Five Indian Americans are among a diverse group of 171 Guggenheim Fellows of 2023 the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced this week. They include Prineha Narang (Physics), Anima Anandkumar and Venkatesan Guruswami, (Computer Science); Abraham Verghese (General Nonfiction); Projit Bihari Mukharji (History of Science, Technology, & Economics); and Leela Prasad (South & Southeast Asian Studies).

This year’s Fellows were “chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2,500 applicants based on prior achievement and exceptional promise,” the foundation said in an April 5 press release. Aged 31 to 85, they come from 48 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 72 different academic institutions, 24 states and the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces.

According to Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation, “the new class of Fellows has followed the calling to enhance all of our lives, to provide greater human knowledge and deeper understanding. We’re lucky to look to them to bring us into the future.”

Professor Prineha Narang is a renowned physicist and materials scientist, known for her groundbreaking work in the field of nanomaterials and their applications in energy and information technologies. Born in India, Narang grew up in several different countries, including Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, due to her father’s career as a mechanical engineer. Narang received her Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Toronto in 2007, where she was awarded the prestigious Governor General’s Medal for her academic achievements. She then pursued her graduate studies at Harvard University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 2012. As UCLA’s Howard Reiss Professor of Physical Sciences. Narang’s research aims to better understand the dynamics of nonequilibrium states in nature. The physical world — from gas giants in the solar system to living organisms, and even particles — exists in a state of nonequilibrium, making her studies essential to understanding how complex physical events unfold. In addition to her research, Narang is also passionate about science education and outreach. She has organized numerous workshops and outreach events aimed at engaging young people, particularly girls and underrepresented minorities, in science and technology. Narang is also a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in science and serves on several committees dedicated to promoting these values.

Anima Anandkumar is the Bren Professor of Computing at the California Institute of Technology. She is a director of Machine Learning Research at NVIDIA, a multinational technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Her research considers tensor-algebraic methods, deep learning and non-convex problems. research interests are in the areas of large-scale machine learning, non-convex optimization and high-dimensional statistics, according to her university profile. She received her B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and her Ph.D. from Cornell University. She did her postdoctoral research at MIT and an assistant professorship at the University of California Irvine. She has received several honors such as the IEEE fellowship, Alfred. P. Sloan Fellowship, NSF Career Award, and Faculty Fellowships from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Adobe. She is part of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network.