Mountain View, CA — Vivek Wadhwa, a successful and well-respected Silicon Valley entrepreneur, academic and international journalist, has been honored by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as an Outstanding American by Choice for his significant contributions and achievements as a naturalized U.S. citizen. The recognition was presented to Mr. Wadhwa by Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of USCIS during the Entrepreneurs in Residence Summit at NASA Research Park on Wednesday, February 22, in Mountain View, CA.
“We are very pleased to honor Vivek Wadhwa and include him among the group of outstanding individuals from more than 35 countries, who have been honored since 2006,” said Mayorkas. “I commend Vivek for his civic participation, professional achievement, and responsible citizenship, and for his demonstrated commitment to the United States and to the common civic values that unite all Americans.“
“I am touched. This shows the greatness of America,” said Wadhwa. “This country welcomes people from all over the world and assimilates them. It encourages them to challenge the norms and think outside the box. I believe that America will continue to lead the world because no other country has these critical ingredients for success”.
Vivek Wadhwa, who was born in India and emigrated to the U.S. from Australia—where he studied and worked, currently serving as VP of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University (SU), where he oversees faculty and curriculum development and international outreach. Mr. Wadhwa is also a fellow at the Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; a Director at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization, and Exec in Residence, Duke University; Distinguished Visiting Scholar, and Emory University. He is also an advisor to several start-up companies and a columnist for The Washington Post and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and writes occasionally for several international publications.
“Vivek is known for pioneering change and innovation and he dedicates his life to this end,” said Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman, Singularity University and author of the new best-seller Abundance. “Vivek embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship – as a businessman, scholar, mentor, professor and writer – that we promote among our international students at SU.”
Previous recipients of the Outstanding American by Choice recognition include Carlos M. Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Indra
K. Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo; Elie Wiesel, Author and Nobel Peace Prize Winner; Franklin Chang Diaz, former NASA astronaut; Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State and currently Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group and Professor, Georgetown University; Gloria Estfan, singer and songwriter, and Gerda Weissmann Klein, Founder of Citizenship Counts, Holocaust Survivor, Author, and Human Rights Activist, among many others. A full list can be found at www.uscis.gov/
americansbychoice
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Vivek Wadhwa earned an MBA from New York University after completing a B.A. in Computing Studies from the University of Canberra, in Australia. He is founding president of the Carolinas chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TIE), a non-profit global network intended to foster entrepreneurship. He has been featured in thousands of articles in publications world wide, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, and Science Magazine, and has appeared on U.S. and international TV stations, including CNN, ABC, NBC, CNBC, and the BBC.
His article for The Washington Post for February 22, can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
national/on-innovations/
america-keep-rewarding-your-
dissidents/2012/02/21/
gIQA50wgRR_story.html
About Singularity University
Singularity University’s mission is to assemble, educate, and inspire a new generation of leaders in business, science, finance, and government who strive to understand and utilize exponentially advancing technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges – and implement solutions that will positively affect a billion people within a decade. Founding Partners include Autodesk, Cisco, Google, the Kauffman Foundation, Nokia, and ePlanet Ventures and today sponsorship has expanded to include Genentech, among other large corporations and individuals. Since 2009, SU has hosted students and industry leaders from 40 countries at its campus at NASA Research Park, Calif.
SU offers both graduate studies and executive programs focused on the impact and incubation of exponentially growing technologies in six key areas: medicine and neuroscience, networks and computing systems, artificial intelligence and robotics, biotechnology/bioinformatics, nanotechnology, and energy and environmental systems.
For more information visit www.singularityu.org.
A high-resolution photo of Vivek Wadhwa is available at: www.wadhwa.com/bio.