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This is a list of Indian Americans who are famous, have made significant contributions to the American culture or society politically, artistically or scientifically, or have appeared in the news numerous times:

Lists of Americans

by U.S. state

by ethnicity:

African | Albanian | Arab

Argentine | Armenian | Austrian

Bahamian | Bangladeshi | Belgian

Brazilian | Bulgarian | Cajun

Cambodian | Chinese | Croatian

Cuban | Czech | Danish

Dutch | English

Estonian | Filipino

Finnish | French | German

Greek | Haitian | Hispanic

Hmong | Hungarian | Indian

Indonesian | Iranian

Irish | Israeli | Italian

Jamaican | Japanese | Jewish

Korean | Laotian | Louisiana Creole

Mexican | Native American | Hawaiian

Nicaraguan | Nigerian

Norwegian | Polish

Portuguese | Romanian | Russian

Rusyn | Salvadoran | Scots-Irish

Scottish | Serbian

Slovak | Slovenian

Spanish | Swedish | Swiss

Turkish | Taiwanese | Ukrainian

Vietnamese | Welsh

Contents 1 List 2 Academic 2.1 Science and Technology 2.2 Medicine 2.3 Arts and entertainment 2.4 Business and industry 2.5 Literature and media 2.6 Politics 2.7 Religion 2.8 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champions 2.9 Sports 2.10 Others 3 See also 4 References

• Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar, mathematician, singularity theory and Abhyankar's conjecture of finite group theory.
• Akhil Amar, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure.
• Vikram Amar, Professor of Law at U.C. Hastings College of the Law.
• Radhakishan Baheti [2], program director at National Science Foundation, Fellow of IEEE
• Prith Banerjee, Dean of University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Engineering, Founder of multiple IT startups. Currently Senior Vice President of Research and Director of HP Labs.
• Homi K. Bhabha, post-colonial theorist at Harvard.
• Kumar M. Bobba, Professor of Engineering, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Advisor to US Government & United Nations. Creator of the controversial oil-eating bacterium used during the Gulf War.
• Subrata Chakrabarti, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago. Member of The National Academy of Engineering.
• K. Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology.
• Varadarajan V. Chari, Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota
• Kevin C. Desouza, is on the faculty of the Information School at the University of Washington. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering. He serves as the Director of the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary, university-wide initiative. He is also Director and founding faculty member of the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M) and is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, both housed at the University of Washington.
• Sanjiv Gokhale, Director of Construction Management and Professor of Civil Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
• Dipak C. Jain, Dean of the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
• Aravind Joshi, computer scientist, defined the tree-adjoining grammar formalism.
• Thomas Kailath, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Stanford University
• Narendra Karmarkar, mathematician, inventor of Karmarkar algorithm.
• Neal Katyal, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, lead counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.
• Pradeep Khosla, Dean of the Carnegie Institute of Technology at Carnegie Mellon University.
• Anil Nerode, mathematician, proved the Myhill-Nerode Theorem.
• C.K. Prahalad, leading management guru.
• Raghuram Rajan, IMF Chief Economist, inaugural winner of the Fischer Black Prize.
• Ram Ramakrishnan, Ernst & Young LLP Head of Dept. of Accounting, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Arkalgud Ramaprasad, Department Head, Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago Additionally Dr. Ramaprasad serves as the Vice Provost of the University. His contribution in the field of Operations Management has been recognized by many industry leaders
• Raj Reddy, Turing Award winner and founder of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
• Amartya Sen, The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998 (Nobel Prize for Economics).
• Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Provost, University of Kentucky, and Professor of Physics, elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in recognition of his contributions to non-linear optical theory.
• Surain Subramaniam, professor of international relations and prolific author developing the theory of Asian Values
• Madhu Sudan, computer science professor at MIT, winner Rolf Nevanlinna Prize.
• Jay Taparia, Founder and Principle of Sanskar Investments & Professor of Finance at University of Illinois at Chicago
• George Varghese, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California San Diego
• Divakar Viswanath, mathematician who discovered Viswanath's constant.

• Mani Lal Bhaumik, inventor of excimer laser technology.
• Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1983.
• Anil Dash, blogger and technologist
• Narinder Singh Kapany, engineer, called the "Father of Fiber Optics".
• Pramod Khargonekar Control Theorist, Dean and Eckis Professor, College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida,
• Om Malik, technology journalist and blogger
• Arun Netravali, scientist, former President, Bell Labs, former CTO, Lucent.
• C. Kumar N. Patel, developed the carbon dioxide laser, used as a cutting tool in surgery and industry.
• Mahadev Satyanarayanan, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, pioneered research in mobile and pervasive computing
• Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, the designation the company reserves for its elite master engineers in the area of “ranking algorithm”
• George Sudarshan, physicist, author - first to propose the existence of Tachyon

• Balamurali Ambati, physician, world's youngest doctor at age 17.
• Paul Antony MD, MPH is the Chief Medical Officer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
• Kumar Bahuleyan, noted neurosurgeon who created Indo-American Brain and Spine Center at Kottayam, Kerala, India.
• Jay Bhatt, First South Asian Male National President of American Medical Student Association
• Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon , medical author, National Book Award finalist.
• Moti L. Kashyap, physician, a world leader in lipidology and cholesterol research.
• Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (1968).
• Tarun Mullick,MD,Sudhir Dutta,MD,Co-inventors of Capsule Endoscopy.
• Nutan Vaidya, First Indian American Woman to be chair of Psychiatry at an academic institution

• Aziz Ansari- Comedian and MTV personality
• Sunkrish Bala- actor
• Samrat Chakrabarti - actor, musician
• Anand Bhatt, musician and producer
• Sameer Bhattacharya, one of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf.
• Summer Bishil- (Part Indian)
• Bizzy Bone - Rapper (Quarter Indian)
• Jay Chandrasekhar- actor, comedian, writer, and film director
• Anand Chandrasekaran - entrepreneur and filmmaker
• Rory Cochrane, actor
• Sabu Dastagir, film actor (Elephant Boy, Jungle Book, The Thief of Bagdad, Arabian Nights), USAF tailgunner in World War II
• Noureen DeWulf, actress, star of 2007 Oscar Winning West Bank Story, also star in The Comebacks
• Dhan Gopal Mukerji, first successful man of letters, winner of Newbery Medal 1928
• Zakir Hussain, tabla maestro
• Vijay Iyer, jazz musician and composer
• Archana Joglekar-Noted Kathak dancer
• Norah Jones, singer, Grammy award winner 2003 (half-Indian - daughter of Ravi Shankar)
• Anchal Joseph Model, seen on show America's Next Top Model
• Tony Kanal, Bass player for No Doubt, two-time Grammy award winner, producer, songwriter
• Ravi Kapoor- Actor
• Padma Lakshmi, model, actress, and author
• Aasif Mandvi, actor
• Sanjaya Malakar, contestant in top 12 of American Idol (season 6) and brother of Shyamali Malakar
• Shelly Malil, Film and TV actor
• Benny Mathews, Film and Music video director
• Zubin Mehta - conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
• Saira Mohan, model
• Bobby Moon- rising American and Bollywood singer
• Govindini Murty, co-founder of Liberty film festival. ref: http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/
• Ajay Naidu- actor
• Mira Nair, filmmaker, won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar for Salaam Bombay!
• Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer, a Producer of CSI: Miami
• Kunal Nayyar, actor (The Big Bang Theory)
• Kal Parekh- actor
• Kal Penn, film actor (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Superman Returns)^[1]
• Russell Peters - Comedian
• Sendhil Ramamurthy, actor, plays Mohinder Suresh in Heroes
• Navi Rawat, guest star on The O.C. and regular cast member on NUMB3RS
• Hillol Ray, Poet Laureate, Author, and Songwriter, wrote "Earth Day"
• Atit Shah, actor, (It Was Raining that Night)
• Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director, an Executive Producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• Sheetal Sheth, actress
• Raje Shwari, R&B singer
• M. Night Shyamalan, filmmaker, actor
• Kim Singh, filmmaker, TV producer, singer. Producer of talk show " The Kim Singh Show", performing arts critic, Managing Editor Asia News
• Manick Sorcar, animator, artist, and producer
• Babu Subramaniam, TV series Director and Assistant Director
• Kim Thayil, guitarist for rock group Soundgarden
• Paul Varghese comedian from Dallas, Texas appeared on Last Comic Standing
• Pratima Yarlagadda - Miss Indiana USA 1999

• A.J. Agarwal, senior managing director and financier in corporate advisory services at the Blackstone Group
• Jaypaul S.Ahluwalia, Director for AXA Group Insurance
• Somen Banerjee, founder of Chippendales
• Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
• Amar Bose, physicist and founder of Bose Corporation
• Gurbaksh Chahal, one of the youngest and most successful internet entrepreneurs of recent history. Created two companies worth over $340 million by the age of 25.
• Atesh Chandra, Vice president Breakers Hotel, Florida
• Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks
• Vinod Dham, former microprocessor designer for Intel and creator of the Pentium processor
• Shri Dodani, CEO of StrataLight Communications, Inc., former CEO of VxTel
• Rono Dutta, former President, United Airlines; Chairman, Air Sahara
• Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO and Chairman, US Airways Group
• Gaurav Garg, co-founder of Redback Networks
• Rajat Gupta, former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
• Rajiv Gupta, a General Manager of Hewlett Packard
• Rajiv Pant, Chief Technology Officer, COX Newspapers Digital
• Promod Haque, managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners in Palo Alto, California
• Ajit Jain, head of National Indemnity, possible successor to Warren Buffett
• Anshu Jain, managing director and global head of capital markets at Deutsche Bank
• Naveen Jain, former project manager at Microsoft and founder of InfoSpace.com
• Sanjay Jejurikar, a Director of Windows division, Microsoft
• Vinod Khosla, general partner, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; co-founder, Sun Microsystems
• Hansraj C. Maru, former CTO of FuelCell Energy
• Shailesh Mehta, former CEO and chairman of the board of Providian Financial Corporation; currently president and CEO of Granite Hill Capital Ventures
• Victor Menezes Chairman of the Clearing House Association, earlier been Chairman and CEO of Citibank and headed Citigroup’s Emerging Markets
• Rajeev Misra, managing director and global head of integrated credit trading at Deutsche Bank
• Satish S. Nandapurkar former managing director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Currently the CEO of US Futures Exchange.
• Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo.
• Anand Parekh, Former Head of Global Equity, Citadel Investment Group LLC.
• Arvind Raghunathan, Managing Director and Head of Global Arbitrage at Deutsche Bank, Fellow of the Institute for Combinatorics
• Kanwal Rekhi, businessman and engineer, Former EVP & CTO of Novell, Venture capitalist
• Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup
• Anand Parekh, former managing director and head of North American structuring at Deutsche Bank, former senior managing director at Citadel Investment Group
• Suhas Patil, founder, Cirrus Logic
• Raj Rajaratnam, senior equity portfolio manager at the Galleon Group
• Vivek Ranadive, CEO and founder of Tibco Software
• Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone Inc. Headed the Vodafone takeover of Hutch-Esser Communications Inc.
• Sanjiv Sidhu, founder and CEO of i2 Technologies, a B2B Supply Chain integrator
• Pradeep Sindhu, Co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks
• Dinakar Singh, Founder of TPG-Axon Capital Management and former managing director at Goldman Sachs (one of the youngest in the firm's history)
• Kim Singh, CEO and Founder of PortaEnterprise, wireless applications for enterprises
• Ram Shriram, Businessman, co-founder of Junglee.com and board member at Google
• Srik Soogoor, Founder & CEO, Visvo, Inc. a Search Engine Company at Visvo
• Rana Talwar, banker, former Group CEO of Standard Chartered Bank
• Ashok Varadhan, managing director and head of North American interest rate trading at Goldman Sachs
• Padmasree Warrior, named one of the four "Women to Watch 2006" by FORTUNE Magazine [3], Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Motorola
• Dr.Prem Reddy, Founder and Chairman of Prime Healthcare Services, a healthcare management corporation in Southern California.
• Sashi Chimala, Founder and CEO of Qwiky's Coffee, Indigo Technologies and PayPod Inc.
• Manu Shah, CEO of M S International Inc.[4]
• Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company.
• Poonam Gupta, Chicago, Entrepreneur - President, Iyka Inc. www.iyka.com
• Sridhar Ramasubbu, CFO AMERICAS,CANADA,EUROPE,WIPRO Technologies Ltd
• Dr.Satinder Mullick,Director of Economic Planning,1965-95,first Indian to be appointed Chief Economist in 1976 by Corning Inc..

• Agha Shahid Ali, poet
• Mitali Perkins, writer
• Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, The Washington Post, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (published by Knopf)
• Deepak Chopra, author and speaker
• Zain Verjee, CNN anchor
• Sumi Das, CNN national correspondent
• Shihab Rattansi, CNN International Anchor
• Aneesh Raman, CNN Middle East correspondent
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN senior medical correspondent
• Ali Velshi, business news anchor for CNN
• Dinesh D'Souza, author and conservative political commentator
• Pico Iyer, author and journalist for Time Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
• Bobby Mehta, CEO of HSBC North America
• Mish Michaels, meteorologist for the Weather Channel and the CBS News affiliate in Boston
• Bharati Mukherjee, author
• Dhan Gopal Mukerji, the first successful Indian man of letters in US
• Aimee Nezhukumatathil, poet
• Uma Pemmaraju, senior news anchor for Fox News Channel
• Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of National Review magazine
• Snigdha Prakash, NPR Correspondent [5]
• Chitra Raghavan, chief legal affairs correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, former NPR correspondent
• Janaki Ram, author
• Vikram Seth, poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist
• Shauna Singh Baldwin, novelist, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book
• Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor and WABC-TV technology reporter
• Dr. Abraham Verghese noted Doctor and Author; "In My Own Country" and "My Tennis Partner"
• Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek
• Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize
• Anita Desai, author
• Kaavya Viswanathan, teen-aged novelist, once famous for having a six-figure book deal and a Disney film, now notorious as a plagiarist.
• Ravi Batra, bestselling author and economist
• Thrity Umrigar, author of Bombay Time.

• Kumar P. Barve, State legislator and Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates
• Satveer Chaudhary, state Senator in Minnesota.
• Toby Chaudhuri, Democratic communications strategist.
• Swati Dandekar, an Iowa State Representative
• Sonny Dhaliwal, first Indian elected as City Councilman in California for the city of Lathrop, re-elected for a second term, currently serving as Vice Mayor for the city of Lathrop, California.
• Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative commentator and author
• Kris Kolluri, New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation.
• Upendra Chivukula, state legislator (New Jersey General Assembly); first Indian-American elected to the NJ legislature.
• Kamala Harris, District Attorney of San Francisco; first Indian-American elected as a D.A. in the United States. Her sister, Maya Harris, was made the Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California in October 2006.
• Kim Singh, Executive Director Asian American Public Policy Institute, former State Chair of Asian Pacific Islander Caucus California Democratic Party, Vice President Stonewall Democratic Club, awarded Medal Of Honor by President Bill Clinton.
• Bobby Jindal, U.S. Congressman & Governor-Elect of Louisiana; Republican.
• Raj Mukherji, New Jersey lobbyist and businessman.
• Vij Pawar, New Jersey attorney and former congressional candidate.
• Ramesh Ponnuru, contributing editor at the National Review, political commentator
• Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American congressman, was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
• S. R. Sidarth, Democratic campaign volunteer who sparked the George Allen "Macaca" incident.
• Shashi Tharoor, Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information for the United Nations. Candidate for UN general secretary post
• Sanjay Puri, Chairman of USINPAC & USIBA
• Nikki Haley, South Carolina legislator
• Rachel Paulose first woman to become a U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, US Attorney for the District of Minnesota
• Sameer Kanal, Democratic National Convention 2004 delegate for Howard Dean from Washington.
• Dr. Joy Cherian Appointed by President Reagan to be first Asian and Indian American to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1987.
• Nanda Chitre, Former Deputy Press Secretary in the Bill Clinton Administration.
• Dr. Arjinderpal Sekhon, Ran for Congress from CA's 2nd congressional district

• K.A. Paul, founder of the Global Peace Initiative
• Reverend Kiran Sankhla, the first female Hindu chaplain in the U.S.
• Ed Viswanathan, author of Am I A Hindu?
• Ramananda Prasad, founder of the International Gita Society
• Ravi Zacharias, Evangelical Protestant author and apologetic
• Muzammil Siddiqi, Ph.D., Chairman, Fiqh Council of North America
• Rajan Zed, Hindu chaplain to read first Hindu prayer in United States Senate.

• Anurag Kashyap, 2005
• Pratyush Buddiga, 2002
• George Abraham Thampy 2000 [6]
• Nupur Lala, 1999
• Rageshree Ramachandran, 1988
• Balu Natarajan, 1985

• Sanjay Beach was a former NFL wide receiver. He played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.
• Mohini Bhardwaj, first Indian American Olympic medalist, gymnastics
• Priya Patel, Amateur Runner, a native of NY.
• Brandon Chillar, NFL player, linebacker for the St. Louis Rams.
• Sunil Gulati in charge of American Soccer Federation
• Sania Mirza, female professional tennis player.
• Laxmi Poruri, first Indian-born female professional tennis player
• The Great Khali, an Indian-born professional wrestler.

• Preeta D. Bansal, former Solicitor General of the State of New York and Commissioner and Past Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
• Kalpana Chawla, NASA astronaut (perished in the 2003 Columbia disaster)
• Omar Ather, New York Rangers, goalie
• Deepti Chitnis, Major US Army Dental Command
• Neal Katyal, lawyer, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, lead counsel in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on Guantanamo military actions
• Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women.
• Sabita Singh, first judge of Indian descent in Massachusetts history
• Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights figure, lecturer, author
• Mahendra Patel, CEO of Hope Medical Institute
• Urvashi Vaid, famous gay rights activist
• Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut (second woman of Indian descent to head into space)
• Dr. Abraham George, Philanthropist Humanitarian, Founder of The George Foundation (TGF)
• Rajan Zed, who delivered first Hindu prayer in United States Senate in Washington DC and some state legislatures of USA.
• Dr. Satish Chandra, Founded in 1990 the Network of Indian Professionals, NetIP, in Chicago. NetIP has 23 chapters in U.S.A, 2 in Canada, and 2 in U.K.

• List of Indians
• List of NRIs