the US National Academy of Engineering's 2005 scroll of honour containing several foreign-born members, including five scholars of Indian-origin.

The five Indians who have been named among this year's 74 new members are Subhash Mahajan, Chair, Department of Chemical and Materials engineering, Arizona State University; Arunava Majumdar, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; R Shankar Nair, senior vice president, Teng & Associates, Chicago; Raja V Ramani, Professor Emeritus, Mining and Geo-environmental Engineering, Pennsylvania State University; and, Subhash Singhal, Director of fuel cells, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington.

They have been recognised for their work in areas such as semi-conductors, fuel cells, nanotechnology, building technology and coal mine safety.

They join an elite list of some 2000 engineers, including around 50 Indians, who are lifetime members of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, the highest professional distinction accorded to engineers and scientists in the United States. Previous years' honourees include such familiar names as Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca and Lou Gershner.

Among the distinguished Indian-American scientists and engineers who are members of the NAE and the NAS are Nobel Laureautes Hargobind Khorana and Subrammanyam Chandrasekshar, Amar Bose (of Bose speakers), former Bell Labs President Arun Netravali, C Kumar Patel, also formerly of Bell Labs, Raj Reddy of Carnegie Mellon, and Tom Kailath of Stanford University.