SAJAforum

AWARDS: SAJA announces award winners, scholarships and Hall of Fame inductee

SAJA has announced its award winners, scholarships and Hall of Fame inductee for this year. From the press release:

SAJA Group, Inc. and the South Asian Journalists Association will honor the winners of the 2008 SAJA Journalism Awards contest at its 14th annual dinner on Saturday, June 21, at Columbia University in New York.

These annual awards recognize excellence in reporting about South Asia,as well as outstanding reporting by South Asian journalists and students in the U.S. and Canada. The Awards ceremony is part of the SAJA's international convention, which takes place June 20-21 and is expected to draw 1,000 journalists and guests from the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Asia (South Asians and non-South Asians will participate). The awards will be presented at Columbia University.

SAJA will also pay tribute to the memory of slain reporter Daniel Pearl, who, as South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was a regular participant in SAJA's cyber activities. The seventh Daniel Pearl Award for outstanding print reporting on South Asia by U.S. and Canadian journalists will be presented that night. This year's winner is Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal.

According to Monika Mathur, chair of the SAJA awards committee, "it was a highly competitive year and these awards honor some of the finest coverage on the South Asian focus and the work produced by South Asians in our industry."

Also at the dinner, the newest member of the SAJA Hall of Fame will be inducted posthumously: Gopal Raju, the founder of India Abroad and a leading South Asian journalist for several decades. "Mr. Raju paved the way for many South Asian journalists working in the U.S. today," said Sandeep Junnarkar, SAJA president and professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. "He also helped establish the South Asian ethnic press in the United States."

See the full list of winners below and at http://www.saja.org/about/pressreleases/2008awardsresults/

Post your comments, please.

AWARDS: Jet Airways wins the "Oscars" of frequent flyer program

I thought Freddie Awards were associated with Health and Medical media. But has anyone heard of the other Freddie Awards?

This one recognizes the most outstanding frequent flyer programs from around the world.

Jet Airways' JetPrivilege, one of India's largest frequent flyer program, won seven top awards at the 20th Annual Freddie Awards ceremony in Phoenix on April 28.

JetPrivilege won the awards in the following categories:

• Best Elite-Level program [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]
• Best Web site [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]
• Best Bonus Promotion [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]
• Best Affinity Credit Card [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]
• Best Award [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]
• Best Customer Service [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]
• Program of the Year [Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia]

Given some of the best airlines come from the region (Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia), I am sure Jet Airways won from a competitive pool.

Thoughts about Jet Airways/JetPrivilege? Please post them below.

AWARDS: Arun Venugopal wins MHA prize for radio reporting

Arun Venugopal, SAJAforum's fearless leader, won a major award yesterday. In typical Arun fashion, he whispered not a word about it to us, hoping that the award, his trip to D.C. to collect it, etc, wouldn't be noticed. Well, too bad, Arun, because this is a prize worth noting (the photo is from last year's SAJA Convention; PHOTO: Manish Vij).

Mental Health America, "the country's leading nonprofit dedicated to helping ALL people live mentally healthier lives," presented its 2008 media awards on Saturday, June 7 at a luncheon as part of its Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C. Among the winners:

Local Radio
WNYC (New York, NY), "Cities Embrace New Ways to Handle Confrontations Between Cops and the Mentally Ill," by Arun Venugopal

Listen to Arun's report - all nine minutes - here (transcript link below):

SPELLING BEE: Sameer Mishra wins, with 'guerdon'

[Note: Six of the ten last National Spelling Bee winners, including Sameer, are of Indian descent]

Thirteen-year-old Sameer Mishra, a four-time veteran of the National Spelling Bee, finally won the competition, becoming the latest desi to win. He took home the $35,000 cash award and $5,000 in other prizes. From the Associated Press:

The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries was all business when he aced "guerdon" — a word that appropriately means "something that one has earned or gained" — to win the 81st version of the bee Friday night.

"I don't know about comedy lines, but my parents have been telling me since the beginning that I should always stay calm, cool and collected," said Sameer, who likes playing the violin and video games, and hopes one day to be a neurosurgeon.

Sameer, appearing in the bee for the fourth time and a top 20 finisher the last two years, clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who finally stumbled on "prosopopoeia," a word describing a type of figure of speech.

Sameer was a crowd favorite throughout the tournament. When told one of his words in the semifinals was a dessert, he deadpanned: "That sounds good right now." He rolled his eyes and muttered "wonderful" when told that one of his words had five different language roots. He once asked "Are you sure there are no alternate pronunciations?" and later uttered "That's a relief" after initially mishearing the word "numnah" (a type of sheepskin pad).

And what did he have to say while hoisting the heavy trophy? "I'm really, really weak."

Look at the list of top finishers. Out of 12 kids, five are South Asian (I can't tell from her name where Samia's family is from; assuming Pakistan):

• Sameer Mishra (the winner)
• Sidharth Chand (2nd place)
• Samia Nawaz (4th place tie)
• Kavya Shivashankar (4th place tie)
• Jahnavi Iyer (8th place tie)

Note, last week, Akshay Rajagopal won the National Geographic Geography Bee and $25,000 (link below).

The screengrab on the left is from the front-page of ESPN.com. Mishra is one of the first South Asians other than golfers Vijay Singh or Daniel Chopra (who won the first tournament of the 2008 season) to have his photo featured on that front page. ESPN and its corporate cousin, ABC, treat the bee like a big-time sports event, airing the early rounds on ESPN and then the finals live on prime-time on ABC. Read ESPN's coverage, including a quiz.

Post your comments below.

Related coverage:

• Sriram Hathwar, age 8, Goes Down on Day 1, but Others Advance
• ESPN profiles Samir Patel, "the Dan Marino of spelling"
• A South Asian Spelling Bee Launches and Akshay Rajagopal Wins the Geography Bee

In 2005, Tunku Varadarajan wrote a WSJ essay: "Why Do Indians Excel in Bees,"

Where are they now?

• Here's an article from 2004 on Nupur Lala, who won in 1999 and starred in the hit documentary "Spellbound." At some point, she declined an offer from MTV to be in a reality TV show, calling it "too invasive."
• And here's some info on Balu Natarajan. He's the first Indian to win the Spelling Bee - in 1985 - and is now a Chicago-area physician who serves on the medical team of the Chicago Marathon. Balu is also a friend, and it's to his credit that he never let on that he'd won; I only found out much later. Such a well-adjusted boy!
• The winner of the 1988 Bee, Rageshree Ramachandran, was profiled by Time magazine last year.  At the time she was a Ph.D and M.D. resident in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.

AWARDS: Adrees Latif collects a Pulitzer

That's a photo of Pakistan-born Adrees Latif at the Pulitzer Prize ceremony this afternoon, with his wife, a fellow photojournalist based in Bangkok. Am posting this with an apology in advance for the cellphone photo. Considering their high standards, it's probably the worst photo they've been associated with.

In today's New York Times, Reuters ran a full page ad on the back of the business section congratulating Latif on the award. See PDF version here.

See SAJAforum's writeup on his award - and see the winning photograph

UPDATED: Better, official Reuters photos below.

Post your comments.

SPELLING BEE: ESPN on Samir Patel, "the Dan Marino of Spelling"

Samir Patel, spelling legend, at 9, and, now, at age 14. Photo on the right by Mike Stone.

For you non-U.S.-football fans, the reference in the headline is to Dan Marino, who is widely considered the greatest quarterback never to win the Super Bowl. And Samir Patel, at age 14, is widely considered the best speller never to win the National Spelling Bee. As this year's tournament gets underway, ESPN.com profiles Patel, who is over the age limit and won't be participating. From "Spelling Bee Icon Moves on to Other Challenges," by Elizabeth Merrill (she also interviewed his mom, Jyoti):

In 2003, Samir captivated America by playfully breezing past boys and girls in varying stages of adolescence and finishing third at the bee. He didn't really understand what he'd accomplished. He was 9 years old. The next summer, he was tripped up by "corposant" and finished 27th. Every year he studied harder; every trip to Washington, D.C., brought more disappointment. He peaked, by bee standards, at the age of 11 when he finished second.

Now he's 14, with nowhere to go this week when 288 tiny geniuses are in Washington fighting for the final word and maybe a two-minute spot on "Good Morning America." The rock star of the bee will be home, his eligibility over. The TV will be off for some of the competition because his family doesn't have cable. Maybe he'll hum a few bars of "Mrs. Robinson," a song that used to unclutter his head while he sat through the other spellers' turns. Samir doesn't know it's the theme song from a movie about a boy trying to be a man.

"I wouldn't say that I miss it, because after five years it was time to move on to another chapter of my life," he says. "I've had a lot of other stuff to keep my mind busy. I try not to dwell on the past."

Other snippets:

AWARDS: Faiz Shakir wins Hillman best blog prize

The Sidney Hillman Foundation's  annual journalism awards were announced yesterday, via, an ad on the op-ed page of the New York Times (it's not yet on the foundation site).

Among the winners are Faiz Shakir and Amanda Terkel, for their progressive blog, ThinkProgress.org.

Asked for a comment, Shakir, whose family is from Pakistan, told SAJAforum: "To have our work be recognized as journalism is a great testament to the increasing reliability and influence of the blogosphere. I'm not sure if that's an honor for us or a blow to traditional journalism. Either way, I'll take it."

From the about us page of ThinkProgress:

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor-in-Chief of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report. He holds a B.A. degree in Government from Harvard University and a J.D. degree from the Georgetown Law Center. Faiz has previously worked as a Research Associate for the Democratic National Committee, as a Legislative Aide to Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and as a communications aide in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. His writings have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, Florida Today, and Salon. Faiz has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC television, among other places, and has been a guest on many radio shows.

See Shakir's archive of postings here.

More on the awards:

"Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has recognized journalists, writers and public figures whose work promotes social and economic justice. These awards reflect the vision and commitment of Hillman, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (a predecessor union of UNITE HERE), whose tireless efforts to bring dignity and respect to working people left a lasting legacy for the American public."

Post your comments below.

AWARDS: Taraknath Das award for Indo-American understanding goes to AIIS

One of the most important annual awards in South Asian America has just been announced. See below for this year's no-charge event info (includes RSVP and press contacts). Also see the impressive list of previous winners below.

TARAKNATH DAS FOUNDATION
presents its

ANNUAL AWARD
honoring
The American Institute of Indian Studies
for its contributions to Indo-American understanding

Champagne Reception
Friday, May 9, 2008
5:00 p.m.
Sulzberger Parlor, Barnard College
(#1 train to 116th St)

At the ceremony, the Indian Consul General, Neelam Deo, will speak briefly, and Prof. Ainslie Embree, former president of the AIIS, will make a few remarks, and Prof. Veena Oldenburg, Baruch College, and Prof. Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University will also speak. On behalf of the Foundation, Prof. Rachel McDermott and Prof. Leonard Gordon will speak about it and its links to the AIIS over many years. Prof. Ralph Nicholas, University of Chicago, a distinguished anthropologist and president of the AIIS, will accept the award.

RSVP & PRESS INQUIRIES:
Leonard Gordon, Taraknath Das Foundation director: lg17@columbia.edu
No charge, but please RSVP for headcount.
Questions about the AIIS may be directed to Prof. Nicholas at r-nicholas@uchicago.edu

AWARDS: Sierra Club announces $100,000 award for NGOs in India

From a press release by Sierra Club (thanks for the tip, Rob):

The Sierra Club, the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the U.S., today announced a new $100,000 “Green Energy and Green Livelihoods Achievement Award” to recognize “outstanding environmental success in India” by civil society organizations – NGOs, cooperatives, small businesses and labor unions working at the grassroots level in India.

The announcement was made by Mr Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, at a news conference here today.  The winner of the first “Green Energy and Green Livelihoods Achievement Award” will be announced in early 2009 in Mumbai. The award will be worth Rs 40 lakhs at the current dollar:rupee value.

Full release here. Post your comments below.

AWARDS: Guggenheims for Meena Alexander, Ashutosh Varshney, Sumit Guha, et al

The Guggenheim Foundation just announced its 2008 fellows and there are several desi names on the (ultra swank) list. The foundation handed out $8.2 million to a total of 190 scholars, artists, journalists and others. There were 2,600 applicants.

• Meena Alexander - poet - Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) - "Quickly Changing River: Poem"
  
• Ashutosh Varshney - political scientist - Univ. of Michigan - "Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India" (full list of books)
• Sumit Guha - South Asian studies scholar - Rutgers University
• Chandrashekhar B. Khare - mathematician - UCLA
• Tony D'Souza - author of "The Konkans"

NDTV has coverage here.

Though not many Indian-Americans have been receiving this fellowship as compared to other ethnic groups in US, their numbers have steadily increased by every passing year.

Pulitzer Prize winner novelist Jhumpa Lahiri; mathematicians Manil Suri and Santosh Srinivas Vempala; curator Meenakshi Wadhwa and historian Sumathi Ramaswamy, are among the previous Indian-American recipients of this award.

Musician Pandit Pran Nath is said to be one of the earliest Indian-American recipient of Guggenheim fellowship, way back in 1974.

AWARDS: Adrees Latif wins Pulitzer Prize for Photography

This year's Pulitzer Prizes have just been announced. The one South Asia connection I see is that the Breaking News Photography prize has gone to Pakistan-born and Bangkok-based photojournalist Adrees Latif of Reuters.

He won for his photo of a Japanese videographer being attacked in Myanmar (see below).

From the citation:

For a distinguished example of breaking news photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to Adrees Latif of Reuters for his dramatic photograph of a Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Mahmud Hams of Agence France-Presse for his picture of a missile, caught in mid-air, as it falls on a target in the Gaza Strip while young Palestinians scramble for safety, and the Los Angeles Times Staff for its powerful and often unpredictable photos that captured wildfires devastating California.

From his biography:

Born in Lahore, Pakistan on July 21, 1973, Adrees Latif lived in Saudi Arabia before immigrating with his family to Texas in 1980. Latif worked as a staff photographer for The Houston Post from 1993 to 1996 before joining Reuters. Latif graduated from the University of Houston in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Latif has worked for Reuters in Houston, Los Angeles before moving to Bangkok in 2003 where he covers news across Asia.

See excellent coverage of Latif, including lots of photos by him, at Pakistaniat.

See the full list of winners and finalist in this PDF or on Pulitzer.org.

Manish Vij of Ultrabrown reports:

Fiction winner "Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz has several desi refs.
http://www.ultrabrown.com/posts/revenge-of-the-dominican-nerds

See SAJA's collection of South Asia and the Pulitzer Prize over the years:
http://www.saja.org/resources/pulitzers.html

And SAJAforum's coverage of the 2007 awards ceremony.

Post your comments below.

AWARDS: Desi spotting among the NY Public Library Fellows

I spot three South Asian connections to the announcement today of the New York Public Library's prestigious fellows program. Deborah Baker [see SAJAforum item on her book]; Akeel Bilgrami; Hari Kunzru (details about them below). From the press release:

The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers announces the selection of its tenth class of Fellows: fifteen exceptional creative writers, independent scholars, and academics, coming to the Library from as near as Brooklyn and as far away as Warsaw. The Fellows, whose appointments were announced today by Library President Dr. Paul LeClerc and Jean Strouse, the Sue Ann and John Weinberg Director of the Center, will use the research collections and online resources of The New York Public Library’s landmark Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42to welcome an extraordinary class to The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers,” said Dr.  LeClerc.  “The Center continues to be place for creativity and innovative ideas, offering Fellows a collegial environment in which to nurture ideas.”

Each Fellow receives a stipend, office space in the Center’s quarters on the second floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, and the assistance of the Library’s deeply knowledgeable curatorial staff.
<snip>

Deborah Baker
The Convert
Deborah Baker is the author of the literary biography In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding. In 2008 Penguin will publish her book A Blue Hand: The Beats in India, a non-fiction narrative exploring the idea of India in the American imagination. At the Cullman Center, Baker will be researching and writing about the life of Maryam Jameelah, née Margaret Marcus, who left America for Lahore, Pakistan in 1962 to become the protégée of Abul A’la Maudoodi, the intellectual founder of political Islam.

Akeel Bilgrami
Gandhi’s Integrity
Akeel Bilgrami, the Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, directs the University’s Heyman Center for the Humanities and serves on Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought. He is the author of Belief and Meaning and Self-Knowledge and Resentment, and will publish two new books in 2009, Politics and the Moral Psychology of Identity and What is a Muslim? At the Cullman Center, he will work on a short book on Gandhi’s philosophy and a larger project on the nature of practical reason.

Hari Kunzru
The Book of Birbal
Hari Kunzru, the author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, and My Revolution, has had his work translated into twenty-one languages and won a number of prizes, including the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Prize of the Society of Authors, and a British Book Award.  In 2003 Granta named him one of Britain’s twenty best young novelists. While at the Cullman Center, Kunzru will be working on a novel set at the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.

Full press release below. More on the fellowships here. Post your comments below.

AWARDS: Kahani children's magazine wins Parents' Choice award

Kahani, the South Asian literary magazine for children, has just picked up its second Parents' Choice Award. That puts it in the company of much larger publications, such as Highlights, Sports Illustrated Kids and National Geographic Little Kids (See the rest of the list here). The awards have been handed out by the Parents' Choice Foundation since 1978, and are meant to direct parents to the best toys, books, games, music, magazines and whatnot.

According to a press release from Kahani, the Parents Choice Awards honor twenty percent of all submissions.

“The fact that this is our second Parents’ Choice Award is huge,” said Monika Jain, editor. “There is always the novelty factor with Kahani because there is no other magazine like it out there,” she said. “But winning two years in a row: that means the Foundation subjects Kahani to the same strict criteria as all mainstream magazines."

<snip>

Kahani, which means story in Hindi, is a children’s literary magazine illuminating the richness and diversity that South Asian cultures bring to North America. Published four times a year, it is full of short stories, art, activities, and fun facts. Unlike most magazines, Kahani does not publish any advertising and uses a subscription-based model. Subscribers include schools, libraries, and families—some as far away as Bermuda. The magazine’s online home can be found at www.kahani.com.

AWARDS: India Abroad Person of the Year Awards 2008

WINNERS ALL: Dr. Navin Shah, Renu Khator, Mira Nair, Joy Cherian, Padma Desai, Jagdish Bhagwati. PHOTO: Jay Mandal/On Assignment (more below).

Manhattan's glittering Gotham Hall was the site of this year's India Abroad Person of the Year awards ceremony on Friday, March 28, 2008. Several awards were presented to winners selected by the editors of India Abroad, the country's oldest South Asian publication.

The India Abroad Person of the Year 2007 was awarded to filmmaker Mira Nair. The award was presented by Indra Nooyi, chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo and the India Abroad Person of the Year 2006. Thanking Nooyi and confessing to the audience, “I hope to be her when I grew up," Nair said:

“The challenge really is in our heads, to be original - and it takes courage to be original. Especially for those of us who have been told for centuries that the west is the mirror in which they can say their future. But I’d like to say there is not one truth, there are many truths it just depends on who’s doing the looking and from where.”

“For me, the mantras are simple. Safety and calm in family life, but bravery at work. A systematic dreamer, much like the awardees before me, I feel I must have a dream, I must have a vision, and then I work out very carefully a plan to achieve the vision.”

Nair has recently completed two short films written by Suketu Mehta. One is "Kosher Vegetarian" (with Irrfan Khan of "The Namesake" fame and Natalie Portman) as part of an anthology film, "New York, I Love You." The other short, "How Can It Be," is part of a UN project starring leading arthouse actors Konkona Sen Sharma ("Mr. and Mrs. Iyer") and Ranvir Shorey (former video jockey, also played
income tax officer Asif Merchant in "Bheja Fry").

She is scheduled to start shooting "Amelia" with Oscar-winner Hillary Swank in two weeks. It's a biopic about Amelia Earhart, the legendary American pilot who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

The evening was hosted by Sree Sreenivasan in his carefully casual style, walking around in the audience with his wireless mic introducing the various boldface names present at the function. Among them: Sanjaya Malakar of American Idol fame; legendary actress and chef Madhur Jaffrey; musicians Karsh Kale, Vishal Oberoi and Falu; Sunil Gulati, Columbia econ prof and president of the U.S. Soccer Federation; ESPN's first South Asian anchor, Kevin Negandhi; TV star Daljit Dhaliwal; SAJA VP and brand-new author V.V. Ganeshananthan; Indo-American Arts Council's Aroon Sivadasani; Shelley and Donald Rubin, founders of the Rubin Museum of Art; MTV exec Nusrat Durrani; Time foreign editor Bobby Ghosh; ABC News executive producer  Vinnie Malhotra; Toby Choudhuri, deputy press secretary for the Gore 2000 campaign; Preeta Bansal, former solicitor general of New York State; Rashmi Vasisht, deputy press secretary to Andrew Cuomo, NY State attorney general; SAJAforum's own Arun Venugopal;  there were too many others to name them all here.

The India Abroad Publisher's Special Award for Excellence 2007 was presented to Dr. Renu Khator, president and chancellor of the University of Houston and its 56,000 students. She shared the learnings of the journey from master's degree aspirant to educator-administrator, summarized below:

AWARDS: SAJA contest deadline is March 31

The South Asian Journalists Association and SAJA Group Inc invite individual journalists and news organizations in North America to submit entries to this year's SAJA Journalism Awards. This contest recognizes excellence in coverage of South Asia, as well as outstanding reporting by South Asian journalists in the U.S. and Canada.

The 2008 Awards, which are open to media companies headquartered in the U.S. and Canada, consist of 12 categories, including print, photography, new media, broadcast, editorials and student work.

Please note: there's a special, one-time category for "Outstanding piece covering the political turmoil in Pakistan: All media, including photography."

Submissions can include print articles, editorials, photographs and new media pieces published, and broadcasts aired, between Jan 1 and Dec. 31, 2007.

The deadline to apply is March 31. Details about our fast, efficient process: http://saja.org/awards/2008awards.html

ENTRY FEE (entries without payment will NOT be processed):
$20.00 (if an individual is paying, not the company)
$50.00 (company)

We have eliminated the entry fee for students, but will accept only three
submissions per student.

Direct all questions to Monika Mathur, awards chair and SAJA board member: monikamathur [at] gmail.com (subject line = "SAJA Awards")

If you'd like to volunteer to help us judge these, let Monika know, too.

AWARDS: Shivani Sud wins Intel Science Talent Search

The Intel Science Talent Search, the biggest U.S. science contest for high school students announced its 2008 winner last week.

Shivani Sud, North Carolina
First Place: $100,000

        Shivani Sud, 17, of Durham, submitted a bioinformatics and genomics project   to the Intel Science Talent Search that focused on identifying stage II colon cancer patients at high risk for recurrence and the best therapeutic agents for treating their tumors. The standard method of characterizing tumors relies on visual information, including size, degree of metastasis and microscopic structure. Shivani's 50-gene model for predicting the recurrence of colon cancer instead uses gene expression profiles to link multiple genetic events that characterize various tumor types. She created her model using two public data sets containing 125 patient samples and coupled it with clinical data to plot statistically significant survival curves. She then used her model to identify drugs that may be effective in treating stage II colon cancer. The daughter of Ish and Anu Sud, Shivani is first in her class of 358 at Charles E. Jordan High School and represents the students at school board meetings. She is a Teen Court student attorney, a Durham Rescue Mission volunteer and performs classical and modern Indian dance. Shivani plans to attend Princeton or Harvard, earn a M.D./Ph.D. and have a career in research.

This year’s Intel Science Talent Search finalists hailed from 19 states and represented 35 high schools throughout the United States. Of the more than 1,600 high school seniors who  entered the 2008 Intel Science Talent Search, 300 were announced as semifinalists in January.  Of those, 40 were chosen as finalists and invited to Washington, D.C., to compete for the top 10 awards.                                        

See the full press release in PDF here. Post your comments below.

NEWSPAPERS: SND's "World's Best Designed Newspapers"

"Long Live Print!" - here's a video about the winners of the Society for News Design's annual contest (note the Guardian's citation for its Bhutto assassination coverage.

SND29: The 2007 World's Best-Designed Newspapers from Society for News Design on Vimeo.

Post your comments below.

AWARDS: Peter Bhatia, Sandy Rowe are E&P's "Editors of the Year"

Peter Bhatia and his boss, Sandy Rowe, executive editor and editor, respectively, of The Oregonian, have been named "Editors of the Year 2008" by Editor & Publisher, the trade publication for the newspaper industry. In an eight-page spread in the magazine, writerJoe Strupp tells us that the duo are "Partners in Portland: Sandy Rowe hired Peter Bhatia nearly 15 years ago -- and they've been a winning pair ever since." The Oregonian has won five Pulitzers and had nine finalists over that time period. Read the entire piece, as a PDF, here.

Three questions for Peter Bhatia:

SAJAforum: Congrats on the award. Let's start with the standard question asked in these circumstances: How do you feel?
Bhatia: I'm fine ... other than a sore lower back and problems with a tendon in my right shoulder. Seriously, it is nice for Sandy and I to be recognized, but the real work is being done and the credit goes to the superb colleagues we have here. It is an amazingly talented group.

SAJAforum: Newspapers seem to be in real trouble. Are they? And can they ever get their groove back?
Bhatia: I still believe in newspapers. We have to reinvent ourselves for the new information era in which we are living. If we do that -- and do so fast enough -- there is hope for the future. One thing for certain: no one can  distill, explain and context information better than newspaper journalists. That is our future.

SAJAforum: What tips do you have for young journalists who are getting in the business now?

AWARDS: Indian government's diaspora awards

Writing about the Indian Republic Day honors today reminded me that we didn't cover here the winners of an earlier awards program this year: The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Samman (non-resident Indian awards) given for diaspora achievement. The 2008 winners, announced on Jan. 8, in New Delhi, include two Indian-Americans:

• Dr. Thomas Abraham, founder of GOPIO, the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, a tireless community organizer based out of New York. Sure, there are a lot of community organizers, but only one considers his community to be the 20-million strong desi diaspora.
• Dr. Joy Cherian, the first Asian American (and, therefore, Indian-American) commissioner at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He was appointed in 1987 by President Reagan, becoming the highest-ranking Indian-American in the federal government.

See the full list below.

AWARDS: Indian-Americans in India's Republic Day honors

The President of India's Republic Day honors list, known as the Padma Awards (similar to the Queen's Birthday honors) has been announced on the eve of the country's Republic Day. See the full list here.

Several Indian American connections:

Padma Bhushan:

• Prof. Kaushik Basu, Cornell University
• Prof. Padma Desai, Columbia University (her husband and fellow Columbia professor Jagdish Bhagwati, was on this list in 2000).
• Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citibank
• Prof Srinivasa S R Vardhan, New York University
• Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut

Padma Sri:

• Sant Singh Virmani, renowned rice scientist
• Nirupam Bajpai, Columbia University
• Manoj Night Shyamalan, Film Director

Journalists with awards are:

• Barkha Dutt of NDTV, who spent part of her childhood in NYC and came back for her M.S. at Columbia Journalism School.
• Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN
• Vinod Dua, NDTV

Also see another set of Indian government awards, announced earlier in January, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman.

Additions, corrections, comments - please post below.

CORRECTION: I goofed, folks. An earlier version of misidentified one of the winners. Prof. T.K. Oommen is a professor of Sociology at JNU. He is not Prof. K.T. Oommen, head of the Manorama School of Journalism in Kottayam, Kerala. who worked for the AP in Los Angeles decades ago, and then has built multiple journalism schools around the world. Among his former students is SAJA member Raju Narisetti of Mint, formerly with the Wall Street Journal. The journalism professor certainly deserves this award. My apologies to both Oommens!

MOVIES: Desi connections to the Oscar Nominations

As soon as this year's Oscar nominations came out, I scanned the list for any South Asian connections among the major categories. Finding none, I turned to two of SAJA's resident film experts, Aseem Chhabra and Gitesh Pandya. Sure enough, they found several. In addition to the list that Chhabra compiled below, be sure to check out Pandya's annual list of Oscar nominees and their box office grosses at BoxOfficeGuru.com. Also see Chhabra's nine-part video briefing series on Bollywood.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Last week, "Eklavya -- The Royal Guard" -- India's official entry for the best foreign language film Oscar was not shortlisted for the semi final round.  And Bangladesh's entry "On the Wings of Dreams" also struck out at an early stage.  But yesterday morning's Oscar nominations had a couple of desi touches. 

First, Cate Blanchett was nominated in the best actress category for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."  (She was also nominated in the best supporting actress category for playing a persona of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There").  As many people know, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is directed by the Indian filmmaker, Shekhar Kapur.  This was Blanchett's second nomination for the same role.  In 1997 she was nominated in the same best actress category for "Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen" -- also directed by Kapur.

"The Golden Compass" -- a children's film starring Nicole Kidman was nominated in the best visual effects category.  According to reports some parts of the film's special effects were the work of an Indian FX house -- Rhythm & Hues (http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/06/stories/2008010655971100.htm.)

Finally, "Salim Baba" by Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello was nominated in the short documentary category.  "Salim Baba" is a beautifully shot and charming film about a man who keeps the art of bioscopes alive in Kolkata.  The film was shown at the Telluride Film Festival and also at last year's Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival.

- Aseem Chhabra

Earlier on SAJAforum: 

• Aseem Chhabra's Bollywood video briefings (June 2007)
  
• Gitesh Pandya and Aseem Chhabra on Bollywood raises its US profile (Aug. 2006)

AWARDS: Michigan State senior wins Miss India USA

21-year-old Richa Gangopadhyay, a senior at Michigan State, was crowned Miss India USA 2007 in the annual beauty pageant held at Royal Albert's Palace in New Jersey.

Gangopadhyay, a resident of Northville, Michigan, is majoring in dietetics and nutrition and hopes to visit preschool and elementary schools to offer nutrition tips.

The Detroit Free Press writes: "Gangopadhyay is part of the state's growing Indian presence. According to the U.S. census, Michigan's Indian population grew 44% from 2000 to 2005, to 78,000.

"The New Delhi-born Northville resident beat 23 contestants from other states last month in Fords, N.J., in gaining the national title. She said she got involved with the pageant because she relishes opportunities to educate people about the Indian and American cultures."

Gangopadhyay, who said she likes to call herself a true champion of diversity, performed "Vande Mataram," the Indian patriotic song, for a three-minute talent competition.

She said she played it by ear on a violin for a minute and a half, then broke into a Bollywood-style dance.

Neha Multani, 22, of New York and Nisha Palvia, 18, of Georgia were declared first and second runner-ups among the 24 contestants who participated in the pageant.

Gangopadhyay will be representing USA in the 17th Annual Miss India Worldwide pageant to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 23.

Read more about the contest and Richa's ambitions here.

FELLOWSHIPS: Interview with Arul Louis, Knight fellow on climate change in India

SAJAer and New York Daily News editor Arul Louis was recently awarded a Knight International Journalism Fellowship. His fellowship will take him to India, where he intends to develop tools and resources related to development and climate change for TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute headed by Nobel laureate Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (see Arul's project description).

Louis (photographed here by Thomas Monaster/Daily News) has been at the Daily News for 14 years. Prior to that, he worked at papers in New Jersey, as well as India Abroad. He considers his coverage of India's Emergency the "story of a lifetime." He recently returned from Bali, where he attended the UN climate change conference, even blogging on it as one of 10,000 people "crammed into the conference."

We asked him a few questions about this next stage in his career.

So, can you tell me a little more about this fellowship?

The Knight International Journalism Fellowships are funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Fellows, who are experienced international media people, work with host organizations abroad on high-impact projects. Broadly, the goals are to help improve the standards of journalism and to innovate. In my case, the partner – or host organization – is TERI, The Energy Resources Institute.

The program has changed since it was started 22 years ago. Since 2006, the program has focused on specific issues or goals – like the environment, health, election coverage or ethics – and fellowships now are a year long. The program also emphasizes getting results that can be measured, and continuity, so that work done during the fellowship is sustained.

Incidentally, the program is launching a Fellowship on elections and political coverage in Pakistan and is looking for candidates.

Will you be working in some capacity with Dr. Rajinder Pachauri himself? Can you expand on the Project description, specifically the part that says "help journalists develop and utilize sophisticated tools, including online resources and media associations"?

I don't expect to be working directly on a day-to-day basis with Dr. Pachauri. TERI doesn't have a media program now and we have a plan to develop one. This will be an opportunity for us to come up with programs that are suitable for India and that utilize new technologies. For example, we can find new, interactive ways to present information. Here is an experiment (on Diwali/Deepavali's environmental impact) that can get timely information on the environment down to neighborhood levels (It's still at the alpha stage, so the stats are old; but it gives you a hint of what is possible.)

EDUCATION: Six South Asians among 32 U.S. Rhodes Scholars

UPDATE: Turns out there are SIX South Asians among the 32 Rhodes Scholars, not five as reported here. Thanks to IndoLink's (and SAJAer) Francis Assisi, we know we missed Andrea M. DenHoed. Her info has been added below. 

This year's list of U.S. Rhodes Scholars is out and desis have made an impressive showing. Out of 32 American scholars who will be studying at Oxford (each will receive about $45,000 in funding per year for two or three years), there are three Rhodes scholars in America of Indian origin, one of Pakistani origin, and another is an Indo-Caribbean American from Trinidad. Here's how Arthur Pais's report in Rediff begins:

Shayak Sarkar, who has served as the treasurer of the Phillips Brooks House, the centre for service and activism at Harvard and managed an annual budget of over $1 million and also served as a director of the only student-run homeless shelter in America, has been selected as one of the 32 Rhodes scholars in America.

Past Rhodes scholars from America who have studied at Oxford University include president Bill Clinton, the newly elected Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and the eminent surgeon and bestselling writer Atul Gawande.

The six South Asian winners are (see their Rhodes bios below):

• Isra J. Bhatty
• Andrew M. DenHoed
• Ishanaa N. Rambachan
  
• Pravin S. Rajan (who's a Marine training to go to Iraq and Afghanistan)
• Shayak Sarkar
• Deep J. Shah

At least one of the other scholars has a South Asia connection. Nicole Novak of Iowa has done research on dental health and socio-economic status in India.

See bios of the winners below and post your comments. Read IndoLink profiles of each student.

AWARDS: Pallavi Gogoi Wins Frontpage Award

From this year's list of winners of the Front Page Awards of the Newswomen's Club of New York:

Exercise/Diet
Pallavi Gogoi, Business Week
"Cloned Beef Burgers: 'Delicious.'"

You can read her story here, along with 660+ comments:

The FDA has said food from cloned animals is safe. Though it won't land in markets yet, cloned meat is being served at one company

See the accompanying slideshow, "Cloned Food Coming to a Store Near You."

Earlier this summer, she won a 2007 New York Press Club Award for her beat reporting on Wal-Mart:

Best Continuing Coverage

Pallavi Gogoi, BusinessWeek.com