Indian ambassador to U.S. to speak on ‘India and U.S. Relations’ Oct. 19

Lecture highlights meeting of the WUSTL-Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Corporate Conclave

Nirupama Rao, Indian ambassador to the United States, will speak about U.S. and India relations during a visit to Washington University in St. Louis.

Rao

Rao, who earned high praise for her efforts to help evacuate Indians from Libya during the 2011 Libyan civil war, will present the McDonnell International Scholars Academy 2013 S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecture at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium.

The talk, which is followed by a reception, is free and open to the public.

Rao’s lecture will serve as the capstone to the WUSTL-Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) Corporate Conclave.

Leadership from WUSTL and IITB, two of the world’s top research universities, and several major international corporations will gather in St. Louis this weekend, Oct. 19-20, for the conclave, aimed at strengthening the U.S.-India connection around innovation and education, particularly in addressing pressing global issues.

During the meeting, the universities will announce the launch of the WUSTL-IITB Corporate Alliance. The alliance’s objective is to perform cutting-edge research of relevance to industry, government and society and to train the next generation of talented employees and leaders.

Rao

Rao has served as Indian ambassador to the United States since September 2011.

Previously, she served as the foreign secretary of India for two years, becoming just the second woman to hold that position.

During her career, Rao has served as minister of press and cultural affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C.; deputy chief of mission in Moscow; and as joint secretary of East Asia for external publicity, based in Beijing.

She became India’s first woman ambassador to China and served in that capacity from 2006-09. Her other ambassadorial assignments include Peru, Bolivia and Sri Lanka, where she also was India’s first woman high commissioner.

Rao was a fellow at the Centre for International Affairs, now the Weatherhead Centre, at Harvard University in the early 1990s. She was also a Distinguished International Executive in Residence at the University of Maryland at College Park in 1999-2000.

For more information about the WUSTL-IITB Corporate Conclave, visit

https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25996.aspx.