3 Indian Americans Among 5 Moore Inventor Fellows Chosen For Scientific Discovery, Environmental Conservation, Patient Care

Three Indian Americans are among this year’s Moore Inventor Fellows, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced yesterday (Sept. 19). The annual fellowship “champions scientist-inventors who design groundbreaking tools and technologies — creative people poised to make substantial strides in scientific discovery, environmental conservation and patient care,” the foundation said. 

“The Moore Inventor Fellowship celebrates the ingenuity and creativity needed to meet today’s challenges and shape a better future,” said Harvey V. Fineberg, M.D., Ph.D., president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. “We are proud to support these visionaries early in their careers as they develop technologies that can make a significant and positive impact on critical issues facing the world and its occupants.”

Indian American fellows include Saad Bhamla, associate professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT); Ved Chirayath, Vetlesen Professor of Earth Sciences and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Miami; and Karthish Manthiram is professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry; and a William H. Hurt Scholarat California Institute of Technology.

Bhamla’s research “explores fundamental and applied research questions through the development of new experimental tools and techniques at the intersection of soft matter, organismic physics and global health,” according to his GIT profile. His “frugal inventions could bring point-of-care diagnostics and modern medical tests to billions of people in remote and under-resourced areas of our planet,” the foundation said. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. 

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Chirayath is the Vetlesen Endowed Chair of Earth Sciences, a National Geographic Explorer, and the inaugural director of the Aircraft Center for Earth Studies (ACES) at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. His research focuses on inventing, developing, and testing next-generation sensing technologies for studying the natural world. It “would allow for imaging through ocean waves to see marine wildlife, seafloor, and marine plastics from aircraft – and future spacecraft – much like telescopes observe the distant universe through our turbulent atmosphere,” the foundation said.

The Manthiram Lab, led by Manthiram in Caltech’s Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, creates electrified molecular systems. s group will undertake efforts to develop electrically powered catalysts to synthesize epoxides. This could eliminate the safety hazards and carbon footprint incurred in today’s epoxide manufacturing, providing a pathway to sustainable and safe chemical synthesis.