BOSTON– The Museum of Science Boston, the nation’s first science museum with a comprehensive strategy and infrastructure to foster technological literacy in science museums and schools across the United States, will honor the Deshpande Foundation and Google as Stars of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) 2016 Award.
Presented at the Museum’s annual gala, the Stars of STEM Award recognizes individuals, foundations, and corporations that are leading the way in helping the Museum of Science and other institutions educate the next generation of scientists and engineers. (Photos courtesy: Deshpande Foundation)
This year’s gala will be held on April 14.
The Museum will honor Jaishree and Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, founders of the Deshpande Foundation, and Google’s Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist & Co-Inventor of the Internet Accepting.
Desh Deshpande, one of the nation’s leading philanthropists and a trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), serves as Chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation USA.
Well known as the co-founder of tech giant Sycamore Networks, Deshpande also founded Cascade Communications Corp. and is a founding investor in other companies such as Airvana, Cimaron, Webdialogs and Relicore. He is chairman at Tejas Networks and HiveFire, as well as president and chairman of Sparta Group LLC. He serves as a life-member of the MIT Corporation, and his support has made possible MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.
He and his wife Jaishree have established the Deshpande Foundation though which they support numerous charitable causes.
Jaishree Deshpande is a co-founder of the Deshpande Foundation. She is also the treasurer of Sparta Group. She serves as a trustee for the Museum of Science and is involved with HESTIA Fund — a fund established to support quality after school programming for low-income children.
The Museum of Science, Boston is the nation’s first science museum with a comprehensive strategy and infrastructure to foster technological literacy in science museums and schools across the United States. Having reached an estimated 10.1 million students and 112,700 educators, its National Center for Technological Literacy® also received the National Science Board’s Public Service Award in May 2015. One of the world’s largest science centers and Boston’s most attended cultural institution, the Museum of Science introduces about 1.4 million visitors a year to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) via dynamic programs and hundreds of interactive exhibits. Founded in 1830, the Museum was first to embrace all the sciences under one roof.
