INDIAN
AMERICAN VIKRAM PANDIT NAMED CITIGROUP CEO
Ending weeks of speculation, Citigroup, the world's largest financial
services company has named Vikram Pandit, a 50-year-old from Mumbai
and Nagpur, India, as CEO. The company has more than 300,000
employees, 200 million consumer accounts in 100 countries and more
than $2.4 trillion in assets under management. Sir Win Bischoff, who
has been acting Chief Executive Officer since November 4, 2007, will
succeed Chairman Robert E. Rubin, who will return to his previous
duties as a member of the Citigroup Board of Directors and Chairman of
the Executive Committee of the Board.
A graduate of Columbia University, Pandit beat out several candidates,
including fellow Indian Ajay Banga, who runs Citi's international
consumer banking group.
[Source: GOPIO News]
UCLA
CONFERS MANI BHAUMIK AWARD TO ARIZONA SCIENTIST
The Cousins Center for
Psycho-neuro-
immunology at UCLA has named University of Arizona’s Richard Lane as
the recipient of its annual Mani Bhaumik Award. The award was
established last year to support scientists who advance the
understanding of the human brain and the conscious mind in healing
through visionary research, books and education.
Lane, a professor of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience at the
University of Arizona, received his award on Dec. 6, in the Semel
Institute Auditorium on the UCLA campus. His keynote lecture titled
"The Clinical Importance of Knowing What You’re Feeling:
Insights from Brain Science.” Lane’s lecture provided an
integrated summary of his research on emotion and emotional awareness
over the past two decades.
Bhaumik, co-inventor of the laser technology that made LASIK surgery
possible, has funded the annual $15,000 award. Bhaumik earned a Ph.D.
in physics from the India Institute of Technology and a Sloan
Foundation Fellowship for postdoctoral work at UCLA. Bhaumik received
the Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award from the Indian American
Heritage Foundation for his outstanding contributions to science and
humanity and for his bestselling book, "Code Name God." He
is also the creator and one of the executive producers of the new
animated series, “Cosmic Quantum Ray,” airing on DISH Network’s
Animania HD. The series is geared towards inspiring children’s
interest in science.
[Source:
GOPIO News]
INDIAN
AMERICAN STUDENTS BAG BIG AWARDS AT SIEMENS SCIENCE COMPETITION
The winners of 2007-08 Siemens Competition in Math, Science &
Technology was announced on December 3rd. Indian American student Isha
Himani Jain of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has won the Individual Grand
Prize $100,000 scholarship. Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff
of Plainview, New York, Win Team Grand Prize of $100,000.
The prestigious Siemens Competition, a signature program of the
Siemens Foundation, is administered by the College Board. The ninth
annual awards were presented at New York University, host of the
Siemens Competition National Finals.
The national finals were judged by a panel of nationally renowned
scientists and mathematicians headed by lead judge Dr. Joseph Taylor,
winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and James S. McDonnell
Distinguished University Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Princeton
University. Twenty national finalists competed in the national finals,
including six individuals and six teams. The finalists previously
competed in a series of regional competitions held at six leading
research universities in November.
Isha is a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania won
the price for her research work on zebra fish bone growth that adds a
new dimension to our understanding of human bone growth and our
ability to treat bone injuries and disorders. The grow occurs via
Multiple Pulses of Cell Proliferation.
"Scientists and parents alike know that growth is not linear but
occurs in spurts," said Stephen J. Moorman, Associate Professor,
Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a
competition judge. "Ms. Jain is the first to identify mini
spurts, a cellular mechanism that underlies growth spurts on a
molecular level. This is graduate level work."
Isha's research has been published in Developmental Dynamics, a
premier journal in the field of developmental biology. She is a member
of the Endocrine Society, American Physiological Society and American
Ceramic Society. Her mother's dedication to the medical profession
sparked her interest in clinical research, while her father's who is a
well known professor or glass and materials research work raised her
awareness of the importance of science.
Other Indian American national winners of the 2007-08 Siemens
Competition include the following high school students:
-- $30,000 scholarship - Ayon Sen of Austin, Texas
-- $20,000 scholarship - Nandini Sarma of Overland Park, Kansas
-- $50,000 scholarship – Vivek Bhattacharya of Cary, North Carolina
shares with two others in
his team.
[Source: GOPIO News]
Two
Students Killed in Louisiana
Police
searched for suspects on December 14, in the shooting deaths of two
Louisiana State University students, and unlike other schools in the wake of
the Virginia Tech massacre, administrators decided against locking down the
campus.
Police
patrols were increased on the 28,000-student campus, and students were urged
to be cautious as they wrapped up final exams and headed home for the
holiday break. But LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe said police chose not to
blockade the campus or reschedule the tests after determining the two Ph.D.
students from India were slain in an isolated home invasion.
The
victims were found late Thursday after being shot in the head inside an
apartment complex for married and graduate students.
One
was tied up with a computer cable. The killings were the first on campus in
more than a decade.
The
decision to keep campus open - and let traffic and people move freely - was
in sharp contrast to the responses at other colleges to reports of gunfire
after the Virginia Tech shootings in April.
"There
was no evidence, nothing to suggest that there was a pattern here that would
rapidly escalate. And as a consequence of that, a determination was made
that we would not lock down the campus," O'Keefe said.
This
fall, officials at the University of Memphis canceled class the day after
football player Taylor Bradford was shot because authorities were uncertain
at the time whether it was a targeted or random attack. After two students
were shot in September at Delaware State University, administrators ordered
a swift shutdown of the campus, citing the Virginia Tech shootings.
With
exams ending, few students were on the LSU campus Friday.
Most
were going about their usual routine. None expressed concerns about the
campus being open, but some were edgy.
Shenid
Bhayroo, a graduate student in mass communication, said he was keeping a
sharper eye on his surroundings and on the people he sees on the streets
because the suspects remained at large.
"A
lot of friends I've spoken to today said, certainly, that they'll be more
concerned about ensuring their safety, moreso than normal," Bhayroo
said.
LSU's
campus would be difficult to block off from drivers and walkers. The
university does not have gates at its many entrances, and at least two major
city roads run through the campus. O'Keefe said the university took many
precautions to notify students about the shootings but felt a shutdown of
campus was unnecessary.
But
at least one of the LSU notification systems - a text-messaging alert system
put in place after the Virginia Tech shootings - failed to notify all 8,000
students who signed up.
The
two slain students, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, were
found at Edward Gay apartment complex, on the edge of campus near a
high-crime area of Baton Rouge. Komma, 31, had been bound with a computer
cable, and Allam, 33, was found near the door, said university spokesman
Charles Zewe.
Allam's
pregnant wife called 911 after finding the men dead, said Srinivasa
Pothakamuri, a friend of Komma. Komma, a biochemistry student, had been
visiting Allam, who was in the chemistry program.
O'Keefe
said nothing appeared to be stolen from the apartment, leaving police
unclear about a motive. Zewe said police were searching for three men seen
leaving the area.
The
complex has a tall fence separating its 288 residents from the off-campus
neighborhood, but the apartments have no gates or surveillance cameras.
Resident
Omer Soysal said attempted break-ins and holdups are common at the
apartments, where nearly all the residents are international students.
"When
it is dark, I tell my kids: 'Don't go outside,"' said Soysal, 37, a
third-year Ph.D. candidate in computer science.
LSU
officials sent a campus-wide alert out after midnight, more than an hour and
a half after the shootings. Officials sent out e-mail and voice-mail
messages and posted a message on the university's Web site. But the text
message alert did not reach all its recipients.
It
was not clear what caused the failure, and the problem was being
investigated.
Bhayroo
said he signed up for the text-messaging system days after it was set up,
but never received any messages, before or after the shootings.
"There
haven't been any," Bayroo said. "Many of us took comfort that LSU
implemented this system, so it's worrisome that the system doesn't
work."
O'Keefe
said the company hired to run the text-messaging system hasn't determined
how many people received the message.
Less
than one-third of the student body had even signed up for the cell phone
notification, though O'Keefe said university officials had stressed the need
to do so after Virginia Tech.
"Registration
spiked at one point, as I recall, over the summer and then trickled
off," O'Keefe said. "This horrific incident is yet another reason
why it is really a very good idea to register for the system, and we will
again redouble our efforts."
The
efforts will run into trouble with students like Cameron Hanover, a senior
in political science, who said he didn't sign up and neither did any of his
friends.
"I
didn't want them to have my phone number. It's a privacy issue," he
said.
Sanjay
Puri, chairman of USINPAC, says we as individuals and as a community mourn
along with the families of Chandrashekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam."
Mr. Puri further says, "something like this is always a tragedy,
two young men struck down in the prime of their lives, but with the
close-knit nature of the Indian-American community and its strong sense of
family this is felt all the more keenly."
USINPAC
hopes that the people who committed this horrible crime will be brought to
swift justice, and further hopes that anyone with information that might be
helpful will come forward to the authorities.
[Source:
Agencies]
