The US Senate has confirmed Indian-American scientist Sethuraman Panchanathan as the head of the National Science Foundation. Panchanathan, 58, who studied at the Vivekananda College in Chennai and currently with the Arizona State University, would head the NSF, the top American science funding body that has an annual budget of USD 7.4 billion. He will assume office on the 6th of July and will be the second Indian origin scientist after Dr. Subra Suresh who served from October 2010 to March 2013.

Sethuraman Panchanathan who is known as Paanch by his friends and colleagues has stated "My personal mission is to inspire, empower and serve humanity through life-changing innovations that have the potential to alter the face of how we view ‘different abilities’ on a global scale,”