Trump nominates Indian-American Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan as Director of National Science Foundation

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump intends to nominate Indian-American engineer-scientist Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan as Director of the National Science Foundation, the

White House

announced on Thursday.

Dr Panchanathan, a graduate of Indian Institute of Science (1984) and

Indian Institute of Technology

(1986) will have to be confirmed by the Senate before he can lead the U.S government’s foremost agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering, backed by a budget of nearly $ 8 billion. The Founding Director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing at Arizona State University, he is currently the University’s Executive Vice President and the Chief Research and Innovation Officer.

Dr Panchanathan is the second Indian-American to head the prestigious 70-year old foundation after Dr Subra Suresh, like him a Chennai-born IIT-ian who was nominated to lead it in 2010. Although the directorship is for a six-year team, Dr Suresh left after three years to head Carnegie Mellon University before moving to Singapore last year as President of the

Nanyang Technological University

(NTU). The outgoing NSF director Dr. France A. Córdova, also an Obama appointee, is just concluding her six-year term.

The NSF is said to fund approximately 24% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics,

computer science

, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

A physics undergrad of University of Chennai’s Vivekananda College, Dr. Panchanathan is a Fellow of the National Association of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Optical Engineering.

The Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) that he founded in Arizona in 2001 focuses on designing technologies and devices for assisting individuals with disabilities. Among the disabilities the lab attempts to ease are impaired vision, stroke and autism.

The appointment of Dr Panchanathan comes despite some disquiet and resentment in nativist circles about the influx of foreigners in science and technology circles. But like with previous administration going back to Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, the Trump White House too has picked several Indian-Americans for key jobs simply on account of merit and qualification.

Among the Trump White House’s picks are Rita Baranwal, who is the Assistant Secretary of Energy (Nuclear Energy), and Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.