Three individuals selected for their contribution to society.
By American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: Three eminent personalities and the nonprofit global health and disaster relief organization AmeriCares will be honored by the Connecticut Chapter of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO-CT) at its annual awards banquet on April 20th at the Italian Center, Stamford. CT.
The three individuals selected to be honored for their outstanding contribution to the society, apart from AmeriCares for their Service to India award, are: Dr. Ramamurti Shankar – Basic Sciences; Rakesh Narang – Entrepreneurship and Business Acumen; and Suresh Sharma – Community Service.
Shankar is the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics and Professor of Applied Physics at Yale University. He has done some outstanding work in Quantum Physics and has written several books on Physics and Math.
An IIT Madras graduate with a Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics in 1974, Shankar was elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows which provided him to pursue his own research. Shankar joined Yale University in 1977. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, Princeton, Berkeley and a professor at MIT too.
Shankar works on the application of Quantum Field Theory to particle, statistical and condensed matter physics in which he has over 100 publications. He was recognized by the 2005 ‘Harwood Byrnes and Richard Sewall Prize’ from Yale with a citation “a teacher in Yale College who has given the most time, energy, and effective effort to helping undergraduates learn,” and the ‘Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize’ of the American Physical Society.
Rakesh Narang is the President and Founder of Wire & Plastic Machinery Corporation, based in New Haven, CT, a leading global equipment supplier for the wire and cable industry. He is a recipient of the Charles D. Scott Distinguished Career Award, which is awarded to individuals in the wire and cable field who have served the industry for a minimum of 25 years and have demonstrated outstanding professional acumen and personal attributes.
Narang is an active supporter of various Indian and community organizations in the New York Tri-State area, including Children’s Hope India, Hindu Cultural Center of Connecticut, Hindu Samaj Temple of Mahwah, New Jersey and the Queens Child Guidance Center.
Suresh Sharma is the Founder of the Milan Cultural Association, Hartford, CT, to create visibility of Indian American community for mainstream America, with a passion for the first generation to leave behind for the younger generation a legacy not of diversified regionalism but of cultural heritage and unity in diversity, so that the younger generation feel “proud to be Indians.”
Sharma also developed “P.G. Better Living,” a free monthly e-magazine dedicated to synthesizing eastern ethos, values and beliefs with the western lifestyle of adults, young and children as they seek to meet their personal, political, social, cultural, spiritual, health, financial and physical needs particularly their “pain points”, to inculcate attitude of conscious, virtuous, peaceful and contended living.
In 2006, AmeriCares deepened its commitment to India by establishing a local presence in Mumbai. AmeriCares India responds to emergency medical needs and delivers medical aid to health care providers in 26 Indian states and union territories. The organization conducts on-site disaster preparedness workshops for emergency medical personnel and community-based health education programs for disease prevention. AmeriCares India continues to expand its reach with free mobile medical clinics that provide access to health care in the Mumbai slums.