Drs. Ganguly, Singh awarded US Govt.’s highest science honor.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A pair of Indian-origin scientists has been feted by President Barack Obama’s Administration, which named each of them as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Dr. Karunesh Ganguly and Dr. Hardeep Singh were given the award at a lavish White House ceremony on April 14. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is “the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers,” said the White House, in a press release.
“The impressive achievements of these early-stage scientists and engineers are promising indicators of even greater successes ahead,” President Obama said, in a statement, at the time of PECASE announcement in December. “We are grateful for their commitment to generating the scientific and technical advancements that will ensure America’s global leadership for many years to come.”
In total, 102 individuals were awarded this year, and each awardee is named by a specific government bureau. Both Ganguly and Singh were selected for the commendation by the Department of Veterans Affairs, as both of them are employed by VA Medical Centers. Individuals are chosen for “their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.”
Ganguly is a neurologist and research scientist at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. He is also an assistant professor in residence at the UCSF [University of California, San Francisco] School of Medicine and the UCSF Department of Neurology. He earned his M.D. in 2004 from the UC San Diego School of Medicine,
“I am truly honored to be selected for this award,” said Ganguly, in a statement released by the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
“I have worked with a lot of great clinicians and scientists over the past decade. I owe much of my success to them. I would especially like to acknowledge Jose Carmena and Gary Abrams. Both the San Francisco VA Medical Center and UCSF have been tremendously supportive of our multidisciplinary research efforts. I would also like to thank my parents for their sacrifices when moving to this country.”
Singh works with the University of Texas’ Health Science Center at Houston, as well as the Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center. He is a general internist and a patient safety researcher at Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety based at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and is the Director of the Houston VA Patient Safety Center of Inquiry. He earned his medical degree at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.