New York: Four Indian Americans — Vinod Dham, Ajay V Bhatt, Nitin Nohria, and Sethuraman Panchanathan — have been honored with the Padma Award this year. The highest civilian award of India, given on Republic Day, recognizes distinguished and exceptional achievements, and service in varied disciplines.
While Dham, known as the “Father of the Pentium Chip”, has been honored with Padma Bhushan, the other three have been bestowed with Padma Shri.
Vinod Dham has been recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to microprocessor technology. With a BE degree in electrical engineering from India, he traveled to the USA for an MS degree, with only $8 in his pocket, and became one of the immigrant technology pioneers in the US Silicon Valley.
Born and brought up in Chennai, Sethuraman Panchanathan is the Director of the US National Science Foundation. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, earned an MTech degree from IIT Madras, and then pursued PhD at the University of Ottawa in 1989. His pursuit of American Dream started at the University of Ottawa where he was promoted to associate professor and went through Arizona State University where he became the chief research officer in 2009.
Vadodara-born Ajay V Bhatt, the computer architect behind the creation of the Universal Serial Bus (USB), revolutionized global connectivity. Currently an Intel Senior Fellow, he continues to drive technological advancements in computing and innovation. The decision to do a master’s degree from the City College of New York was his call to pursue the great American Dream.
A renowned leadership and management scholar, Nitin Nohria, hailing from Rajasthan, served as the 10th dean of Harvard Business School (HBS). Nohria now serves as Partner and Executive Chairman at Thrive Capital, focusing on internet and software investments. He made the headlines in 2019 as the highest-paid dean of HBS, earning $904,506 in salary and benefits.
