List of Indian Americans

This 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:

List

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.
* Radhakishan Baheti [http://www.nsf.gov/staff/staff_bio.jsp?lan=rbaheti&org=NSF] , program director at National Science Foundation, Fellow of IEEE
* Homi K. Bhabha, post-colonial theorist at Harvard.
* Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Creator of the controversial oil-eating bacterium used in Gulf War.
* K. Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology.
* Anil Gupta [http://www.pitt.edu/~philosop/people/gupta.html] , Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, and important philosopher and logician.
* 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
* Subhash Kak [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kak's_three_stage_protocol] , Head of the Department, Oklahoma State University, Researcher in Neural Networks and Cryptography.
* 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.
* Ravindra Khattree, Internationally known statistician at Oakland University, Proved Fountain-Khattree-Peddada Theorem.
* Anil Nerode, mathematician, proved the Myhill-Nerode Theorem.
* C.K. Prahalad, leading management guru.
* Raghuram Rajan, IMF Chief Economist, inaugural winner of the Fischer Black Prize.
* C. R. Rao, Internationally known and arguably most famous living statistician of Cramer-Rao Inequality and Rao-Blackwell Theorem fame, Indian Statistical Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University.
* 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).
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, post-colonial theorist, literary critic and deconstructionist who teaches at Columbia University.
* Surain Subramaniam, professor of international relations and prolific author developing the theory of Asian Values
* Madhu Sudan, computer science professor at MIT, winner Rolf Nevanlinna Prize.
* George Varghese, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California San Diego
* Divakar Viswanath, mathematician who discovered Viswanath's constant.
* S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, mathematician who specialised in probability, winner of the Abel Prize
*Ramesh R. Rao, Qualcomm Endowed Chair Professor and Director of UCSD-CalIT2, University of California San Diego.

cience and Technology

* Kalpana Chawla, female NASA Space Shuttle astronaut, and space shuttle mission specialist
* Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut (second woman of Indian descent to head into space)
* Mani Lal Bhaumik, contribuitor 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".
*Pramod Khargonekar Control Theorist, Dean and Eckis Professor, College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida,
* 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.
* Krishan Sabnani, Engineer and Senior Vice President of the Networking Research Laboratory at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in New Jersey
* Mahadev Satyanarayanan, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, pioneered research in mobile and pervasive computing
* Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, the designation the company reserves for its elite master engineers in the area of “ranking algorithm”
* George Sudarshan, physicist, author - first to propose the existence of Tachyon

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)
* Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon , medical author, National Book Award finalist.
* Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (1968).
*Sanjay Gupta, surgeon-physician and CNN cable news Chief Medical Correspondent. Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory University
*Priyesh Patel- Founder of the Nrop Institute for Women and an alumni of University of Chicago.
*Amit Patel- Cardiovascular Surgeon and Stem Cell Researcher - First person to inject stem cells directly into the heart. University of Utah - Associate Professor - Director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine

Arts and Entertainment

* Aziz Ansari, Comedian and MTV personality
* Deeran Patel, Actor
* Kim Singh, Producer of films and television shows. " The Kim Singh Show "
* Sunkrish Bala, Actor
* Samrat Chakrabarti, Actor, Musician
* Sameer Bhattacharya, One of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf.
* Summer Bishil, (one-half Indian)
* Bizzy Bone, Rapper (one-quarter Indian)
* Jay Chandrasekhar, Actor, Comedian, Writer and Director
* Anand Chandrasekaran, Entrepreneur and Filmmaker
* Rory Cochrane, Actor
* Sabu Dastagir, Actor, USAF tailgunner in World War II
* Noureen DeWulf, Actress, star of 2007 Oscar Winning West Bank Story, also starred in The Comebacks
* Dhan Gopal Mukerji, First successful man of letters, Winner of Newbery Medal 1928
* Zakir Hussain, Musician, Tabla Maestro
* Vijay Iyer, Jazz musician and Composer
* Archana Joglekar, Kathak dancer
* Norah Jones, Musician, Grammy award winner 2003 (half-Indian - daughter of Ravi Shankar)
* Anchal Joseph, Model, America's Next Top Model
* Mindy Kaling, Writer, Producer, Actor on The Office. Plays the character Kelly Kapoor.
* Tony Kanal, Bass player for No Doubt, Two-time Grammy award winner
* Neeraj Katyal, Writer, Artist
* Padma Lakshmi, Model, Top Chef Host
* Aasif Mandvi, Actor
* Shelly Malil, Film and TV Actor
* Benny Mathews, Film and Music video director
* Ajay Mehta, TV actor
* Zubin Mehta, Conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
* Saira Mohan, Model
* Govindini Murty, Co-founder of Liberty film festival. ref: http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/
* Ajay Naidu, Actor
* Mira Nair, Director, won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar for Salaam Bombay!
* Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer, a Producer of
* Kunal Nayyar, Actor ("The Big Bang Theory")
*Maulik Pancholy, Actor in 30 Rock, Weeds
* Kal Penn, Actor ("Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle", "Superman Returns") [Penn - [http://www.asiansinmedia.org/news/article.php/television/1488] "the young American-Indian star, Kal Penn..."]
* Sendhil Ramamurthy, Actor, plays Mohinder Suresh in "Heroes"
* Navi Rawat, Guest star on The O.C. and regular cast member on NUMB3RS
* Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director, an Executive Producer of
* Sheetal Sheth, Actress
* Raje Shwari, R&B singer
* M. Night Shyamalan, Filmmaker, actor
* Manick Sorcar, Animator, artist, and producer
* Babu Subramaniam, TV series Director and A.D.
* Julie Titus, Contestant of America's Next Top Model
* Kim Thayil, Guitarist for rock group Soundgarden
* Paul Varghese, Comedian from Dallas, Texas appeared on Last Comic Standing

Business and industry

* Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
* Amar Bose, physicist and founder of Bose Corporation
* Gurbaksh Chahal, Internet Entrepreneurs
* Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks
* Vinod Dham, former microprocessor designer for Intel
* Rono Dutta, former President, United Airlines; Chairman, Air Sahara
* Gunjan Bagla, Management Consultant, Managing Director, Amritt; Author Doing Business in 21st Century India
* 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
* Anshu Jain, managing director and global head of capital markets at Deutsche Bank
* Naveen Jain, former project manager at Microsoft and founder of InfoSpace.com
* Vinod Khosla, general partner, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; co-founder, Sun Microsystems
* Victor Menezes Chairman of the Clearing House Association, earlier been Chairman and CEO of Citibank and headed Citigroup’s Emerging Markets
* Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo.
* Shantanu Narayen is the current CEO of Adobe Systems.
* Ravi Pendekanti, former marketing executive at Sun Microsystems, currently Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Overland Storage.
* Narendra Patni, Founder of Patni Computer Systems
* Arvind Raghunathan, Managing Director and Head of Global Arbitrage at Deutsche Bank, Fellow of the Institute for Combinatorics
* Kanwal Rekhi, businessman and engineer, Former EVP & CTO of Novell, Venture capitalist
* Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup
* Suhas Patil, founder, Cirrus Logic
* Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone Inc. Headed the Vodafone takeover of Hutch-Esser Communications Inc.
* Jay Sidhu, Former Chairman and CEO of Sovereign Bancorp
* Sanjiv Sidhu, founder and CEO of i2 Technologies, a B2B Supply Chain integrator
* Pradeep Sindhu, Co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks
* Ram Shriram, Businessman, co-founder of Junglee.com and board member at Google
* Srik Soogoor, Founder & CEO, Visvo, Inc. a Search Engine Company at Visvo
* Rana Talwar, banker, former Group CEO of Standard Chartered Bank
* Pradeep K Jaisingh , MBA, CEO--International Oncology--www.internationaloncology.com
* Padmasree Warrior,is the New Chief Technology Officer of Cisco Systems, (NASDAQ:CSCO) and the former CTO of Motorola, Inc Motorola She is named one of the four "Women to Watch 2006" by "FORTUNE Magazine" [http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fortune/womenwatch/4.html] .
* Dr.Prem Reddy, Founder and Chairman of Prime Healthcare Services, a healthcare management corporation in Southern California.
* Ramani Ayer, Chairman and CEO, The Hartford Financial Services Group, a Fortune 100 Investment and Insurance Company.
* Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company.
* Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman and ex-CEO of Cognizant Corporation.
* Ramakrishnan Chandrasekaran, President & Managing Director of Cognizant Corporation.

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 International Anchor
* 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 affiliate in Boston
* Bharati Mukherjee, author
* Tanuja Desai Hidier, author of Born Confused
* 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 [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101041]
* 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
* Raj Shah Founder, Desh Videsh Magazine ( http://www.www.deshvidesh.com ) A Magazine Promoting the Indian Sub-contintent.
* Saumitra Saxena, award winning poet in the modern Indian history. Graduated from Indian Institutue of Technology and received his Phd. from University of Illinois at Chicago.
* Shauna Singh Baldwin, novelist, won the Commonwealth Writers Prizfor Best Book
* Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor and WABC-TV technology reporter
* Dr. 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.

Politics

* Harvinder "Harry" Anand, Mayor of Laurel Hollow, New York, the first Indian-American Mayor in New York.
* Kumar P. Barve, State legislator and Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates
* Raj Peter Bhakta, entrepreneur, former "The Apprentice" contestant, and 2006 Republican U.S. House nominee
* Satveer Chaudhary, state Senator in Minnesota.
* Joy Cherian, 1st Asian and Indian American head of the EEOC
* Upendra Chivukula, state legislator (New Jersey General Assembly); first Indian-American elected to the NJ legislature.
* Swati Dandekar, an Iowa State Representative
* Bhagwan Dashairya, 2006 nominee for Governor of Michigan of the U.S. Taxpayers Party.
* Mervyn M. Dymally, Prominent Democrat politician; current California State Assemblyman; former State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Congressman; first Trinidadian to serve in California State Senate and as California Lt. Governor
* Raj Goyle, a Kansas State Representative from Witchita
* 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, former U.S. Congressman and current Governor of Louisiana; Republican.
* Kris Kolluri, New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation.
* Raj Mukherji, New Jersey lobbyist and businessman.
* Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American congressman, was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
* S. R. Sidarth, Democratic campaign volunteer who sparked the George Allen "Macaca" incident.
* Shashi Tharoor, Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information for the United Nations. Candidate for UN general secretary post
* Nikki Randhawa Haley, South Carolina legislator, First Republican Indian American state legislator elected in the US
* Rachel Paulose first woman to become a U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, US Attorney for the District of Minnesota
* Dr. Arjinderpal Sekhon, Ran for Congress from California's 2nd congressional district
* Harry Sidhu, first Indian American elected to Anaheim City Council, November 2004; candidate for California's 33rd Senate District.
* Dinesh D'Souza, Influential Conservative Thinker and Former Policy Analyst in the Reagan White House.
* Amit Singh; Republican candidate for Congress from Virginia's 8th congressional district
* Chirinjeev Kathuria; Republican candidate for Senate (16 Mar 2004) from Illinois. Is of Sikh background; businessman, medical doctor, and politician. Was running to fill soon-to-be vacated seat of U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald
*Saqib Ali- Member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 39th district

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
*Ravi Zacharias, Evangelical Protestant author and apologetic
*Muzammil Siddiqi, Ph.D., Chairman, Fiqh Council of North America
*Rajan Zed, Hindu chaplain to read first Hindu prayer in United States Senate.
*Prem Rawat, also known as Guru Maharaji Ji, head of the Divine Light Mission and later organizations
*Eboo Patel, there's a lot about him on reputable media and other sites on the internet. And he's an Indian-American

cripps National Spelling Bee Champions

*Anurag Kashyap, 2005
*Pratyush Buddiga, 2002
*George Abraham Thampy 2000 [http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jun/02spec.htm]
*Nupur Lala, 1999
*Rageshree Ramachandran, 1988
*Balu Natarajan, 1985
*Sameer Mishra, 2008

ports

* Sanjay Beach was a former NFL wide receiver. He played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.
* Mohini Bhardwaj, second Indian American Olympic medalist, 2004 Summer Olympics silver medalist in gymnastics
* Raj Bhavsar third Indian-American Olympic Medalist, 2008 Summer Olympics bronze medalist in the team gymnastics competition
* Brandon Chillar, NFL player, linebacker for the St. Louis Rams.
* Alexi Grewal, first ever Indian American to win an olympic medal, Gold Medalist in 1984 Summer Olympics in cycling
* Sunil Gulati in charge of American Soccer Federation
* Laxmi Poruri, first Indian-born female professional tennis player
* Rajeev Ram, tennis player
* Sonjay Dutt, TNA Pro Wrestler
* The Great Khali, WWE Pro Wrestler

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
* 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
* Dr. Abraham George, Philanthropist Humanitarian, Founder of The George Foundation (TGF)

ee also

*List of Indians
*List of NRIs

References