Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first woman governor of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1947. Nicknamed the "Nightingale of India" due to her music and poetry, Naidu started college at the age of 12 and graduated by age 19. Naidu also played a notable role in the Indian Independence Movement, which sought to separate India from British rule. She lectured on issues surrounding emancipation, female empowerment and social welfare.

Wang An was a Chinese-American computer engineer and inventor, and co-founder of computer company Wang Laboratories, which was known primarily for its dedicated word processing machines and affordable computers. Wang was also an important contributor to the development of magnetic core memory. In the mid-1960s, he invented a digital logarithmic converter that made it possible to perform routine arithmetic electronically at high speeds and relatively low cost. Wang desktop calculators were soon available commercially, replacing traditional machines with mechanical parts.

Yang Chen-Ning's longtime focus on statistical mechanics and symmetry principles were key to his Nobel-Prize work. He was a physics professor at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study until 1966, then directed the Institute of Theoretical Physics at SUNY Stony Brook until 1999. Since 1993, he has divided his time between the U.S. and Hong Kong, where he is director of mathematics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Throughout his career, he has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Academia Sinica and was honored with the Albert Einstein Commemorative Award in 1957. Later, the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named him one of the outstanding young men of 1957 and he was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Princeton University in 1958.

Edward Tsang "Ed" Lu is an American physicist and former NASA astronaut. He flew on two Space Shuttle flights, and made an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. In 2002, while still at NASA, Lu co-founded the B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes, later serving as its chairman. Later in 2007, Lu retired from NASA to become the program manager of Google's Advanced Projects Team.

Indra Nooyi is an Indian-American business executive and former chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo. She has consistently ranked among the world's 100 most powerful women. An immigrant to the U.S. at the age of 23, Indra Nooyi's business career has been driven by a passion to do what’s right ("purpose"), the drive to exceed expectations ("performance") and the desire to help others succeed ("people"). Her impact on Pepsi's fortunes made her Fortune's 11th most powerful woman in business for 2005.

The daughter of affluent Chinese immigrants, Vera Wang grew up in New York City and attended Sarah Lawrence College. Over the course of her career, Vera Wang has grown a single bridal boutique into a fashion and lifestyle empire that spans a wide range of countries and product categories — from engagement rings and ready-to-wear to dinner plates and cosmetics — at a variety of price points from luxury to mass market. In 2005, Wang was awarded the Council of Fashion Designer of America Womenswear designer of the year award. A year later, she received the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design.