Another Indian American and climate expert on energy, Sonia Aggarwal, was named on Thursday by President-elect Joe Biden as the senior advisor for climate policy, becoming the latest of several Indian American nominees for Biden-Harris administration.
Born and raised in Ohio, Aggarwal has a masters from Stanford University in civil engineering. As head of America's Power Plan, she brought together 200 electricity policy experts at Energy Innovation, of which she was a co-founder. She also directed the team that developed the Energy Policy Simulator to analyse the environmental, economic, and public health impacts of climate and energy policies.
Prior to it, she managed global research at ClimateWorks Foundation, working on the McKinsey carbon abatement cost curves and led research for the American Energy Innovation Council.
Indian Americans named to important positions in the administration of Biden, who will take over as President, and Kamala Harris, as Vice President next Wednesday, include Neera Tanden, who will be the director of the Office of Management and Budget with cabinet rank, and Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General, both of whom will have to be confirmed in their positions by the Senate.
Vedant Patel will be Biden's assistant press secretary, Vinay Reddy to be the director of speechwriting and Gautam Raghavan, to be the deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel.
Other Indian Americans include Atul Gawande and Celine Gounder, members of the COVID-19 task force; Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council; Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for Harris; Mala Adiga, policy director for Jill Biden, who will become the First Lady, and Maju Varghese, executive director of their inauguration -- the swearing-in ceremony and the festivities around it.
At the powerful National Security Council, the nominees are Tarun Chhabra, senior director for technology and national security; Sumona Guha, senior director for South Asia, and Shanthi Kalathil, coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights.
(With inputs from agencies)
