Shri Sashi Kejriwal, is the President of the World Association for Vedic Studies (WAVES International), an academic organization that promotes awareness of Vedic studies, as well as ancient knowledge, history, culture, and traditions. He is particularly committed to engaging young scholars and students, encouraging their participation as presenters and attendees to help ensure the future of Vedic studies.
Since 2013, under Kejriwal’s leadership, WAVES has expanded its global presence by organizing international conferences and encouraging cross-cultural academic exchanges. He is also an active member of the broader Indian-American and academic communities, frequently collaborating with distinguished figures for conferences and publications.
In addition to his visionary leadership at WAVES, Sashi Kejriwal is the founder and owner of a well-known technology company based in Carrollton, Texas.
Shri Dhirendra A. Shah, is the Director and Treasurer of the World Association for Vedic Studies (WAVES, International); he is a founding member of the Hindu Pack of Georgia and is actively involved in proactive efforts to educate American politicians about Hinduphobia and incorrect presentation of Hinduism in Schools in America. He is the President of the India Awareness Foundation in Atlanta and Vice Chairman of the Federation of Indian American Associations of Georgia.
He was a member of the Council of Advisors (CoA) of the Taksha Center for Smart Village Initiative (TCSVI), has worked in International Business for the last 40 years, with graduate degrees from Baroda, India, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Harvard Business School. His senior corporate, executive-level expertise was focused on marketing, finance, and general management in large corporations in India and the Middle East.
He is a writer and speaker in various forums, as well as an experienced organizer of lectures, seminars, and discussion groups on a wide range of topics, including social, politics, economics, and history, with particular reference to India and the US.
Prof. (Dr.) Shashi Tiwari, Recipient of the ‘Certificate of Honour’ from the President of India, is a well-known Vedic and Sanskrit scholar. She taught in the Sanskrit Dept., Maitreyi College for 38 years and also taught Veda classes in the Dept. of Sanskrit, University of Delhi, for several years. Dr. Tiwari has published thirty-seven books related to Sanskrit and Vedic research and higher studies. She received eight awards for her books from different Academies. Dr. Tiwari has received thirty-two academic awards and honours for her contribution to Sanskrit-Vidya from various institutions. In the capacity of Gen. Secretary and President of WAVES (India), she has organized 28 National conferences in different parts of India.
Prof. (Dr.) Bal Ram Singh, is the President of the Institute of Advanced Sciences (INADS), USA, Board member of WAVES International (USA), Editor-in-Chief of the WAVES Blog, and Managing Editor of the Ayurvedic Journal of Health. He also serves as Chairman of the Boston Center of Excellence for Health and Human Development.
Dr. Singh is an adjunct faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He served as a Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology at UMass Dartmouth from 1990 to 2014. Dr. Singh also founded and directed the Center for Indic Studies at UMass Dartmouth (2000–2014) and served as Director of the Botulinum Research Center. His research explores the significance of ancient Indian traditions.
Dr. Narayanan M. Komerath, is a retired professor of aerospace engineering, co-author of a book on Sanatana Dharma, and developer of advanced cross-disciplinary concepts, now residing in India. He chairs the US-based Taksha Institute’s Alliance for a Space Economy and the Smart Village Initiative. He won the AIAA/ASEE Leland Atwood award for excellence in aerospace engineering education and was a NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Fellow.
Shri. Rajiv Malhotra, was trained initially as a Physicist, and then as a Computer Scientist specializing in Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s. After a successful corporate career in the US, he became an entrepreneur and founded several IT companies in over 20 countries.
He exited all for-profit activities in the early 1990s and founded a non-profit – Infinity Foundation (in Princeton, USA), through which he has , on a full-time basis, been researching civilizations from a historical, social sciences and mind sciences perspective.
As one of 24 International Trustees of the Global Mother Divine Organization, Dr. Candace Oliver Badgett has administrative responsibility for the women’s organization that offers the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program, and associated programs, to women in the United States, Canada and Australia. In this capacity, she also provides advanced lecture programs on Maharishi Vedic Science for women practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation program
Candace received her BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Maharishi International University, in Fairfield, Iowa in 1975, became a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation program in 1975, and received a PhD from Maharishi European Research University, Vlodrop, The Netherlands, in 2007, after completing a two-year course under the direct guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation program.
In 1991, Candace and her husband, Rogers Badgett, built a 36,000 sq ft health facility, The Raj, in Fairfield, Iowa, pioneering the use of Ayurvedic medicine in North America. They are the owners and operators of this facility, as well as international consultants to those who wish to open Ayurvedic clinics in their respective countries.
Candace founded the Women’s Institute at Maharishi International in Fairfield Iowa, which provides a women’s forum for students and faculty, and which explores women’s issues in the light of unfolding the full potential of every woman.
Candace is on the Board of Directors of the World Association for Vedic Studies (WAVES)– an International academic organization that focuses on the in-depth study of the universal principles of the Vedic Tradition and their practical applications. Candace has presented several papers on Vedic Science at the WAVES conferences, and has been a guest on the Dr Oz Show and on Oprah, discussing meditation and Ayurveda.
She and her husband are founding members of the City Council of Maharishi Vedic City, established in 2001 as a model city providing optimal quality of life in accord with Vedic principles.
Shri. Nilesh Nilkanth Oak, is an author, original researcher, GAIA and TEDx speaker, UAA-ICT Distinguished Alumnus, and sought-after keynote speaker. He holds BS and MS in Chemical Engineering and Executive MBA. He has published 3 revolutionary books: 1. When did the Mahabharata War Happen, 2. The Historic Rama, 3. Bhishma Nirvana. His books have been and are being translated into various other languages. He travels extensively around the world speaking to university and college students and to mainstream audiences. His work has inspired novels, novelettes, documentaries, and movies.
Nilesh helps individuals become aware of the deep wisdom and antiquity of Indian civilization so that they truly comprehend, present, or defend the grand narrative of this civilization unlike most other Indic researchers because he builds it through scientific acumen and logical reasoning.
He is a researcher and adjunct faculty at the Institute of Advanced Sciences, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA.
Dr, S. Kalyanaraman, a former executive of the Asian Development Bank, has a D.Litt., Ph.D in Public Administration, well-versed in languages of India: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Sanskrit, and the author of several books on Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilization, Science, and Technology in Ancient India.
He is a recipient of the Vakankar Award (2000); Shivananda Eminent Citizens’ Award (2008) and Dr. Hedgewar Prajna Samman (2008); Mythic Society Centenary Award (2009). He is on the Board of Directors of the World Association of Vedic Studies, and is associated with many research and non-governmental voluntary organizations including Rashtrotthana Research and Communications Center in Bengaluru, India. Keen on promoting National Water Grid and formation of Indian Ocean Community to promote and protect Dharma-Dhamma.
Dr. David Scharf, is a Professor and Chair of the Physics Department at Maharishi International University (MIU), holding a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. His distinguished academic career includes faculty roles in Philosophy, Physics, and Mathematics at the University of Rochester, Northeastern University, and Wentworth Institute of Technology. Dr. Scharf’s research distinctively merges cutting-edge advancements in quantum field theory with the foundational principle that consciousness is primary, drawing significant insights from the ancient Vedic tradition of India. His work challenges and seeks to redefine conventional notions of space, time, matter, and causality within the consciousness-based paradigm. Currently, as the Co-Principal Investigator on MIU’s dark matter research project, Dr. Scharf is exploring the limits of the material dimensions of the universe.
Dr. Syagnik Banerjee, is an alumnus of the prestigious Presidency College, Calcutta, in the discipline of Economics. He completed an MBA in Marketing from the International Management Institute (IMI) New Delhi in 1999 and PhD in Marketing from the University of Rhode Island in 2008. Prior to consecrating himself to academia, Dr. Banerjee worked four years with Eveready Industries and Bharti Group in the early days enabling nationwide expansion of mobile connectivity. He joined the University of Michigan-Flint in 2008. Currently, Dr. Banerjee is a Professor of Marketing at UM Flint, and an Affiliate Professor at the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS). He has published on the effectiveness of mobile devices in marketing, privacy, surveillance and the use of geolocation data. He is working on deriving insights on ethics, intelligence and consciousness from Big Data and Cyberspace using Vedic literature on darshans, pramanvada and khyativada, which offer varieties of ontologies and epistemologies as the basis for critical thinking.
Dr. Vaidya Vandana Baranwal, BAMS, MD (Ayurveda-BHU), is the founder of AyurveDatri LLC – Women Wellness Solutions and the Founder and President of the Ayurveda Association of Ohio. A former professor at SDM College of Ayurveda and Hospital, India, she now lives in Ohio, where she teaches Ayurveda at the Integrative Health Center at Ohio State University and serves as a faculty member at the Hindu University of America. She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (AYUSH, India) and the Ayurveda Journal of Health (University of Massachusetts, USA).
Committed to advancing women’s health, she has co-authored two books: Stree Roga Vimarsha and Prasuti Tantra Sandirshini. With a vision to foster the global growth of authentic Ayurveda through empowering education and individualized care, she actively volunteers with various organizations to promote awareness and authentic education in Ayurveda and the Vedic sciences.