Washington: The Indian American Kerala Cultural and Civic Centre will honour eight Indian American Malayalees for their outstanding achievements in their field of specialisation or for their service to the society. They will be honoured at Kerala Centre's annual banquet November 9 at Leonards of Great Neck in Long Island, New York. Chief guest Vijay K. Nambiar, under-secretary general and special adviser of the UN secretary-general on Myanmar, will also be honoured for his service to the UN. "Every year we invite nominations and the committee has to make a unanimous choice for a candidate in a category to be selected to receive the award and this year is no different from previous years in terms of their achievements," said selection committee chief Thomas Abraham, Kerala Centre Board member and trustee.

This year's honourees are: Jose Maliekal, dean of the School of Science and Mathematics, the College at Brockport, State University of New York (SUNY) for his contribution in education; Raghu Menon, head of business development for North & South America for Linde Industrial Gas for business leadership; Mahadevan Padmanabhan, technical advisor at Alden Research Laboratory (Holden MA) and adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Worcester Polytech Institute for Engineering; Rockland County legislature and paediatric nurse practitioner Aney Paul for political involvement; Mariam Paul, director of nursing at New York City's Isabella Geriatric Care for Nursing; Arun Seraphin, principal assistant director for national security and international affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for service to government; Freemu K. Varghese, a practicing nephrologist and immediate past president of Association of Kerala Medical Graduates (AKMG) for achievement in medicine and community service; and Gurukulam, the Indian School of Culture, Language and Arts and its founder/principal Joseph Mathew for community service.