Two Indian Americans were honored with the highest scientific awards by President Joe Biden for their contribution to the field of science and technology at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 24. Ashok Gadgil of the University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was presented with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, while Brown university professor Subra Suresh received the National Medal of Science.

Gadgil received the award “for providing life-sustaining resources to communities around the world.,” the White House said. “His innovative, inexpensive technologies help meet profound needs from drinking water to fuel-efficient cookstoves. His work is inspired by a belief in the dignity of all people and in our power to solve the great challenges of our time.”

Also a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, Gadgil has developed “low­-cost solutions to some of the developing world’s most intractable problems, including safe drinking water technologies, energy efficient stoves, and ways to make efficient electric lighting affordable,” according to a Berkeley Lab press release. “Together his projects have helped more than 100 million people. He is also an expert in building energy efficiency and computational fluid dynamics of indoor air and pollutant flows,” the press release added.

He was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame for work that “helped over 100 million people across four continents by making efficient electric lighting affordable, water safe to drink, and designing energy-efficient stoves.” He also received the Heinz Award and the Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation.

Suresh — a scientist and engineer with decades of impactful leadership in higher education, industry, and government — was recognized “for pioneering research across engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences, and particularly for advancing the study of material science and its application to other disciplines,” the White House said.

In a statement issued in a Brown University press release, Suresh said the recognition is “satisfying and humbling.” He noted that one doesn’t do science for the awards but for the joy. “If somebody notices it, it’s icing on the cake, but it’s not the cake itself. This particular one, though, has added significance because it’s from the president of the United States. It’s national. It has the United States stamped on it.”

He became a faculty member at Brown in 1983 as the youngest member of the engineering faculty. After 10 years at Brown, he went on to eventually become the first Asian-born American to lead the National Science Foundation, serving as its 13th director after he was nominated by then-President Barack Obama. He returned to Brown’s School of Engineering in September 2023. Earlier this month the school announced a biennial symposium in his honor focused on the frontiers of technology and society.

He has served as president of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, was the ninth president of Carnegie Mellon University, and was both a faculty member and dean of MIT’s engineering school.