List of Indian Americans
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Lists of famous Americans |
by U.S. state |
by ethnicity: |
African American |
Albanian | Arab |
Armenian | Australian |
Austrian | Bahamian |
Bangladeshi | Belgian |
Brazilian | Bulgarian |
Cajun |
Cambodian | Chinese |
Croatian | Cuban |
Danish | Dutch |
English | Estonian |
Filipino | Finnish |
French |
German | Greek |
| Hmong |
Hungarian |
Indian | Iranian |
Irish | Italian |
Israeli |
Jamaican | Japanese |
Jewish | Korean |
Laotian |
Louisiana Creole |
Mexican |
Muslim |
Native American |
Native Hawaiian |
Norwegian | Polish |
Portuguese | Romanian |
Russian | Salvadoran |
Scots-Irish | Scottish |
Swedish | Swiss |
Taiwanese | Ukrainian |
Vietnamese | Welsh |
The following is a list of Indian Americans who are famous, have made significant contributions to the American culture or society politically, artistically or scientifically, or have appeared in the news numerous times:
Contents |
[edit] Academic
- Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar, mathematician, singularity theory and Abhyankar's conjecture of finite group theory.
- Akhil Amar, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure.
- Vikram Amar, Professor of Law at U.C. Hastings College of the Law.
- Prith Banergee, Dean of University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Engineering, Founder of multiple IT startups.
- Homi K. Bhabha, post-colonial theorist at Harvard.
- Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Advisor to US Government & United Nations. Creater of the controversial oil-eating bactarium used during the Gulf War.
- Subrata Chakrabarti, Professor of Mechinical Engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago. Member of The National Academy of Engineering.
- K. Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology.
- Sanjiv Gokhale, Director of Construction Management and Professor of Civil Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
- Usha Haley, international business educator, author, expert on Emerging Market economies.
- Dipak C. Jain, Dean of the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
- Aravind Joshi, computer scientist, defined the tree-adjoining grammar formalism.
- Thomas Kailath, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Stanford University
- Narendra Karmarkar, mathematician, inventor of Karmarkar algorithm.
- Neal Katyal, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, lead counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.
- Anil Nerode, mathematician, proved the Myhill-Nerode Theorem.
- Sonali Gokhale, Residential Hall Association-MSU Vice-President, Political activist.
- C.K. Prahalad, leading management guru.
- Raghuram Rajan, IMF Chief Economist, inaugural winner of the Fischer Black Prize.
- Ram Ramakrishnan, Ernst & Young LLP Head of Dept. of Accounting, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Arkalgud Ramaprasad, Department Head, Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago Additionaly Dr. Ramaprasad serves as the Vice Provost of the University. His contribution in the field of Operations Management has been recognized by many industry leaders
- Raj Reddy, Turing Award winner and founder of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Amartya Sen, The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998 (Nobel Prize for Economics).
- Madhu Sudan, computer science professor at MIT, winner Rolf Nevanlinna Prize.
- Jay Taparia, Founder and Principle of Sanskar Investments & Professor of Finance at University of Illinois at Chicago
- Divakar Viswanath, mathematician who discovered Viswanath's constant.
- Radhakishan Baheti [2], program director at National Science Foundation, Fellow of IEEE
- George Varghese, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California San Diego
[edit] Science and Technology
- Hari Balakrishnan [3], computer science professor at MIT, is one the leaders in the field of networked computer systems research
- Mani Lal Bhaumik, inventor of excimer laser technology.
- Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1983.
- Anil Dash, blogger and technologist
- Narinder Singh Kapany, engineer, called the "Father of Fiber Optics".
- Om Malik, technology journalist and blogger
- Arun Netravali, scientist, former President, Bell Labs, former CTO, Lucent.
- C. Kumar N. Patel, developed the carbon dioxide laser, used as a cutting tool in surgery and industry.
- Mahadev Satyanarayanan, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, pioneered research in mobile and pervasive computing
- George Sudarshan, physicist, author - first to propose the existence of [[Tachyon
[edit] Medicine
- Balamurali Ambati, physician, world's youngest doctor at age 17.
- Paul Antony MD, MPH is the Chief Medical Officer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
- Kumar Bahuleyan, noted neurosurgeon who created Indo-American Brain and Spine Center at Kottayam, Kerala, India.
- Jay Bhatt, First South Asian Male National President of American Medical Student Association
- Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon , medical author, National Book Award finalist.
- Moti L. Kashyap, physician, a world leader in lipidology and cholesterol research.
- Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (1968).
- Akhilesh Pandey, biomedical researcher, Johns Hopkins University and Founder of Institute of Bioinformatics, Bangalore, India.
[edit] Arts and entertainment
- Ajay Naidu, actor
- Anand Bhatt, musician and producer
- Anand Chandrasekaran, Entrepreneur; exec. producer of Carma, invitee to Sundance Producers Conference
- Anchal Joseph Model, seen on show America's Next Top Model
- Babu Subramaniam, TV series Director and Assistant Director
- Benny Mathews, Film and Music video director
- Dhan Gopal Mukerji, first successful man of letters, winner of Newbery Medal 1928
- Hillol Ray, Poet Laureate, Author, and Songwriter, wrote "Earth Day"
- Jay Chandrasekhar, actor, comedian, writer, and film director
- Kal Penn, film actor (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Superman Returns)[1]
- Kim Thayil, guitarist for rock group Soundgarden
- M. Night Shyamalan, filmmaker, actor
- Manick Sorcar, animator, artist, and producer
- Mira Nair, filmmaker, won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar for Salaam Bombay!
- Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director, an Executive Producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- Navi Rawat, guest star on The O.C. and regular cast member on NUMB3RS
- Norah Jones, singer, Grammy award winner 2003 (half-Indian - daughter of Ravi Shankar)
- Padma Lakshmi, model, actress, and author
- Paul Varghese comedian from Dallas, Texas appeared on Last Comic Standing
- Peter Keshavan, author, creator
- Pratima Yarlagadda - Miss Indiana USA 1999
- Sabu Dastagir, film actor (Elephant Boy, Jungle Book, The Thief of Bagdad, Arabian Nights), USAF tailgunner in World War II
- Saira Mohan, model
- Sameer Bhattacharya, one of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf.
- Sanjaya Malakar, contestant in top 12 of American Idol (season 6)and brother of Shyamali Malakar
- Sendhil Ramamurthy, actor, plays Mohinder Suresh in Heroes
- Sheetal Sheth, actress
- Shelly Malil, Film and TV actor
- Shishir Kurup, Actor
- Shyamali Malakar, contestant in American Idol (season 6) and sister of Sanjaya Malakar
- Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer, a Producer of CSI: Miami
- Tanya Adusumilli, writer, producer, film/commercial director
- Tony Kanal, Bass player for No Doubt, two-time Grammy award winner, producer, songwriter
- Vijay Iyer, jazz musician and composer
- Zakir Hussain, tabla maestro
- Zubin Mehta - conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
- Bizzy Bone - Former member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, 1/4 Indian.
[edit] Business and industry
- Atesh Chandra, Vice president The Breakers Hotel, Florida
- Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
- Amar Bose, physicist and founder of Bose Corporation
- Vinod Dham, former microprocessor boss for Intel and creator of the Pentium processor
- Rono Dutta, former President, United Airlines; Chairman, Air Sahara
- Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO and Chairman, US Airways Group
- Rajat Gupta, former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
- Rajiv Gupta, a General Manager of Hewlett Packard
- Ajit Jain, head of National Indemnity, possible successor to Warren Buffett
- Sanjay Jejurikar, a Director of Windows division, Microsoft
- Vinod Khosla, general partner, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; co-founder, Sun Microsystems
- Hansraj C. Maru, former CTO of FuelCell Energy
- Satish S. Nandapurkar former managing director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Currently the CEO of Eurex US.
- Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo.
- Kanwal Rekhi, businessman and engineer, Former EVP & CTO of Novell, Venture capitalist
- Suhas Patil, founder, Cirrus Logic
- Vivek Randive, CEO and founder of Tibco Software
- Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone Inc. Headed the Vodafone takeover of Hutch-Esser Communications Inc.
- Sanjiv Sidhu, founder and CEO of i2 Technologies, a B2B Supply Chain integrator
- Pradeep Sindhu, Co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks
- Rana Talwar, banker, former Group CEO of Standard Chartered Bank
- Padmasree Warrior, named one of the four "Women to Watch 2006" by FORTUNE Magazine [4], Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Motorola
- Ram Shriram, Businessman,co-founder of Junglee.com.
- Shri Dodani, CEO of StrataLight Communications, Inc., former CEO of VxTel
- Victor Menezes Chairman of the Clearing House Association, earlier been Chairman and CEO of Citibank and headed Citigroup’s Emerging Markets
[edit] Literature and media
- Agha Shahid Ali, poet
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author
- Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, The Washington Post, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (published by Knopf)
- Deepak Chopra, author and speaker
- Zain Verjee, CNN anchor
- Sumi Das, CNN national correspondent
- Shihab Rattansi, CNN national correspondent
- Aneesh Raman, CNN Middle East correspondent
- Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN senior medical correspondent
- Ali Velshi, business news anchor for CNN
- Dinesh D'Souza, author and conservative political commentator
- Pico Iyer, author and journalist for Time Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books
- Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
- Bobby Mehta, CEO of HSBC North America
- Mish Michaels, meteorologist for the Weather Channel and the CBS News affliate in Boston
- Bharati Mukherjee, author
- Dhan Gopal Mukerji, the first successful Indian man of letters in US
- Aimee Nezhukumatathil, poet
- Uma Pemmaraju, senior news anchor for Fox News Channel
- Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of National Review magazine
- Snigdha Prakash, NPR Correspondent [5]
- Chitra Raghavan, chief legal affairs correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, former NPR correspondent
- Janaki Ram, author
- Vikram Seth, poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist
- Shauna Singh Baldwin, novelist, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book
- Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor and WABC-TV technology reporter
- Abraham Verghese noted Doctor and Author; "In My Own Country" and "My Tennis Partner"
- Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek
- Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize
- Anita Desai, author
- Kaavya Viswanathan, teen-aged novelist, once famous for having a six-figure book deal and a Disney film, now notorious as a plagiarist.
- Ravi Batra, bestselling author and economist
- Thrity Umrigar, author of Bombay Time.
[edit] Politics
- Kumar P. Barve, State legislator and Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates
- Satveer Chaudhary, state Senator in Minnesota.
- Toby Chaudhuri, Democratic communications strategist.
- Swati Dandekar, an Iowa State Representative
- Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative commentator and author
- Kris Kolluri, New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation.
- Upendra Chivukula, state legislator (New Jersey General Assembly); first Indian-American elected to the NJ legislature.
- Kamala Harris, District Attorney of San Francisco; first Indian-American elected as a D.A. in the United States. Her sister, Maya Harris, was made the Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California in October 2006.
- Bobby Jindal, U.S. Congressman from Louisiana; former gubernatorial candidate; Republican.
- Raj Mukherji, New Jersey lobbyist and businessman.
- Vij Pawar, New Jersey attorney and former congressional candidate.
- Ramesh Ponnuru, contributing editor at the National Review, political commentator
- Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American congressman, was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
- Shashi Tharoor, Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information for the United Nations. Candidate for UN general secretary post
- Sanjay Puri, Chairman of USINPAC & USIBA
- Nikki Haley, South Carolina legislator
- Rachel Paulose first woman to become a U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, US Attorney for the District of Minnesota
- Dr. Joy Cherian Appointed by President Reagan to be first Asian and Indian American to head the Equal Employemnt Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1987.
[edit] Religion
- K.A. Paul, founder of the Global Peace Initiative
- Reverend Kiran Sankhla, the first female Hindu chaplain in the U.S.
- Ed Viswanathan, author of Am I A Hindu?
- Ramananda Prasad, founder of the International Gita Society
[edit] Scripps National Spelling Bee Champions
- Anurag Kashyap, 2005
- Pratyush Buddiga, 2002
- Nupur Lala, 1999
- Rageshree Ramachandran, 1988
- Balu Natarajan, 1985
[edit] Sports
- Sanjay Beach was a former NFL wide receiver. He played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.
- Mohini Bhardwaj, first Indian American Olympic medalist, gymnastics
- Priya Patel, Amateur Runner, a native of NY.
- Brandon Chillar, professional American football player, linebacker for the St.Louis Rams.
- Sunil Gulati in charge of American Soccer Federation
- Laxmi Poruri, first Indian-born female professional tennis player
- Tilak Raj, Indian cricketer.
[edit] Others
- Preeta D. Bansal, former Solicitor General of the State of New York and Commissioner and Past Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
- Kalpana Chawla, NASA astronaut (perished in the 2003 Columbia disaster)
- Deepti Chitnis, Major US Army Dental Command
- Neal Katyal, lawyer, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, lead counsel in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on Guantanamo military actions
- Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women.
- Sabita Singh, first judge of Indian descent in Massachusetts history
- Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights figure, lecturer, author
- Urvashi Vaid, famous gay rights activist
- Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut (second woman of Indian descent to head into space)
- Dr. Abraham George, Philanthropist Humanitarian, Founder of The George Foundation (TGF)