Back

BOOK CONVERSATION: "Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World"

When
Friday, March 25, 2011
5:30 PM - 6:59 PM
Location
Columbia Journalism School, Stabile Student Center, 116th St & Broadway on the main Columbia campus (#1 subway to 116th St)
Registered
Nobody

[ shortcut to this page: http://bit.ly/sajasaini ]

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association (@sajaHQ) presents...

Join Angela Saini (@angelaDsaini), the London-basedauthor of a major new book on India and the role of science (past, present and future) in a rare appearance in New York City.

The book is entitled: "Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World" (which has just been published by Hodder & Stoughton). Here's what the Sunday Times said about her work: "Saini has a genuine talent for describing science."

Saini will be joined by veteran science writer (Time and elsewhere) and long-time SAJA member Unmesh Kher, in a conversation moderated by an alleged Indian geek, Prof. Sree Sreenivasan (@sree), Columbia J-school professor and SAJA co-founder. They will discuss these and other questions:

How did India become a scientific superpower?
What lessons can America learn from India's ascent?
Why isn't Indian science more innovative than it is now?
Can science help India deal with its problems of poverty, malnutrition?
What do sports failures got to do with India's science success?
Is India really, as she says, "a nation of nerds, dweebs, dorks, boffins and geeks"?

Refreshments will be served; this is a free, public event.

More on the book on her website, AngelaSaini.com. Be sure to check out her appearance on the BBC's Meet the Author series.

If you'd like to interview her or learn more about the book you can email her at angela.d.saini (at) gmail.com (tell her SAJA sent you).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Angela Saini is an award-winning independent journalist based in London, and the author of Geek Nation, a journey through India, to find out whether the country is set to become the world's next scientific superpower. The book was published by Hodder & Stoughton in Europe on 3rd March 2011 and is being published by Hachette India in April 2011.

Her work focuses on science, technology and their impact on society. Angela's writing has been published in New Scientist, Science, Wired and The Economist, and she's a regular reporter on BBC radio science shows, including Digital Planet.

Angela was shortlisted for the best feature award from the Association of British Science Writers in 2010 and named European Junior Science Writer of the Year by the Euroscience Foundation in 2009. Before going freelance, she was a reporter for BBC News in London, where her investigation into bogus universities won the Prix Circom Award for European television journalism.

She started out as a newspaper journalist in New Delhi before joining ITN in London on its prestigious News Trainee scheme. Her undergraduate degree was a Masters in Engineering from Oxford University and she has a second Masters in Science and Security from the Department of War Studies at King's College London.