- United States
- Four Indian Americans were named Feb. 25 winners of this year’s Heinz Awards, established by Teresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation to honor the memory of the late U.S. Senator John Heinz. A total of five winners were announced.In addition to winning $250,000, each recipient will receive a medallion inscribed with the image of Sen. Heinz on one side and a rendering of a globe passing between two hands on the other.
Named in the “Arts and Humanities” field was Dr. Abraham Verghese, a best selling author and Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and vice chair for the theory and practice of medicine at Stanford University’s department of medicine.In the “Technology, the Economy and Employment” category, the honoree was Leila Janah, of San Francisco, a social entrepreneur and founder of the nonprofits Samasource and SamaUSA, which use technology and the Internet to train people in some of the poorest regions of the world.Recognized in the “Human Condition” category was Salman Khan, of Mountain View, Calif., founder of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit educational organization.
In the “Public Policy” sector, Dr. Sanjeev Arora of Albuquerque, N.M., was the award winner. A liver disease specialist at the University of New Mexico, Arora created Project ECHO, or Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, a global model to increase access to high-quality health care by expanding workforce capacity and evidence-based medicine.
The fifth honoree, in the “Environment” field, was Jonathan Foley of St. Paul, Minn., director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.
“This year’s Heinz Awards recipients show that the antidote for the uncertainties and fears of our times lies where it always has — in the imagination, determination, brilliance and creativity of the people among us who see possibility where others see only barriers,” said Teresa Heinz, chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation
Verghese, author of the novel “Cutting for Stone” and memoir “My Own Country,” has created fiction and non-fiction that documents “his belief and practice that healing must go beyond cures, diagnostic tests and technological advancements and must also address the sense of profound vulnerability that patients feel when they are facing a major health crisis,” the foundation said in a press release.
“Eloquent as a writer and compassionate as a physician, Dr. Verghese brings a unique perspective to healing as an art in an era when the scientific details of medicine often overshadow the patient.”
The Khan Academy, which now hosts more than 5,000 instructional videos and interactive lessons, has “revolutionized how millions of children and students of all ages across the globe are learning subjects as diverse as mathematics, biology, economics, art history and astronomy,” the foundation said.
Khan founded the academy in 2008 after producing and hosting videos and software designed to break down key math concepts so that they would be more understandable to students who had encountered challenges.
Arora’s Project ECHO uses “video conferencing technology and case-based learning” to expand the “capacities of primary care clinicians to manage serious, chronic, complex conditions they were not trained to manage in school, including Hepatitis C, HIV, chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis and psychiatric disorders.” “Project ECHO’s footprint has expanded from its origins in New Mexico to more than a dozen states, including Illinois, Nevada, Massachusetts, Texas and Washington, as well as to India and Uruguay,” the foundation added.
“With 29 hubs in the United States and four more globally, Project ECHO is also working directly with the U.S. departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and also with the Department of Health and Human Services through a demonstration project supported by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.”
- Janah, one of the youngest people to be recognized by the Heinz Awards, through Samasource provides “microwork” opportunities — small, computer-based tasks such as data entry, photo tagging, content management translation and transcription. Companies who contract with Samasource for a project must commit to hiring women, youth and refugees.
- Since 2008, the organization has grown to provide training and employment opportunities to nearly 5,000 people and has lifted as many as 20,000 people out of poverty,” the foundation said.SamaUSA assist low-income digital workers at community colleges in the U.S.Recipients will receive their awards at a ceremony in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 3.
NEW YORK: Two Indian-origin men are among this year’s prestigious Heinz Awards recipients in the US.
Abraham Verghese, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, and Sanjeev Arora, a computer scientist, of Albuquerque in the US state of New Mexico will be honoured in Pittsburgh April 3, the foundation announced on its website on Tuesday.
The five recipients will receive a cash award of $250,000 each as well as a medallion inscribed with an image of late US senator John Heinz.
Abraham Verghese, who was born to parents from Kerala in Ethiopia, was given the award in recognition of his best-selling authorship.
In his first book, ‘My Own Country’, he wrote extensively about AIDS in rural areas of Tennesse.
Verghese did his MBBS degree from Madras University in 1979.
Sanjeev Arora, born at Kota in Rajasthan and now a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, was recognized for revolutionizing community healthcare using video conferencing technology.
The awards recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions in the fields of arts, humanities, environment, human Condition, public policy,technology, economy and employment.
