Famous Indian-American personalities

Academic
Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar, mathematician, singularity theory and Abhyankar's conjecture of finite group theory.
Akhil Amar, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure.
Vikram Amar, Professor of Law at U.C. Hastings College of the Law.
Balamurali Ambati, physician, world's youngest doctor at age 17.
Homi K. Bhabha, post-colonial theorist at Harvard.
Mani Lal Bhaumik, inventor of excimer laser technology.
Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1983.
Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon , medical author, National Book Award finalist.
Dipak C. Jain, Dean of the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Aravind Joshi, computer scientist, defined the tree-adjoining grammar formalism.
Narendra Karmarkar, mathematician, inventor of Karmarkar algorithm.
Neal Katyal, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, lead counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.
Narinder Singh Kapany, engineer, called the "Father of Fiber Optics".
Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (1968).
Anil Nerode, mathematician, proved the Myhill-Nerode Theorem.
Arun Netravali, scientist, former President, Bell Labs, former CTO, Lucent.
C. Kumar N. Patel, developed the carbon dioxide laser, used as a cutting tool in surgery and industry.
C.K. Prahalad, leading management guru.
Raghuram Rajan, IMF Chief Economist, inaugural winner of the Fischer Black Prize.
Raj Reddy, Turing Award winner and founder of the Robotics Institute at CMU.
Amartya Sen, The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998.
Madhu Sudan, computer science professor at MIT, winner Rolf Nevanlinna Prize.
George Sudarshan, physicist, author - first to propose the existence of Tachyon.
Divakar Viswanath, mathematician who discovered Viswanath's constant.
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Arts & Entertainment
Ravi Batra, bestselling author and economist
Anand Bhatt, musician and producer
Jay Chandrasekhar, actor, comedian, writer, and film director
Anita Desai, author
Pratima Yarlagadda - Miss Indiana USA 1999
Daniel Nainan - stand-up comedian, known for his clean humor
Engelbert Humperdinck, singer
Zakir Hussain, tabla maestro
Kim Singh, film and TV producer, fashion photographer, Stagecraft Films and Talent
Vijay Iyer, jazz musician and composer
Norah Jones, singer, Grammy award winner 2003, half Indian, daughter of Ravi Shankar
Tony Kanal, Bass player for No Doubt, two-time Grammy award winner, producer, songwriter
Padma Lakshmi, model, actress, and author
Zubin Mehta - conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Ismail Merchant - film producer
Rhona Mitra - actress
Saira Mohan - model
Ajay Naidu, actor
Mira Nair, filmmaker, won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar for Salaam Bombay!
Sunil Nayar, TV writer and producer, a Producer of CSI: Miami
Kal Penn, actor
Hillol Ray, Poet Laureate, Author, and Songwriter, wrote "Earth Day"
Sheetal Sheth, actress
Manick Sorcar, animator, artist, and producer
Kim Thayil, guitarist for rock group Soundgarden
Naren Shankar, TV writer, producer and director, an Executive Producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
M. Night Shyamalan, filmmaker, actor
Babu Subramaniam, TV series Director and Assistant Director
Anand Chandrasekaran, independent film producer of the award-winning Carma and invitee at 2006 Sundance Producers Conference
Kaavya Viswanathan, teen-aged novelist, once famous for having a six-figure book deal and a Disney film, now notorious as a plagiarist.
Navi Rawat, guest star on The O.C.
Sameer Samuel Bhattacharya, one of two guitarists in the Texas alternative rock band Flyleaf.
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Business & Industry
Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
Kim Singh, CEO PortaEnterprise, was awarded Entrepeuneur of the Year. Former senior executive at IBM, Ernst & Young and Unisys
Amar Bose, physicist and founder of Bose Corporation
Vinod Dham, former microprocessor boss for Intel and creator of the Pentium processor
Rono Dutta, former President, United Airlines; Chairman, Air Sahara
Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO and Chairman, US Airways Group
Rajat Gupta, former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
Rajiv Gupta, a General Manager of Hewlett Packard
Ajit Jain, head of National Indemnity, possible successor to Warren Buffett
Sanjay Jejurikar, a Director of Windows division, Microsoft
Vinod Khosla, general partner, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; co-founder, Sun Microsystems
Hansraj C. Maru, former CTO of FuelCell Energy
Indra Nooyi, President and CFO of PepsiCo and CEO to be.
Kanwal Rekhi, businessman and engineer, Former EVP & CTO of Novell, Venture capitalist
Suhas Patil, founder, Cirrus Logic
Sanjiv Sidhu, founder and CEO of i2 Technologies, a B2B Supply Chain integrator
Pradeep Sindhu, Co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks
Rana Talwar, banker, former Group CEO of Standard Chartered Bank
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Literature & Media
Agha Shahid Ali, poet
Sorbono Banerjee Anchor, local NBC news, Boston
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author
Deepak Chopra, author and speaker
Sumi Das, CNN national correspondent
Dinesh D'Souza, author and conservative political commentator
Sanjay Gupta, CNN senior medical correspondent
Pico Iyer, author and journalist for Time Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books
Jhumpa Lahiri - writer, Pulitzer Prize winner
Kim Singh, Editor Asia News http://saja.org/kimsingh.html, film and theater critic - ArtsDiva http://siliconvalleydebug.com/story/040606/Stories/mamasita.html
Mish Michaels - meterologist, Weather Channel and local Boston CBS news
Dhan Gopal Mukerji - the first successful Indian man of letters in US
Bharati Mukherjee - author
Aimee Nezhukumatathil - poet
Uma Pemmaraju, Senior news anchor for Fox News Channel
Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of National Review magazine
Vikram Seth, poet and novelist. Also a travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist
Shauna Singh Baldwin, novelist, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book
Ali Velshi, business news anchor for CNN
Chitra Raghavan, chief legal affairs correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, former NPR Correspondent
Snigdha Prakash, NPR Correspondent http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101041
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, The Washington Post. He is also author of the forthcoming book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" (Knopf)
Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University professor and ABC TV technology reporter
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek
Bobby Mehta, CEO of HSBC North America
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Politics
Kumar P. Barve, state legislator (Majority Leader, Maryland House of Delegates).
Upendra Chivukula, state legislator (New Jersey General Assembly); first Indian-American elected to the NJ legislature.
Kamala Harris, District Attorney of San Francisco; first Indian-American elected as a D.A. in the United States.
Bobby Jindal, U.S. Congressman from Louisiana; former gubernatorial candidate; Republican.
Raj Mukherji, New Jersey lobbyist and businessman.
Vij Pawar, New Jersey attorney and former congressional candidate.
Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor for National Review magazine.
Dalip Singh Saund, first Indian-American congressman.
Kim Singh, Executive Director, Asian American Public Policy Institute.
Shashi Tharoor, Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information for the United Nations. Candidate for UN general secretary post
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Scripps National Spelling Bee Champions
Pratyush Buddiga, 2002
Anurag Kashyap, 2005
Nupur Lala, 1999
Balu Natarajan, 1985
Rageshree Ramachandran, 1988
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Sports
Mohini Bhardwaj, first Indian American Olympic medalist, gymnastics
Brandon Chillar, professional American football player
Vijay Singh, golfer.
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Others
Kalpana Chawla, NASA astronaut (perished in the 2003 Columbia disaster)
Neal Katyal, lawyer, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, lead counsel in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on Guantanamo military actions
Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women.
Bhagat Singh Thind, civil rights figure, lecturer, author
Urvashi Vaid, famous gay rights activist
Laxmi Poruri, first Indian-born female professional tennis player