Four Indian-Americans elected to National Academy of Engineering of USA

Four Indian-American engineers and two Indians were on 8 February 2016 elected to National Academy of Engineering (NAE) of the USA for their outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education.

While Indo-Americans Anil K Jain, Dr Arati Prabhakar, Ganesh Thakur and Dr K R Sridhar were part of 80 newly-elected members, Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani and former technocrat Sam Pitroda were part of 22 foreign members.

About Anil K Jain

• An undergraduate from IIT-Kanpur, he was elected for his contributions to the engineering and practice of biometrics.

• At present, he is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Michigan State University.

• His research interests include pattern recognition, computer vision and biometric recognition.

• He has been assigned six U.S. patents on fingerprint recognition (transferred to IBM in 1999) and two Korean patents on surveillance.

• He was a consultant to India's Aadhaar program that provides a 12-digit unique ID number to Indian residents based on their fingerprint and iris data.

• He authored several books including Introduction to Biometrics (2011), Handbook of Biometrics (2007) and Handbook of Multibiometrics (2006) among others.

About Dr Arati Prabhakar

• She is the director of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Virginia.

• She was elected as a fellow for national leadership to advance semiconductor and information technologies.

• Her first service to national security started in 1986 when she joined DARPA as a program manager.

• As the founding director of DARPA's Microelectronics Technology Office, she led a team of programme managers whose efforts spanned areas such as optoelectronics, infrared imaging and nanoelectronics.

• In 1993, President William Clinton appointed her as the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

• She chaired the Efficiency and Renewables Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Energy.

About Ganesh C Thakur

• He is the president of Thakur Services Inc. in Houston, Texas.

• He was named a member for leadership in the implementation of integrated reservoir management techniques.

• He is a world-recognized leader in reservoir engineering and management and interdisciplinary practice of water flood management.

• He served as an ambassador of technical capabilities to national oil companies and government ministries in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, etc.

About K R Sridhar

• He is the principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy Corporation in California.

• He was selected for the contributions to transport phenomena and thermal packaging of electrochemical systems and generation of clean, reliable and affordable power.

• Prior to founding Bloom Energy, he was director of the Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) and a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona.

• His work for the NASA Mars programme to convert Martian atmospheric gases to oxygen for propulsion and life support was widely recognised.

About National Academy of Engineering (NAE)

• It was founded as a private, independent and non-profit organisation in 1964.

• It provides engineering leadership with a mission to promote a vibrant engineering profession and giving insights to the US government on related matters.

• Its membership honours those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education.

• Along with the new members announced for 2016, the total US membership goes up to 2275 and the number of foreign members to 232.

• Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE’s Annual Meeting in Washington DC on 9 October 2016.

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