Dr. Chaudhari is the Indian-born Director-elect of Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of America's premiere government labs. Dr. Chaudhari began his higher education at the famous Indian Institute of Technology and then went on to receive his doctorate at America's great Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to a distinguished career at IBM where he rose to the position of Vice-President of Science. Dr. Chaudhari has served as a scientific adviser to President Ronald Reagan as well as Prime Ministers Rajiv Ghandi and Prime Minister Rao.
I just finished reading the very funny, somewhat raunchy satirical novel Absurdistan by young Russian-born writer Gary Shteyngart. The novel is about a son of the 1238th richest man in Russia who finds himself in the middle of a manufactured civil war in the former Soviet Republic of Absurdistan. One review of the book called it "Jonathan Swift does South Park" and that's probably a pretty apt description of the book.
Shteyngart emigrated to the US in 1979 at the age of seven and went on to become a writing professor at Hunter College in New York, just like Russian immigrant Jerry Shteynfarb, the lead character Misha Vainberg's nemesis in Absurdistan. Shteyngart previous had a writing hit with The Russian Debutante's Handbook and is soon to release 2040.
OK, it's not as high brow as my CEO series, but I almost never miss a new episode of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and the show's trio of immigrant "correspondents" are sensational. I especially get a kick when they cover immigration issues. The show has propelled Indian-born Aasif Mandvi to one of the country's most recognized Indian Americans. Mandvi is officially the show's Middle East correspondent and one of the running gags is that no one really knows what ethnicity he is other than that he's brown (his frequent description of himself).
Mandvi is also a serious actor and playwright. He recently starred in the play Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.
Czech-native Jan Pinkava is nominated for an Oscar this year along with two colleagues for Best Original Screenplay for their work on the wonderful Pixar/Disney film Ratatouille. I loved this movie and continue to be impressed by the wonderful movies coming out of this studio.
Pinkava emigrated to the UK at a young age and won a BBC young filmmaker's contest. He went on to study computer science in college and then combined his technical skills with his love of film to become a master of computer animation. Pixar recruited Pinkava in 1993 and he began work on Ratatouille in 2000. 
Oscar week continues here at the blog :-). Spaniard Javier Bardem made the jump from his country's film community to Hollywood a few years ago in a big way when he was nominated in 2000 for an Academy Award for Best Actor in Before Night Falls. He will be at the Kodak Theater for Sunday night's Oscars as a nominee for Best Supporting Actor for the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men.
About The Author
Greg Siskind is a partner in Siskind Susser's Memphis, Tennessee, office. After graduating magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago. Mr. Siskind is a member of AILA, a board member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and a member of the ABA, where he serves on the LPM Publishing Board as Marketing Vice Chairman. He is the author of several books, including the J Visa Guidebook and The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet. Mr. Siskind practices all areas of immigration law, specializing in immigration matters of the health care and technology industries. He can be reached by email at gsiskind@visalaw.com.
About us | Non-profit| Link to us
Share this page | Bookmark this page | Print this page |
Add to del.icio.us
© Copyright 1995-2008 American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM