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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline MAY 31, 2024 | The Indian Eye 34

Board of Directors of Wayfair Inc., a leading global online destination for nomical objects.
the home. Prior to co-founding Wayfair in 2002, Mr. Shah served as Chief Kulkarni is the George Ellery
Executive Officer for Simplify Mobile Corporation, an enterprise software Hale Professor of Astronomy and
company he co-founded in 2001, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Planetary Science, Division of Phys-
Partners, a venture capital firm, in 2001. Mr. Shah served in various roles at ics, Mathematics and Astronomy at
iXL Enterprises, Inc., including as Chief Operating Officer and a director, the California Institute of Technology.
from 1998 to 2000, and as Chief Executive Officer of Spinners Incorporated, “The Shaw Prize in Astronomy
an IT consulting company he co-founded, from 1995 to 1998. In addition to is awarded to Shrinivas R Kulkarni,
his roles at Wayfair, Shah currently serves on the board of directors of the for his ground-breaking discover-
Shah Charitable Foundation, the Cornell Tech Council and the Massachu- ies about millisecond pulsars, gam-
setts Competitive Partnership. ma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other
Shah received a BS in engineering from Cornell University. “My parents variable or transient astronomical objects. The other Shaw Prize awardees are
both immigrated to the US from India, so I think that takes a certain type of Swee Lay Thein and Stuart Orkin, both from the US, who received the Shaw
entrepreneurial spirit,” Shah said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. He Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares, and Peter Sarnak,
explained that his family shaped his views of owning businesses and taking another US scientist who received the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences.
risks from a very early age. Two of his earliest business ventures included a Kulkarni did MS from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1978 and
lawn mowing company and paper delivery service. completed his PhD from the University of California in 1983. He was also the
director of Caltech Optical Observatories from 2006 till 2018.
PRITHVI NARAYANAN Run Shaw (1907–2014) founded the Shaw Foundation Hong Kong and The
Hong Kong-based film and television personality and philanthropist Run
High School senior chosen to be a Sir Run Run Shaw Charitable Trust, both of which are dedicated to the pro-
motion of education, scientific and technological research, medical and wel-
US presidential scholar fare services, and culture and the arts.

SNEHA REVANUR
tate College Area High School
senior Prithvi Narayanan was Activist is described as the ‘Greta
Schosen to be a 2024 US Pres-
idential Scholar. He is one of 161 Thunberg of AI’
seniors selected for outstanding
scholastic and artistic achievement,
citizenship, service, and contributions neha Revanur is an Indi-
to their schools and communities. an-American activist, who is
Narayanan, one of two Pennsyl- Sthe founder and president of
vania representatives, is the eighth Encode Justice, a youth organization
Presidential Scholar from State High advocating for the global regulation
and the first since Joey Feffer in 2017. of artificial intelligence. In 2023, she
A figure skater, geography bee com- was described by Politico as the ‘Gre-
petitor, Indian classical music artist ta Thunberg of AI’. In 2023, Revanur
and former student representative to the State College Borough, will attend was the youngest individual to be
Yale University to study political science. He aspires to bring people together named to TIME’s inaugural list of
and help preserve and strengthen American democracy as a model for the world. the 100 most influential people in ar-
Over 5,700 candidates qualified for the award based on outstanding per- tificial intelligence.
formance on the College Board SAT or ACT exams or through nominations Revanur was born and raised
made by Chief State School Officers, other partner recognition organizations, in San Jose, California, where she
and the National YoungArts Foundation’s nationwide YoungArts program. attended Evergreen Valley High
Several Indian Americans are among this year’s Presidential Scholars, School and was a delegate to the
one of the highest honors for high school students in the country. The US United States Senate Youth Program.
Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 by order of the Pres- Growing up, both of Revanur’s par-
ident to recognize and honor some of our nation’s most distinguished high ents worked in tech, as does her older sister. She describes how her upbring-
school graduates. ing in Silicon Valley influenced her activism: “I was exposed early on to a
In 1979, the program was expanded to recognize students who demon- culture of thinking that every problem in society can be fixed with some sort of
strate exceptional talent in the visual, creative and performing arts. In 2015, computational solution—whether that’s a mobile app or a machine-learning
the program was expanded again to recognize students who demonstrate pro- model ... there was always this view that innovation was some sort of silver bul-
ficiency and achievement in career and technical education. Up to 161 stu- let ... I often say that, had I been born anywhere else, Encode Justice would
dents are appointed scholars each year. not exist.”
Revanur is now a student at Williams College in Massachusetts, where
SHRINIVAS KULKARNI she studies political economy and hopes to attend law school after graduation.
Encode Justice now spans around 1,000 young people, primarily high
Astronomer wins prestigious school and college students. Since its founding, Encode Justice has contribut-
ed to AI policy initiatives including the Biden administration’s Blueprint for
Shaw Prize in astronomy for 2024 an AI Bill of Rights. The organization also runs a workshop program and has
established a global chapter network.

hrinivas R Kulkarni, an Indian-origin professor of astronomy from the
US, will be conferred with the prestigious Shaw Prize in Astronomy. He To read more about Indian diaspora and Global Indians, log on to and follow
Sis being awarded for his ground-breaking discoveries about millisecond our website www.TheIndianEYE.com
pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astro-

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