List of Indian Americans

This article is about Indian Americans, Americans with a background related to India. For U.S. American Indians, see List of Native Americans of the United States. For other American Indians, see List of indigenous people of the Americas.

This is a list of notable Indian Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants. It also includes those who excelled in their career while residing in U.S., but did not apply for American citizenship (ex. Raghuram Rajan ). Note that unlike many countries, India does not allow dual citizenship.

Academics

Nobel Prize recipients

Amartya Sen, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1998

• Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Prize for Physics, 1983
• Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1968
• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2009; current President of the Royal Society (as of November 2015)
• Amartya Sen, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998; Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University

Deans and presidents

• Jamshed Bharucha, President Emeritus of Cooper Union; previously Dean of Arts & Sciences at Dartmouth College and Provost at Tufts University
• Vijay K. Dhir, Dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
• Dinesh D'Souza, President of The King's College, New York
• Anjli Jain, Executive Director of CampusEAI Consortium
• Dipak C. Jain, Dean of INSEAD and former Dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
• Vistasp Karbhari, president of the University of Texas at Arlington
• Pramod P. Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor of Research, University of California, Irvine
• Renu Khator, Chancellor of the University of Houston System and President of the University of Houston
• Pradeep Khosla, Chancellor of the University of California, San Diego
• Vijay Kumar, Associate Dean of School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania
• Geeta Menon, Dean of the Undergraduate College at New York University Stern School of Business
• Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School
• Michael Rao, President of Virginia Commonwealth University
• Beheruz Sethna, President of the University of West Georgia
• Dr. Paul Shrivastava, Distinguished Professor and Director, David O'Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Concordia University
• Molly Easo Smith, President of Manhattanville College
• Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Subra Suresh, President of Carnegie Mellon University
• Satish K. Tripathi, President of University at Buffalo

Mathematicians

Manjul Bhargava, Professor of mathematics at Princeton University and winner of Fields Medal, 2014

• Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar, mathematician, singularity theory and Abhyankar's conjecture of finite group theory
• Raghu Raj Bahadur, statistician
• Manjul Bhargava, professor of mathematics at Princeton University and winner of Fields Medal, 2014
• Raj Chandra Bose, mathematician
• Sarvadaman Chowla, mathematician specializing in number theory
• Harish-Chandra, mathematician
• Narendra Karmarkar, mathematician, inventor of Karmarkar algorithm
• Chandrashekhar Khare, professor of mathematics at the University of California Los Angeles
• G. S. Maddala, mathematician and economist best known for his work in the field of econometrics
• Anil Nerode, mathematician, proved the Myhill-Nerode Theorem
• K. C. Sreedharan Pillai, mathematician
• Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, mathematician
• S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, NYU mathematician who specialised in probability; winner of the Abel Prize and Steele Prize
• Akshay Venkatesh, mathematician

Economists

• Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT
• Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist of the World Bank
• Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati, Professor of Economics at Columbia University
• Alok Bhargava, Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy
• V. V. Chari, Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota
• Raj Chetty, Professor of Economics at Harvard University
• Avinash Kamalakar Dixit, Professor of Economics at Princeton University
• Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Economics at Columbia University
• Debraj Ray, Silver Professor of Economics, New York University
• Arvind Subramanian, formerly an economist at the International Monetary Fund
• Raghuram Rajan Professor University of Chicago and former Governor of Reserve Bank of India

Professors and scholars

• Kuzhikalail M. Abraham, professor at Northeastern University, electrochemistry; materials science; lithium, lithium ion, and lithium air batteries
• Anant Agarwal, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT
• Pulickel M. Ajayan, Professor of Material Science at Rice University
• Salman Akhtar, professor at the Jefferson Medical College
• Muzaffar Alam, Professor in South Asian Languages & Civilizations at the University of Chicago
• Akhil Amar, Professor of Law at Yale Law School
• Vikram Amar, Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis School of Law
• Abhay Ashtekar, Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University
• Satya N. Atluri, Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at University of California, Irvine
• P.S. Ayyaswamy, Professor of Dynamical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
• Mahzarin Banaji, professor at Harvard University, best known for exploring implicit racial and gender biases
• Homi K. Bhabha, professor at Harvard University
• Sugata Bose, Professor of History at Harvard University
• Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Professor of Microbiology at University of Illinois at Chicago
• K. Mani Chandy, Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology
• Naresh Dalal, Dirac Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University
• Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University
• Ashok Das, Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester
• Ashok Gadgil, Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley
• Rajit Gadh, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles
• Bhargav Gajjar, aerospace robotics scientist, educator, entrepreneur from MIT; founder of bio-inspired robotics company Vishwa Robotics
• Swapan K. Gayen, Bengali-American physicist, Professor of Physics at the City University of New York
• Anirvan Ghosh, professor at the University of California, San Diego
• Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business and the Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School
• Kausalya Hart, scholar of Tamil language at UC Berkeley
• Narayan Hosmane, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Illinois University
• Ravi Jagannathan, professor at the Kellogg School of Management
• Rakesh Jain, Professor of Tumor Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Harvard Medical School
• Anil K. Jain (born 1946), Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of California, Davis
• Anil K. Jain (born 1948), Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University
• Jainendra K. Jain, Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University
• John Jain, reproductive endocrinologist at the Lyan Institute of Fertility Research
• Piyare Jain, Professor Emeritus at University at Buffalo
• Raj Jain, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science
• S. Lochlann Jain, associate professor in the Anthropology Department at Stanford University
• Sachin H. Jain, physician and health policy analyst at Harvard Medical School
• Nazir Jairazbhoy, Professor of folk and classical music of South Asia at University of California at Los Angeles
• Aravind Joshi, Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania
• Thomas Kailath, Professor of Engineering at Stanford University
• Avinash Kak, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University
• M. A. Muqtedar Khan, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware
• Ravindra Khattree, professor of statistics at Oakland University
• Shrinivas Kulkarni, professor of astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech
• Jagadeesh Moodera, American physicist of Indian origin; senior research scientist at MIT's Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory
• Bharati Mukherjee, author, professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley
• C. M. Naim, scholar of Urdu language and literature at the University of Chicago
• Jaishree Odin, Professor, postmodern literary theorist at the University of Hawaii
• Shwetak Patel, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington
• Arogyaswami Paulraj, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University
• C.K. Prahalad, Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business in the University of Michigan
• Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies at Trinity College
• Ishwar K. Puri, N. Waldo Harrison Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech
• V.S. Ramachandran, Professor with the Psychology and Neurosciences University of California, San Diego
• C. R. Rao, professor at Penn State University and research professor at the University at Buffalo
• K. R. Rao, professor at University of Texas at Arlington
• J. N. Reddy, Professor and holder of the Oscar S. Wyatt Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University
• Subir Sachdev, Professor of Physics at Harvard University
• Krishna Saraswat, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University
• Deepak Sarma, Professor of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University
• Ricky J. Sethi, Professor of Computer Science at Fitchburg State University; Director of Research at The Madsci Network
• Amit Sheth, computer scientist at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio
• Jagdish Sheth, Professor of Marketing at Goizueta Business School of Emory University
• Jagdish Shukla, professor at George Mason University
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, professor at Columbia University
• Marti G. Subrahmanyam, Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University
• Sanjay Subrahmanyam, holder of Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair of Indian History and scholar at UCLA
• Madhu Sudan, Professor of Computer Science at MIT
• Mriganka Sur, Professor of Neuroscience at the MIT
• Umesh Vazirani, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley
• Vijay Vazirani, Professor of Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology
• Medha Yodh, scholar of classical Indian dance at UCLA

Activists, civil rights

Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights figure

• Thomas Abraham, Founder President of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) as well as the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA)
• Maya Ajmera, founder of The Global Fund for Children and author of more than 20 books for children
• Bhairavi Desai, founding member of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York
• Kartar Dhillon, Ghadar Party, labor, and civil rights activist
• Mallika Dutt, Executive Director of Breakthrough human rights organization
• Vijaya Lakshmi Emani (1958-2009), social activist
• Arun Manilal Gandhi, fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi
• Abraham George, philanthropist humanitarian, founder of The George Foundation (TGF)
• Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, lawyer who is defending Guantanamo prisoners
• Maya Harris, Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California and sister of Kamala Harris
• Girindra Mukerji, leader of one of the first Indian-American student protests against colonialism in 1908
• Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women
• Amrit Singh, staff attorney at the ACLU
• Inder Singh, Chairman of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO)
• Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights figure, lecturer, author
• Urvashi Vaid, gay rights activist

Arts and entertainment

M. Night Shyamalan, Hollywood director

Mira Nair, director and producer

Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014

• Ashok Amritraj, Hollywood film producer
• Salma Arastu, artist
• San Banarje, independent filmmaker
• Rina Banerjee, artist
• Prashant Bhargava, director
• Jay Chandrasekhar, director, actor, comedian, and writer
• Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014
• Param Gill, director, screenwriter and producer
• Rohit Gupta, director, producer
• Reef Karim, actor, director, writer, and producer
• Neeraj Khemlani, producer for CBS News' 60 Minutes
• Bharti Kirchner, writer
• Pooja Kumar, model
• Adam Bhala Lough, director, screenwriter
• Tirlok Malik, filmmaker and actor
• Benny Mathews, film and music video director
• Faris McReynolds, painter and musician
• Govindini Murty, co-founder of the Liberty film festival
• Mira Nair, director and producer
• Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer; producer of CSI: Miami
• Yatin Patel, photographer and artist
• Mythili Prakash, Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer
• Asha Puthli, singer-songwriter, producer and actress
• Sarayu Rao, actor and director
• Ajay Sahgal, director, screenwriter and producer
• Harish Saluja, filmmaker
• Stephanie Sengupta, producer and writer
• Mehul Shah, actor, director, writer, and producer
• Adi Shankar, producer and actor
• Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director; an executive producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• M. Night Shyamalan, director, filmmaker
• Tarsem Singh, director
• Manick Sorcar, animator, artist, and producer
• Babu Subramaniam, director
• Tina Sugandh, entertainer
• Julie Titus, model, contestant on America's Next Top Model
• Serena Varghese, voice actress

Actors and actresses

Kal Penn, actor

File:Omi Vaidya.JPG

Omi Vaidya, actor

Sheetal Sheth, actress

• Waris Ahluwalia, actor
• Aziz Ansari, actor
• Gabrielle Anwar, actress
• Tanveer K. Atwal, actress
• Erick Avari, actor
• Sunkrish Bala, actor
• Firdous Bamji, actor
• Purva Bedi, actress
• Summer Bishil, actress
• Karan Brar, film and TV actor
• Samrat Chakrabarti, actor
• Melanie Chandra, actress
• Rory Cochrane, actor
• Sabu Dastagir, actor
• Sujata Day, actress
• Manish Dayal, actor
• Noureen DeWulf, actress
• Raja Fenske, actor
• Janina Gavankar, actress
• Namrata Singh Gujral, actress
• Sakina Jaffrey, actress
• Poorna Jagannathan, actress and producer
• Mindy Kaling, actress
• Ravi Kapoor, actor
• Deep Katdare, actor
• Nivedita Kulkarni, actress
• Shishir Kurup, actor
• Sunny Leone, actress
• Nakul Dev Mahajan, Bollywood dancer and choreographer
• Tirlok Malik, actor
• Shelly Malil, film and TV actor
• Aasif Mandvi, actor
• Ajay Mehta, TV actor
• Ajay Naidu, actor
• Anjul Nigam, actor
• Maulik Pancholy, actor
• Kalpana Pandit, actress
• Devika Parikh, actress
• Kal Penn, actor
• Danny Pudi, actor
• Priya Rai, pornographic actress
• Sendhil Ramamurthy, actor
• Dileep Rao, actor
• Navi Rawat, actress
• Sonal Shah, actress
• Sheetal Sheth, actress
• Tiya Sircar, actress
• Thomas Tevana, actor
• Omi Vaidya, actor

Comedians

Russell Peters, comedian

• Aman Ali
• Arj Barker
• Mindy Kaling
• Hari Kondabolu
• Adam Mamawala
• Kunal Nayyar
• Russell Peters, born in Canada, now living in USA
• Rajiv Satyal
• Anish Shah
• Azhar Usman
• Paul Varghese, from Dallas, Texas; appeared on Last Comic Standing

Culinary arts

• H. Jay Dinshah, founded the American Vegan Society
• Raghavan Iyer, chef, author, culinary educator
• Vikas Khanna, Michelin starred chef, restaurateur, author, filmmaker, and TV host
• Jehangir Mehta, celebrity chef, restaurateur, author
• Rajat Parr, sommelier

Fashion designers

• Naeem Khan
• Vashtie Kola
• Bibhu Mohapatra
• Christine Philip
• Rachel Roy

Models

• Anchal Joseph, contestant on Cycle 7 of America's Next Top Model
• Pooja Kumar, model
• Padma Lakshmi, model, Top Chef host

Media

Fareed Zakaria, journalist

• Deepak Ananthapadmanabha, online journalist
• Asha Blake, Emmy award-winning journalist; works for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, The Washington Post; author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City
• Syma Chowdhry, television host, reporter, and producer
• Priya David, correspondent for CBS News
• Deepa Fernandes, host of the WBAI radio program Wakeup Call
• Deepti Hajela, journalist for the Associated Press
• Pico Iyer, author and journalist for Time magazine, Harper's Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books
• Shibani Joshi, reporter for the Fox Business Network
• Sukanya Krishnan, news anchor for CW 11 Morning News on WPIX
• Mish Michaels, meteorologist for the WBZ-TV Weather Team
• Vinita Nair, current anchor of World News Now and America This Morning on ABC
• Kevin Negandhi, sports anchor for ESPN SportsCenter
• Reena Ninan, Middle East correspondent for Fox News Channel
• Asra Nomani, journalist
• Uma Pemmaraju, senior news anchor for Fox News Channel
• Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of the National Review magazine
• Ash-har Quraishi, correspondent, WTTW Chicago; former KCTV Chief Investigative Reporter; former CNN Islamabad Bureau Chief
• Gopal Raju, pioneer of Indian American ethnic media
• Aneesh Raman, former CNN Middle East correspondent
• Shihab Rattansi, CNN International anchor; news anchor for Al Jazeera English
• Simran Sethi, journalist
• Alpana Singh, television personality
• Hari Sreenivasan, correspondent for CBS News and the PBS NewsHour
• Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor; WABC-TV technology reporter
• Ali Velshi, business news anchor for CNN
• Zain Verjee, CNN anchor
• Fareed Zakaria, columnist for Time magazine and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN

Musicians

Norah Jones, singer and winner of multiple Grammy Awards

Zubin Mehta, musician and receiver of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

• Ángel, of Indian heritage, American rapper and poet
• Bamboo Shoots, dance-rock band
• Jeff Bhasker, producer
• Sameer Bhattacharya, one of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf
• Das Racist, alternative hip hop group; two of the three members are Indian
• Anoop Desai, finalist on the eighth season of American Idol
• Falu, singer and songwriter
• Sameer Gadhia, lead vocalist in Young the Giant
• Ravi Hutheesing, singer-songwriter, guitarist
• Vijay Iyer, jazz musician and composer
• Sunny Jain, dhol player, drummer, and composer
• Norah Jones, singer, songwriter and actress; winner of multiple Grammy Awards
• Karsh Kale, Indian producer, composer and musician
• Tony Kanal, two-time Grammy Award winner, bass player for No Doubt
• Savan Kotecha, songwriter
• KSHMR, electronic musician, record producer
• Arun Luthra, jazz musician
• Sanjaya Malakar, finalist on the sixth season of American Idol
• Mathai, finalist on season 2 of The Voice
• Zarin Mehta, executive director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
• Zubin Mehta, former conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra; receiver of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• Nicki Minaj (Indo-Trinadadian), pop singer and rapper
• Sanjay Mishra, guitarist and composer
• Thara Prashad, singer
• Vasant Rai, performer of Indian music
• Paul Sabu, producer
• Shaheen Sheik, songwriter
• Bikram Singh, singer
• Ambi Subramaniam, violinist and composer
• Bindu Subramaniam, singer-songwriter
• Kim Thayil, named among 100th greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone

Business and industry

Business executives

Indra Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google

• Nikesh Arora, former Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google; now COO and President of SoftBank
• Prith Banerjee, Managing Director of Global Technology R&D at Accenture
• Ajay Banga, President and CEO of Mastercard
• Francisco D'Souza, CEO of Illumina
• Rono Dutta, former President of United Airlines; Chairman of Air Sahara
• Asim Ghosh, President and Chief Executive Officer at Husky Energy
• Rajiv Gupta, General Manager of Hewlett Packard
• Ajit Jain, President of Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group
• Anshu Jain, former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank
• Sanjay Jha, CEO of Global Foundries and former CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices
• Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President of Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company
• Thomas Kurian, President of Product Development at Oracle Corporation
• Victor Menezes, Chairman of Clearing House Association; former Chairman and CEO of Citibank
• Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
• Ranji H. Nagaswami, Chief Investment Officer for AllianceBernstein Fund Investors
• Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Systems
• Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman and CEO of Harman International
• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google Inc.
• Arati Prabhakar, Director of DARPA
• Prakash Puram, President and CEO of iXmatch
• Arvind Raghunathan, Managing Director and Head of Global Arbitrage at Deutsche Bank
• Vivek Ranadivé, CEO of TIBCO Software
• Abbas Sadriwala, Chairman and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based Wireless Logix Group
• Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia
• Abhi Talwalkar, President and CEO of LSI Corporation
• Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco Systems

Former business executives

• Samir Arora, former CEO of Mode Media
• Ramani Ayer, former Chairman and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services Group
• Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO and Chairman of US Airways Group
• Rajat Gupta, former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company
• Umang Gupta, former CEO of Keynote Systems, Inc.
• Anil Kumar, former Senior Partner and Chairman, Asia Center of McKinsey & Company
• Sanjay Kumar, former CEO of Computer Associates International
• Bobby Mehta, former CEO and Vice Chairman of HSBC North America and former CEO of Transunion Company
• Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman and former CEO of Cognizant Corporation
• Vikram Pandit, former CEO of Citigroup
• Kanwal Rekhi, former EVP and CTO of Novell
• Deven Sharma, former president of Standard & Poor's
• Jay Sidhu, former Chairman and CEO of Sovereign Bancorp

Businesspersons and entrepreneurs

Salman 'Sal' Khan, founder of Khan Academy, a free online education platform

• Kumar Arora, CEO of Aroridex Ltd. and Investor on CNBC
• Manoj Bhargava, founder and CEO of Innovations Ventures LLC; the company is known for producing the 5-hour Energy drink
• Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and CEO of Workday, Inc.; partner at Greylock Partners; member of the board of directors of Intel
• Amar Bose, founder and chairman of Bose Corporation
• Bharat Desai, co-founder and chairman of Syntel
• Sant Singh Chatwal, owner of the Bombay Palace chain of restaurants and Hampshire Hotels & Resorts
• John Kapoor, founder and executive chairman of Insys Therapeutics
• Salman 'Sal' Khan, founder of Khan Academy
• Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; co-founder of SUN Microsystems
• Ram Shriram, venture fund capitalist and one of the first investors in Google
• Romesh Wadhwani, founder, chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group

Literature

Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize

Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician and 2011 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction

• Kovid Gupta, bestselling author and screenwriter
• Agha Shahid Ali, poet
• Shauna Singh Baldwin, novelist, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize
• Ravi Batra, bestselling author and economist
• Susham Bedi, author
• Anita Desai, novelist; shortlisted for the Booker prize three times; mother of Kiran Desai
• Kiran Desai, winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize
• Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla, author
• Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author
• Anu Garg, author, speaker, and computer engineer
• Amitav Ghosh, Indo-nostalgic writer and winner of Prix Médicis étranger
• Usha Haley, author
• Rajiv Joseph, playwright
• S. T. Joshi, literary critic
• Siddharth Katragadda, author, filmmaker, artist
• Parag Khanna, author
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
• Tulika Mehrotra, author, journalist
• Dhan Gopal Mukerji, first successful Indian man of letters in the US; winner of the Newbery Medal, 1928
• Bharati Mukherjee, author, professor
• Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician, scientist and writer, 2011 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
• Aimee Nezhukumatathil, poet
• Indira Viswanathan Peterson, literary critic
• Janaki Ram, author
• Rishi Reddi, author
• Saumitra Saxena, Hindi poet, Bharatiya Jnanpith Navlekhana Award winner
• Vijay Seshadri, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist
• Vikram Seth, poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist
• Ravi Shankar, poet
• Indu Sundaresan, author
• Thrity Umrigar, author of Bombay Time
• Abraham Verghese, doctor and author; wrote In My Own Country and My Tennis Partner
• Kaavya Viswanathan, novelist

Military

Uday Singh Taunque, U.S. Army soldier of Indian descent who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom

• Joe Roche, Iraq war veteran and conservative political commentator
• Uday Singh Taunque, first Indian American to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom; posthumously awarded Bronze Star and Purple Heart gallantry awards
• Sunita Williams, astronaut and former Navy officer

Politics

Elected officials

Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina

Bobby Jindal, former Governor of Louisiana

• John Abraham, former mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey
• Saqib Ali, former member of the Maryland House of Delegates
• Harvinder "Harry" Anand, mayor of Laurel Hollow, New York
• Sam Arora, member of the Maryland House of Delegates
• Kumar P. Barve, member of the Maryland House of Delegates (majority leader)
• Ami Bera, U.S. Representative for California's 7th congressional district
• Satveer Chaudhary, former Minnesota State Senator
• Upendra J. Chivukula, member of the New Jersey General Assembly
• Swati Dandekar, Iowa State Senator
• Mervyn M. Dymally, 41st Lieutenant Governor of California (1975–1979); member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1981–1993)
• Kashmir Gill, mayor of Yuba City, California
• Jay Goyal, member of the Ohio State Representative
• Raj Goyle, member of the Kansas State Representative
• Nikki Haley, 116th and current Governor of South Carolina
• Kamala Harris, 32nd and current Attorney General of California
• Faz Husain, first native of India to win elected office in Michigan
• Bobby Jindal, former Governor of Louisiana; Vice Chairman of the Republican Governors Association
• Nimi McConigley, former member of the Wyoming State Legislature
• Aruna Miller, member of the Maryland House of Delegates
• Dalip Singh Saund, first Asian and Indian American member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
• Harry Sidhu, city councilman of Anaheim, California
• Bala K. Srinivas, former mayor of Hollywood Park, Texas
• Jenifer Rajkumar, Lower Manhattan district leader and candidate for the New York State Assembly

Civil servants

• Huma Abedin, aide to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
• Arif Alikhan, former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; former Deputy Mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles; former senior adviser to Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales
• Preeta D. Bansal, member and past chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; former Solicitor General of New York
• Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
• Cathy Bissoon, judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• Nisha Desai Biswal, current Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs
• Joy Cherian, first Asian head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer of the US
• Har Dayal, founder of the Ghadar Party
• Sabrina De Sousa, ex-CIA officer; is suing the US government for diplomatic immunity
• Rashad Hussain, U.S. Special Envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
• Neel Kashkari, former interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in the United States Department of the Treasury
• Neal Katyal, Solicitor General of the United States
• Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer of Minnesota
• Narayana Kocherlakota, President of Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
• Kris Kolluri, New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation
• Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer of the US
• Arun Majumdar, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
• Raj Mukherji, Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey; candidate for the New Jersey State Legislature
• Shekar Narasimhan, co-chair of the Democratic National Committee Indo-American Council
• Ajit Pai, serving as Commissioner at Federal Communications Commission
• Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the United States Department of State
• Rachel Paulose, former United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota
• Anant Raut, counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
• Rajiv Shah, former Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics; current Administrator of USAID
• Sonal Shah, member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project advisory board
• Islam A. Siddiqui, Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative
• Sabita Singh, first judge of Indian descent in Massachusetts history
• Subra Suresh, Director of National Science Foundation
• Vinai Thummalapally, served as U.S. Ambassador to Belize
• Richard Verma, Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, at the Department of State
• Surya Yalamanchili, 2010 US Congressional candidate

Federal judges

• Cathy Bissoon, judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• Vince Girdhari Chhabria, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
• Manish S. Shah, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• Srikanth Srinivasan, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• Indira Talwani, judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• Amul Roger Thapar, judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky

Religion

• Chitrabhanu, Jain, founded the Jain Meditation International Center in Manhattan, New York City
• Padmanabh Jaini, scholar of Jainism
• Sushil Kumarji, Jain Acharya
• Eboo Patel, member of New Faith Advisory Council
• Prem Rawat, also known as Guru Maharaji Ji, head of the Divine Light Mission and later organizations
• Muzammil Siddiqi, Ph.D., Chairman, Fiqh Council of North America
• Ravi Zacharias, Christian evangelist and apologist

Science and technology

Kalpana Chawla, NASA space shuttle astronaut, who died in space shuttle blast

Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut

Vinod Dham, designed the Intel Pentium Chip Processor

• Kuzhikalail M. Abraham, pioneer in lithium and lithium ion battery technologies, Professor, Northeastern university, Boston, Massachusetts and President, E-KEM Sciences, Needham, Massachusetts
• Ramesh K. Agarwal, aviation pioneer; William Palm Professor of Engineering at Washington University
• Thomas Anantharaman, computer statistician specializing in Bayesian inference
• Satya N. Atluri, aerospace and mechanics
• VA Shiva Ayyadurai, former guest lecturer at MIT
• Siva S. Banda, aerospace engineer and researcher, recipient of a Silver Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Presidential Rank Award, and elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering
• Krishna Bharat, Principal Scientist at Google; created Google News
• Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
• Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB; Chief Client Platform Architect at Intel
• Sharmila Bhattacharya, head of the Biomodel Performance and Behavior laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center
• Mani Lal Bhaumik, contributor to excimer laser technology
• Swapan Chattopadhyay, particle accelerator physicist
• Kalpana Chawla, NASA space shuttle astronaut, who died in space shuttle blast
• Deepak Chopra, alternative medicine advocate, author and public speaker
• Anil Dash, blogger and technologist
• Vinod Dham, designed the Intel Pentium Chip Processor; the "father of the Pentium Chip"
• Rajiv Dutta, technology manager
• Bhargav Gajjar (Gujarati:ભાગૅવ ગજજર), aerospace robotics scientist, educator, entrepreneur from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; founder of bio-inspired robotics company Vishwa Robotics
• Dr. Amitabha Ghosh, the only Asian on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission
• Anirvan Ghosh, neuroscientist
• Noshir Gowadia, design engineer
• Amit Goyal, scientist and inventor
• Vic Gundotra, former Senior Vice President, Engineering for Google
• Subrah Iyar, co-founder and CEO of Webex Communications
• Subhash Kak, head of the Computer Science department at Oklahoma State University
• Narinder Singh Kapany, engineer, the "father of fiber optics"
• Pramod Khargonekar, control theorist; Dean and Eckis Professor, College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville
• Arjun Makhijani, electrical and nuclear engineer; President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
• Om Malik, technology journalist and blogger
• Pranav Mistry, Sixth Sense Project
• Vamsi Mootha, physician-scientist and computational biologist
• Rajeev Motwani, professor, angel investor
• Pran Nath, theoretical physicist at Northeastern University
• Arun Netravali, scientist; former President of Bell Labs; former CTO of Lucent; pioneer of digital technology, including HDTV and MPEG4
• Bedabrata Pain, co-inventor of the active pixel sensor
• Vijay Raghunath Pandharipande, physicist
• Deepak Pandya, neuroanatomist
• C. Kumar N. Patel, developed the carbon dioxide laser, used as a cutting tool in surgery and industry
• Jogesh Pati, theoretical physicist at the University of Maryland, College Park
• Arvind Rajaraman, theoretical physicist and string theorist
• Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, behavioral neurologist and psychophysicist
• Chitranjan Singh Ranawat, orthopaedic and knee surgeon
• Vineeta Rastogi, public health worker
• Raj Reddy, founder of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University; winner of the Turing Award
• V. Mohan Reddy, paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Stanford
• Krishan Sabnani, engineer and Senior Vice President of the Networking Research Laboratory at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in New Jersey
• Avtar Saini, co-led the development of the Pentium processor Intel; holds seven patents related to microprocessor design
• Ruchi Sanghvi, first female engineer of Facebook; former VP of Operations, Dropbox
• Mahadev Satyanarayanan, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University; pioneer of research in mobile and pervasive computing
• Khem Shahani, microbiologist who conducted pioneer research on probiotics; discovered the DDS-1 strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus
• Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, the designation the company reserves for its elite master engineers in the area of "ranking algorithm"
• Rangaswamy Srinivasan, member of the Inventors' Hall of Fame for pioneering work on excimer laser surgery
• George Sudarshan, physicist, author; first to propose the existence of the tachyon
• Ajit Varki, physician-scientist
• Mathukumalli Vidyasagar, control theorist
• Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut
• Thomas Zacharia, computational scientist
• Ramesh Raskar, Femto-camera inventor, MIT Professor

Medicine

Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of U.S.; former Vice Admiral of U.S. Health Corps

• Balamurali Ambati, world's youngest doctor, at age 17
• Paul Antony, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
• Sangeeta Bhatia, Harvard-MIT doctor and scientist; engineer of artificial liver cells
• Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon, professor, medical author, and National Book Award finalist
• Anita Goel, Harvard-MIT physicist, physician; expert in nanobiophysics and nanotechnology; Chairman and CEO of Nanobiosym; inventor of Gene-RADAR technology
• Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon; CNN chief medical correspondent; declined offer by President Barack Obama to be nominated U.S. Surgeon General
• Joia Mukherjee, Associate Professor with the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School
• Vivek Murthy, 19th and current Surgeon General of the United States; former Vice Admiral of U.S. Public Health Corps
• Amit Patel, cardiovascular surgeon and stem cell researcher; first person to inject stem cells directly into the heart
• E. Premkumar Reddy, oncologist; Director of Fels institute of cancer research and molecular biology at Temple University
• Harvinder Sahota, cardiologist; inventor of the FDA-approved perfusion balloon angioplasty; holds patents of 24 other medical inventions
• Ashutosh Tewari, Professor of Urology at New York Presbyterian Hospital; prostate cancer surgeon

Sports

Mohini Bhardwaj, 2004 Summer Olympics medalist in gymnastics

• Prakash Amritraj, tennis player (born in the US)
• Stephen Amritraj, tennis player
• Sanjay Beach, former NFL wide receiver; played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers
• Mohini Bhardwaj, second Indian American Olympic medalist, 2004 Summer Olympics silver medalist in gymnastics
• Vinay Bhat, chess grandmaster
• Raj Bhavsar, third Indian American Olympic medalist, 2008 Summer Olympics bronze medalist in the team gymnastics competition
• James Blackmon, Jr., basketball player for the Indiana Hoosiers
• Brandon Chillar, NFL player, linebacker for the Green Bay Packers (father of Indian descent)
• Sonjay Dutt, TNA pro wrestler
• The Great Khali, WWE pro wrestler
• Alexi Grewal, first Indian American to win an Olympic medal, gold medalist in 1984 Summer Olympics in cycling
• Sunil Gulati, in charge of the United States Soccer Federation
• Sanjay Lal, wide receivers coach for the Buffalo Bills
• Jinder Mahal, WWE pro wrestler
• Sushil Nadkarni, American cricketer
• Ami Parekh, figure skater
• Laxmi Poruri, tennis player
• Rajeev Ram, tennis player
• Sunitha Rao, tennis player
• Shikha Uberoi, tennis player

Yoga

• Bikram Choudhury, yoga guru
• Dipa Ma, yoga teacher
• Harbhajan Singh Yogi, introduced Kundalini Yoga and Sikhism to the US

See also

• Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
• List of Non-resident Indians
• India–United States relations