research for his doctoral dissertation. He has continually supported research on India since then.

Prof. Nicholas in his acceptance speech highlighted his experiences during his several visits to India and how good he has felt all these years with projects involving India and scholars on India.

Presenting Dr. Mansukh C. Warn for the Award, Dr. A Douglas Kinghorn of the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that Dr. Wani was at the very top of his chosen profession as an organic Chemist, both in terms of achievement and esteem. Doug wondered aloud how difficult it was for him to summarize Dr. Want's glittering career. Dr. Kinghom noted that despite his incredible past success. Dr. Wani continues to work on the discovery and development of additional anticancer drugs for the good of mankind and I count myself privileged to have worked with him for more than decade.

In his acceptance of the Award speech, Dr. Wani said, "It is a reality of scientific research and even more so of cancer research that in spite of promising ideas and many years of painstaking work, only a few discoveries translate into life-saving treatments. At present, there are about 50 approved agents for treating cancer of which only a handful are indispensable. There are many for leukemia but very few for solid tumors. Despite our victories, each day 3400 Americans are diagnosed with cancer and more than 1500 die from the disease. This equivalent to 5 jumbo jets crashing every day. "Therefore, has been most gratifying to see Taxol and Camptothecin, which my colleague, the late Dr. Monroe Wall, and I discovered, be developed into agents with great clinical potential. Few scientists are fortunate enough to see their work come to fruition in their lifetime."

Presenting The Congressional Caucus on India and India Americans, D.C. Agrawal highlighted the contribution of the Caucus.

"The Caucus is one of the reasons for the greatly improved India-United states relationship. The world's largest and oldest democracies today have a relationship based on common values, respect and trust due to work of the Caucus and the two million India-Americans who support the Caucus."

Illinois Secretary of State Honorable Jesse White praise the Indian American Community for their hard work, and their contribution to the state economy and the social fabric. He expressed his great satisfaction on the relationship he has developed with the Indian Community, especially with the members of AIA and how mutually rewarding experience it has been in the context of a participatory democracy.