Five Guggenheim Fellowships fro Indian Americans
A poet, a novelist, a political scientist, a mathematician and a historian are the five Indian Americans among the 190 Guggenheim Fellows chosen in 2008. Worth a total of $8.2 million, these awards are given to scholars, artists and scientists. Poet Meena Alexander teaches English at CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College in New York. Her Quickly Changing River: Poems was released this year. Florida-based Tony D’Souza’s latest novel is titled The Konkans. Formerly a teacher, he is now a full-time writer. Ashutosh Varshney, known for his groundbreaking study on ethnic conflict in India, is a political science professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Earlier this year, Varshney won another fellowship, worth $100,000, when he became a Carnegie Corporation Scholar. Chandrashekhar Khare, a mathematician based at the University of California in Los Angeles, has been recognized for his work in number theory. He is credited with solving a mathematical theorem called Serre’s conjecture. Sumit Guha, a specialist on South Asia, teaches history at Rutgers University in New Jersey. About 2600 applicants, drawn from 75 disciplines, were considered this year. Each winner received an average of $43,200. Since 1925, over $265 million has been awarded to almost 16,500 Guggenheim Fellows.
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