Indian Ambassador to US Nirupama Rao felicitated 18 years old Das, who has taken just three years to complete his studies with a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology and a minor in creative writing from the University of California, Berkeley.
Further Kolkata-born Das is the first student from the College of Chemistry in 58 years, and the first ever from the Department of Bioengineering, to earn the honour, which includes a USD 2,500 scholarship.
"Gandhi believed that everybody had a right to beautiful life and without his efforts I can say I would not have been here today," Das told a select audience at an event held at the Indian Embassy yesterday.
"Without people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, without their efforts, I would not have been here," said Das, who is fluent in Bengali and Hindi.
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Das, who now heads to Oxford University to pursue a master's degree in biomedical engineering with a fully funded Whitaker Fellowship, has founded 'See Your Future', a student-run non-profit that presents scientific content to middle and high school students through in-class demonstrations, videos, interactive activities and games.
"He hs not only brought glory to this country, but also to his mother country," she added.
At Berkeley, Das helped manage a USD 1.7 billion budget as an Academic Senator, founded the Berkeley Chemical Review research journal, designed a chemistry DeCal course and was a graduate student instructor.