Obama nominates Indian-American woman to be federal judge

US President Barack Obama has nominated a 47-year-old Indian-American woman attorney to the US District Court bench in New York, the White House has said.

"I am pleased to nominate Diane Gujarati to serve on the United States District Court bench. I am confident she will serve the American people with distinction," Obama said in a statement yesterday.

Gujarati, the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the US attorney's office for the southern district of New York since 2012, has been nominated on the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She will serve as a federal judge after approval from the Senate.

She is the daughter of Damodar M Gujarati, a professor of economics at the US Military Academy at West Point. Her father received M.Com degree from the University of Bombay in 1960 and Ph.D from the University of Chicago in 1965. Her mother is Ruth Pincus Gujarati.

A well-known federal prosecutor, she served as an Assistant US Attorney in the Criminal Division since 1999.

Prior to her tenure as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 2008 to 2012, she served as Deputy Chief and then Chief of the White Plains Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

From 2006 to 2008, Gujarati was Deputy Chief of the Appeals Unit in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

She began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honourable John M Walker, Jr of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1995 to 1996.

Gujarati received her JD from Yale law School in 1995 and her BA summa cum laude from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1990.