Newsmakers

Belfer Center Senior Fellow and former Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill has been awarded India’s prestigious Padma Bhushan prize for “distinguished service of a high order.” The Padma Awards are presented annually by the government of India to recognize “distinguished and exceptional achievements and service.”

Blackwill was U.S. ambassador to India from 2001-2003. Prior to his ambassadorship, he was a professor at Harvard Kennedy School where he taught a class in U.S. national security with Belfer Center Director Graham Allison. Following his own advice for students, he wrote himself a memo on his objectives as ambassador, focusing on moving the U.S.-India relationship from one filled with antagonism about a variety of issues to one of broad strategic collaboration.

His legacy as ambassador includes promoting the closest ties between India and the U.S. since the country’s independence in 1947.

Belfer Center Senior Fellow Ben Heineman was named one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics for 2015 by Ethisphere Magazine, the leading publication on ethics. Number 37 out of 100 in this year’s list, Heineman was honored by Ethisphere in 2014 as well.

President Barack Obama has named his former national security advisor and current Belfer Center Senior Fellow Tom Donilon to lead alongside Sam Palmisano the new Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. The goal of the bi-partisan commission is to strengthen U.S. cyber defenses over the next decade.

Lt Gen (ret.) Tad Oelstrom, director of Harvard Kennedy School’s National Security Program, was awarded the Medal of Gratitude by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan for Oelstrom’s support of the establishment of Armenia’s new National Defense Research University.

Behnam Taebi, research fellow with the Managing the Atom project and International Security program, has been appointed to the Young Academy, a part of the Royal Netherlandst Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Young Academy is “a dynamic and innovative group of top young scientists and scholars.”