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 National Finals - 2009 Jul 31 - Aug 2 2009, University of Maryland, MD |
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2009 National Finals -- Judges' Profiles Anita Gavini earned her BS degree in supply chain management from the University of Illinois, Urbana-champaign in 1999. For the last five years she has been working as an Engineer at Ford Motor Company in Detroit and more recently at Atlanta. She is also working towards her MBA from Duke University. Anita loves music and gained proficiency in flute while she was in high school. She has been helping the Foundation by officiating regional contests in Chicago during the last three years. She also helped as a pronouncer at the National finals at MIT in 2002. Balu Natarajan had the distinction of becoming the first Indian American to claim The Scripps Howard Spelling Bee National Championship in 1985 thereby leading the way for many youngsters to aspire and achieve this honor in the years to come. After completing high school in 1989, Balu proceeded to Northwestern University, where he spent seven years earning his bachelor's degree and medical degree. Since the Northwestern football team was beginning to win football games by the time he earned his M.D., Balu stayed there until 1999, when he finished his residency in internal medicine. He then completed a sports medicine fellowship the following year in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the past three years, Balu has lived in Chicago and Philadelphia, where he was medical director of an occupational medicine clinic. He and his wife Meenakshi returned to Chicago in spring 2003, where Balu has started private practice in internal medicine and sports medicine. Balu enjoys spending time with friends and family, but still is involved in the community, he is Associate Medical Director of the Chicago Marathon, and he continues to teach high school students at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago. Kedar Shah is a second year student at the University of California Berkeley, majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Kedar has great interest in learning Latin and was awarded Gold Medal at the national level. Kedar participated in the North South Foundation spelling and vocabulary contest over many years while he was in middle and high schools and finished in the top ten ranks on several occasions. He finished 4th in the 1996 NSF National Spelling Bee. The following year, he represented the San Francisco Bay area through The San Francisco Examiner at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. He achieved perfect scores in English and Latin in SAT I & II and finished high school as a National Merit Finalist. His interests include yoga, tennis, music, and volunteering. Anu Gollapudi is no stranger to the Foundation. She represented Northern California at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in 1999. The same year, she won special recognition as the best 12-year old in the Foundation National Vocabulary Finals. She returned in 2000 to claim the 2nd place and in 2001 Vocabulary championship. She had a near perfect SAT-I score and perfect 800 scores in SAT-II subject tests. She was recognized as a National Merit Scholar. She will be starting her 7-year BS/MD combined program at the Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Subba Rao Potru is an Engineering Group Manager in the Math-based Manufacturing Engineering Department at General Motors. He is responsible for the development and implementation of manufacturing engineering software tools. Dr. Potru received a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College in Warangal, a master degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Potru's activities in the community include serving as the regional coordinator and a presiding judge for the NSF Detroit regional spelling competition since 1998. He also served as a presiding judge at the 1999 NSF National Senior Spelling Bee. He coached students in preparation for the MATHCOUNTS competition and the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics competition. He lives in Rochester Hills, Michigan with his wife and two children. Parvati Potru is an Economic Analyst in the Bureau of Labor Market Information in the Department of Labor and Economic Growth in Michigan. She received her BA degree from Andhra University, Waltair, India and a MA degree from Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Parvati volunteered extensively in Musson Elementary School and Van Hoosen Middle School in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and in metro Detroit area. She judged in spelling and vocabulary competitions at the regional level conducted by the North South Foundation. Rachana Potru is a second-year medical student at the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Human Medicine. She graduated from Michigan State University with BS in Psychology with honors in 2003. During college she received many awards including the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship and Michigan Association of Physicians from India Scholarship for service to the community. While in secondary school, Rachana was a regular participant in the Foundation contests and won at the regional and the national level. In 1999, she claimed 3rd place in the National Vocabulary contest. From 12th grade through her final year of college, Rachana served as a pronouncer and judge at the regional competitions in Detroit. Sudheer Potru is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champign, majoring in Electrical Engineering and intends to pursue a medical career. Sudheer is an Edmund J. James Scholar in Engineering and a member of the Dean's List for the last five semesters. Sudheer competed in several academic competitions at the collegiate level including the Putnam Mathematics Prize and many "quiz-bowl" events, leading the UIUC team to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) intercollegiate undergraduate championship this past April and capturing first in individual scoring. At a young age, Sudheer was placed sixth in the NSF National Spelling Bee in 1995, a third at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in 1997 and third at the NSF National Vocabulary Contest in 1999. Dr. Murali Gavini currently works as a compliance officer at the Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Maryland. He obtained his Masters degree in Nuclear and Radiation chemistry from Andhra Univeristy in India and doctorate in Nuclear Chemistry from University of Arkansas. Dr. Gavini was the 1st volunteer of the North South Foundation's National Spelling bee, Vocabulary contest and the Brain bee, a neuroscience contest for school children. He also directs the youth mentoring program at the Foundation. Bhakti Nagalla is a 15-year old high school junior who aspires to be a physician. She became North South Foundation Brain Bee Champion in August 2003. She represented North South Foundation at the International Brain Bee competition conducted in March 2004 at University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland and was crowned International Brain Bee Champion. This contest was sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) and conducted as part of the Brain Awareness Week. Sarat Puthenpura received B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1983, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University, Canada in 1986. Soon after Ph.D., he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories. His main research and development areas were telecommunication network planning and optimization, mathematical programming and optimization techniques. From 1991 to 1995, he was heavily involved in leading the globalization efforts of AT&T, to set up joint ventures to provide in-country telecom services, in different parts of the world. Subsequently, from 1995 to 1998 he served as the General Manager of Network Planning and Operations for the AT&T Wireless Joint Venture in India. From 1998 to present, he has been heading the Global Business Analysis and Systems Organization, AT&T Labs, Florham Park, NJ. He has been the author of more than 30 research papers in network planning, mathematical programming, and automatic control systems. He has been the author of a graduate level textbook in mathematical programming ("Linear Optimization and Extensions - Theory and Algorithms", Prentice-Hall, 1991). In addition to R&D efforts, he has been an adjunct faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and well as in the Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University from 1991. Sarat Lives in Berkeley Heights, with his wife Mini and daughter, Vidya. Vidya Puthenpura is entering as a 10th grade student in the Governor Livingston High School, Berkeley Heights, NJ. She had the distinction of attending the Johns Hopkins University Program for gifted and talented youth from grade 5. By grade 7, she completed all the high school mathematics courses. She has completed a Calculus and a Psychology course in grades 7 and 8, respectively, from Rutgers University, NJ. Vidya has been an active participant of NSF contests. In 2000, she won 1st place in the New Jersey regional spelling bee. In 2002, 2003 and 2004, she won the 1st place in the New Jersey regional vocabulary contest and a 6th place at the Nationals in 2002 and 2003. She also won several spelling contests conducted by the Knights of Columbus, Summit Area. Additionally, she was placed 7th and 5th in 2003 and 2004 respectively in the National French Examination. Vidya has been working closely and diligently with Dr. Krishnaiah Revuluri and Dr. Sarat Puthenpura (her father) in developing and structuring the NSF Math Bee. Dr. Krishnaiah Revuluri is one of the pioneers in designing the NSF Math Bee. He coaches math teams in a local school at 7th and 8th grade levels. Over the last twelve years, he has taken children to the state level in Illinois and for the last three years his students went to National level for MATHCOUNTS competitions. Starting a Math club at Harper College in 2000, he has managed to bring students into the top ten ranks in AMATYC (American Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges) competitions. He has been tutoring Math portion of SAT I at Chinmaya Mission, Chicago, which is bringing out excellent results. He believes in "long-term learning," and encourages children to develop problem-solving skills over time. Dr. Ravuluri received BS in Electrical Engineering from S.V. University College of Engineering, Tirupati in 1965, MS from IISC, Bangalore in 1967 and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Arlington in 1974. He worked for Harza Engineering, Bell Labs Indian Hill, and Motorola. He is currently an adjunct faculty at Harper College, Palatine, IL. Chandana Achanta is a very active North South Foundation volunteer. She organized spelling bee workshops for the Foundation in Raleigh, NC, during 2002 and 2003. While she was at Cincinnati, Ohio, she managed the 2004 Cincinnati regional contest successfully. After she moved to Baltimore, Maryland in July 2004, she accepted the responsibility for managing the Maryland regional contests for 2005. Chandana received her BS in Economics from UNC, Chapel Hill. Hirsh Sandesara is a sophomore at Duke University in Durham, N.C., as an Angier B. Duke Scholar. He is majoring in chemistry and public policy, and is on the pre-medical track. At Duke, he is Political Chair of Diya (the South Asian students association), Health and Safety Chair of the Duke Red Cross, a peer tutor for calculus and chemistry, and a teaching assistant for a public policy course. Hirsh participated in North South Foundation bees from 1993 to 1999, winning several awards including the Vocabulary championship in 1999, and continued to judge in the following years. His experience with North South helped him earn third and fifth place finishes at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in 1998 and 1997. |
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