U.S. President Barack Obama has felicitated an Indian-American scientist and a Pakistani-American doctor with the nation’s top honours on the field of science, technology and innovation respectively.
65-year-old Rakesh K Jain of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital was presented with the National Medal of Science for his role in developing novel strategies for manipulating tumours and translating those strategies into improved cancer detection, prevention, and treatment in humans.
53-year-old Humayun, who is a grandson of personal physician of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for invention, development, and application of bioelectronics in medicine, including a retinal prosthesis for restoring vision to the blind, thereby significantly improving patients’ quality of life.
Mr. Humayun’s family migrated from Jalandhar to Pakistan after partition. His grandfather Colonel Ilahi Bakhsh was the personal physician of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Humayun’s family moved to the U.S. in 1972 when he was nine years old.
Co-inventor of Argus Series retina implants that are intended to restore sight to the blind, Mr. Humayun is the only ophthalmologist ever to be elected a member of both US National Academies of Medicine and Engineering.
At a White House function, Mr. Obama said that Mr. Humayun’s invention was inspired by the illness of his grandmother.
“When his diabetic grandmother lost her vision, he began studying to become an ophthalmologist, hoping he could save the sight of others.
“Mark helped create the ‘Argus II’, a ‘bionic eye’ that has restored vision to patients who’ve been blind for up to 50 years,” Mr. Obama said.
“He says the moment when he witnessed someone seeing light and shapes, someone experiencing the miracle of sight for the first time in decades — those moments have been some of the happiest and most rewarding of his professional career. In his words — and I think no pun is intended —“There wasn’t a dry eye in the operating room,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Humayun and Mr. Jain received the award along with 15 other recipients of the ‘National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation.
The award function was initially scheduled for January 22 but was postponed due to a major snow storm.
Mr. Jain, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus, has received numerous awards for his work on tumour biology, particularly research on the link between tumour blood vessels and improving the effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
He received his B Tech degree from the IIT-Kanpur in Chemical Engineering in 1972.
The National Medal of Science was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation.
