President Joe Biden honoured Two Indian-American scientists – Dr Ashok Gadgil and Dr Subra Suresh – with the National Medals in the fields of science and technology. While Gadgil was conferred the National Medal for Technology and Innovation, Suresh won the National Medal of Science.
“These medalists have made discoveries that enable lifesaving medical treatments, help fight the opioid epidemic, improve food security, advance accessibility, protect our democracy, and much more. Their accomplishments advance American leadership in science, technology, and innovation, and their work inspires the next generation of American minds,” the White House said in a statement.
Who is Dr Ashok Gadgil?
Ashok Gadgil, who was born in Mumbai on November 15, 1950, graduated in Physics from the University of Mumbai. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and went on to earn an MSc and PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. He works as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a senior scientist of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at present.
According to the website of Gadgil Lab for Energy and Water Research, “At UC Berkeley, Dr. Gadgil is a Distinguished Chair Professor of Safe Water and Sanitation in CEE. He is the PI and Faculty Director of Development Impact Lab (DIL.berkeley.edu) and of the Clean Energy Research Center for Water Energy Technologies (CERC-WET.berkeley.edu). At LBNL Dr. Gadgil is a Senior Faculty Scientist in the Energy Technologies Area.”
“His expertise ranges from computational fluid dynamics of indoor air and pollutant flows, simulation of entry and transport of indoor radon, building energy efficiency, and methods to treat drinking water to make it potable. He has more than 105 refereed archival journal papers, 150 conference papers, and several patents,” it adds.
Who is Dr Subra Suresh?
Subra Suresh is a bioengineer, materials scientist, and academic. He is a Professor Emeritus and former dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Suresh was born in Mumbai and completed a BTech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He went on to receive a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
According to the MIT website, “Professor Subra Suresh’s research is in the following areas: nanomechanics of biological cells and molecules, and human disease states; structure-mechanical property-disease connections in the context of P. falciparum malaria, hereditary blood cell disorders and cancer; computational simulations of cellular and molecular deformation and shape thermodynamics; high force optical tweezers studies of biological cells and human disease states; nanostructured materials; and nanoindentation and microindentation.”
