Ashok Gadgil of the University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was presented with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, while Brown University professor Subra Suresh received the National Medal of Science.
President Joe Biden presented two Indian Americans with the highest scientific awards for their contributions to science and technology on Oct. 24 in the East Room of the White House. Ashok Gadgil of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, while Subra Suresh of Brown University received the National Medal of Science.
The White House said Gadgil received the award “for providing life-sustaining resources to communities around the world.” “From drinking water to fuel-efficient cookstoves, his innovative, low-cost technologies help meet profound needs; his work is inspired by a belief in the dignity of all people and our ability to solve the great challenges of our time.”
According to a Berkeley Lab press release, Gadgil has developed “lowcost solutions to some of the developing world’s most intractable problems, including safe drinking water technologies, energy-efficient stoves, and ways to make efficient electric lighting affordable.” “Together, his projects have assisted over 100 million people.” He also specializes in building energy efficiency and computational fluid dynamics of indoor air and pollutant flows,” according to the press release.
He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for work that “helped over 100 million people across four continents by making efficient electric lighting affordable, water safe to drink, and designing energy-efficient stoves.” He also received the Heinz Award for Global Innovation and the Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation.
Suresh was honored “for pioneering research across engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences, and particularly for advancing the study of material science and its application to other disciplines,” according to the White House.
Suresh described the honor as “satisfying and humbling” in a Brown University statement. He stated that one should do science for the love of it, not for the recognition. “It is icing on the cake if anyone notices it, but it is not the cake itself.” This one, however, is special because it comes from the President of the United States. It is a national thing. It bears the imprint of the United States.”
He joined the Brown faculty as the youngest member of the engineering faculty in 1983. After ten years at Brown, he became the first Asian-born American to lead the National Science Foundation, becoming its thirteenth director after being nominated by then-President Barack Obama. He returned to Brown’s School of Engineering in September 2023. Earlier this month, the school announced a biennial symposium in his honor focused on the frontiers of technology and society.
He was the ninth president of Carnegie Mellon University and a faculty member and dean of MIIT, is engineering school.
