New York: Six Indian Americans, including three doctors and three entrepreneurs, have been chosen for the Ellis Island Medal of Honour for 2008, given to US citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their own ethnic groups, their countries of origin and to the US.

Conferred by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organisations (NECO), the annual awards this year will honour over 100 people at a ceremony May 10 at Ellis Island here.

One Indian national, Samir Chaudhuri, is also among the two to get the medal in a special category for contribution internationally. Chaudhuri is the director of the Child in Need Institute, founded in 1974 to achieve sustainable development among poor communities in Kolkata.

The six Indian Americans to receive the medal are Sampat S. Shivangi, obstetrician-gynaecologist; Dhiraj H. Shah, retired radiologist; Bhupendra Patel, ophthalmic plastic and facial cosmetic surgeon; and entrepreneurs Mukesh Patel, Nadadur Vardhan and Pamela Kwatra.

Shivangi is being commended for his contribution to strengthening Indo-US relations and philanthropic work in India and the US. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he was appointed adviser to the US secretary of health and human services by the Bush administration.

Active in the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), Shivangi was instrumental in obtaining the first ever large US congressional grant for the study of diabetes among the ethnic Indian community, which suffers a high incidence of the disease.