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(Siliconindia, Inc)
Indian American wins $500,000 research grant
IANS Wednesday, September 29, 2004
WASHINGTON: Indian American Vamsi Mootha is among 23
people who have won "do-what-you-want-with-it" grants
of $500,000 each from the MacArthur Foundation.
Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh-born Mootha, an assistant
professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical
School, Boston, is still trying to come to terms with
winning the prestigious annual grant for which
awardees are nominated without their knowledge.
The grants are considered the pinnacle of achievement
in mainly academic fields and are aimed at enabling
awardees to carry out research or creative work
without any constraints.
"I wasn't having a particularly good day," recalls
Mootha of the day last week when he found out $500,000
was going to be thrown into his lap, in annual
instalments of $100,000 each.
"I was walking in a parking lot when I got a call on
my cell phone from a number I didn't recognise. I
initially thought it was a sales person or a peddler.
Or that someone was playing a prank on me. When I
realised who the person on the other side of the line
was, my first instinct was that of shock and
bewilderment," Mootha told IANS in a telephonic
interview.
After being given the good news, 33-year-old Mootha
was sworn to secrecy till Tuesday, when the awards
were announced here.
"I told my parents this morning. They aren't in the
academic circles so they hadn't heard much about the
foundation. But now they are finding out about it and
are obviously very proud of my achievements," recounts
Mootha.
A release from the foundation says, "Fellows are
selected for their originality, creativity, and the
potential to do more in the future... The stipend
carries no restrictions."
While the process may sound simple enough, there is a
catch. No one may apply for the awards, nor are any
interviews conducted, and those who nominate the
awardees are kept confidential (to protect them from
unsolicited nomination requests, says the foundation).
"I have no clue who nominated me but it was obviously
someone who was familiar with my work and I am
grateful for their acknowledgement," says Mootha.
His interests lie in tapping new data from molecular
biology, genetics, and protein chemistry to identify
the cause of, and possible treatment for, metabolic
diseases such as diabetes. He says he is "very
interested in energy metabolism" and its research
potential.
Mootha, who left Indian shores along with his family
when he was six months old, intends on first using
some of the money to take his parents on a vacation.
"I haven't really decided yet what to do with all the
money but I am hoping to channel funds into high-risk
research projects that I would have been unable to
undertake earlier. I may also use some of the funds as
seed money for initiatives to back study in my field,"
he says.
The youngest of four children, Mootha, a bachelor,
says only his immediate family is in the US.
"My extended family is still in Andhra Pradesh and I
have very close links to home. I last visited India a
year and a half ago and intend on going back this
winter."
The MacArthur Foundation has assets of around $4
billion. It was named after John D. MacArthur
(1897-1978), who developed and owned Bankers Life and
Casualty Company and other businesses, as well as
considerable property in Florida and New York.
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