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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 3rd August 2013
Four Indian Americans win top science and maths awards Washington: Four Indian American professors are among the 13 mathematicians, theoretical physicists and theoretical computer scientists who have won 2013 Simons Investigators awards. Currently working at Stanford University, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania University, they will each receive $100,000 a year for five years for their long-term research with the possibility of renewal for five additional years. The awards are given by nonprofit New Yorkbased Simons Foundation, incorporated in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons with a mission to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. Among four mathematicians who won Simons grants is Stanford professor of mathematics
US returns stolen Saddam Hussein sword to Iraq Washington: A gold-laden sword looted from ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's personal office in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq has been returned to Iraqi authorities. The Homeland Security Department yesterday returned the 43inch sword with an embellished blade and sheath with gold inlaid Arabic writing to the Iraqi ambassador. The sword was seized by the US government in January 2012 after it was found for sale at an auction in Manchester, New Hampshire. The auction company, which sold the sword for $15,000 before it was seized, said it was brought to the United States by an American combat historian. The department says the sword, a gift to Saddam, is not a modern battlefield weapon and could not be considered a war trophy.
Kannan Soundararajan, "one of the world's leaders in analytic number theory and related areas," the Simons Foundation said. "His work is focused on understanding the zeros and value distribution of L-functions, and on analyzing the behaviour of multiplicative functions." The India-born professor represented India at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1991, where he won a silver medal. A Sloan Foundation Fellow, he has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a PhD from Princeton. Two of three awards in computer science went to Indian Americans. They are Rajeev Alur, Zisman Family Professor in the department of information and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania; and Salil P. Vadhan, Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer
Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. Alur is a top researcher in formal modelling and algorithmic analysis of computer systems, the Simons Foundation said. "A number of automata and logics introduced by him have now become standard models with great impact on both the theory and practice of verification." Alur has BS and PhD degrees in computer science from IIT-Kanpur and Stanford University, respectively. Vadhan, the Simons Foundation said, has "produced a series of original and influential papers on computational complexity and cryptography. He uses complexity-theoretic methods and perspectives to delineate the border between the possible and impossible in cryptography and data privacy."
Vadhan has a PhD in applied mathematics from MIT, a certificate of advanced study in mathematics from Churchill College at Cambridge University and AB in mathematics and computer science from Harvard University. Senthil Todadri, a professor of physics at MIT and Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute of Physics, was one of six Simons grant winners in that discipline. "Senthil Todadri's work with Fisher on Z2 topological order in models of spin liquid states provided key insights and initiated the systematic investigation of gauge structures in manybody systems, now a vital subfield of condensed matter physics," the foundation said. Todadri has his Ph.D. from Yale and an undergraduate degree from IITKanpur.
Afghan, Myanmar women win Magsaysay awards Manila: Afghanistan's first woman governor and a Myanmar civil society organiser, who both helped families displaced by conflict in their home nations, are among five winners of Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize this year. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation singled out Afghanistan's Habiba Sarabi, a 57-year-old doctor, for her "bold exercise of leadership to build up a functioning provincial government against great odds." Sarabi, currently the only Afghan woman in such a role, also devoted her energy to helping Afghans in refugee camps, providing medical care and supervising literacy courses secretly in a Taliban-ruled state in the late 1990s. "I'm not a warlord. I'm just a modern woman," said Sarabi, the governor of Bamyan province since 2005, who has pushed for education and empowerment of women in a socie-
Habiba Sarabi
ty scarred by widespread discrimination against women and minorities. The Foundation also recognised Lahpai Seng Raw from Myanmar, for her "quietly inspiring and inclusive leadership in the midst of deep ethnic divides and prolonged armed conflicts." The 64-year-old widow, founder of the largest civil society group in the military-ruled country, did relief work among displaced people besides setting up schools and clinics. She was once detained on suspicion of
being in contact with a brother who is with rebel forces in Myanmar. In addition, the Manilabased foundation honoured Ernesto Domingo, a 76-year-old Filipino doctor who saved millions from life-threatening illness by vaccinating babies against hepatitis B and almost eliminating the chance of their getting infected. Other winners include Indonesia's independent anti-corruption government body, the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK), which has a 100percent rate of conviction of corrupt officials and has recovered $80 million in stolen assets. Nepal's Shakti Samuha, a group that combats human trafficking and helped rebuild the lives of thousands of trafficked and abused women, was another winner. The winners will receive prizes of $50,000 each at a ceremony set for August 31 in Manila.
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In Focus Barack Obama names IndianAmerican judge in California
Washington: US President Barack Obama has nominated yet another Indian American legal luminary, Vince Girdhari Chhabria, to a key judicial post in California. Nominated to be US district judge for the northern district of California, Chhabria is currently deputy city attorney for government litigation at the San Francisco city attorney's office, where he has worked since 2005. Announcing Chhabria's nomination along with five other judicial posts, Obama said: "These men and women have had distinguished legal careers and I am honoured to ask them to continue their work as judges on the federal bench."
Car bombings in Iraq kill 60
Baghdad: Car bombs ripped through busy streets and markets in Iraq, killing at least 60 people in predominantly Shia areas in some of the deadliest violence since Sunni insurgents stepped up attacks this year. The 17 blasts, which appeared to be coordinated, were concentrated on towns and cities in Iraq’s mainly Shia south, and districts of the capital where Shias live. Militant groups including al-Qaida have increased attacks in an insurgency against the Shia-led government as a civil war in neighbouring Syria heightens sectarian tensions.
80 killed as speeding train derails in Spain
Santiago de Compostela: Police put the driver of a Spanish train under investigation after at least 80 people died when it hit a sharp bend at speed, derailed and caught fire near the pilgrimage centre of Santiago de Compostela, in one of Europe’s worst rail disasters. The crash was caused by excessive speed, an official source with knowledge of the accident investigation said. Dramatic video footage from a security camera outside the northwestern city showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track as carriages jack-knifed and the engine overturned.
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Pro-Morsi protesters call for mass demonstrations
Cairo: Egyptian protesters loyal to deposed president Mohamed Morsi called for a "million person march" against his ouster. They also called on demonstrators to march to "security administration buildings" throughout Egypt to protest the deaths of 72 people at an earlier rally. "We ... call for a million person march under the banner of “Martyrs of the Coup,” the Anti-Coup Alliance of Islamist groups organizing the protests said in a statement. The group urged Egyptians "to go out into the streets and squares, to regain their freedom and
Mohamed Morsi
dignity - that are being usurped by the bloody coup - and for the rights of the martyrs assassinated by its bullets." It also called for protesters to march to security buildings in provinces across Egypt "to condemn the criminal acts and the firing of live ammunition
by the interior ministry at peaceful demonstrators." The protest calls comes after at least 72 people were killed at a sit-in in support of Morsi. His loyalists accused security forces of using live fire against unarmed protesters but Egypt's interior ministry said only tear gas was used. Egypt's polarization has been growing since Morsi's July 3 ouster by the army after massive protests against him. His supporters remain defiant, insisting he will be reinstated, but the interim government has said it would move to disperse the protests and warned it
would take "decisive" action if demonstrators overstepped their bounds. Govt threatens crackdown: Meanwhile, the country’s interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim pledged to deal decisively with any attempts to destabilize the country. “I assure the people of Egypt that the police are determined to maintain security and safety to their nation and are capable of doing so,” Mohammed Ibrahim said at a ceremony at the national police academy. “We will very decisively deal with any attempt to undermine stability,” said Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police.
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