Indian American academic Renu Khator, the Chancellor and President of University of Houston, has won the Light of India Award that honours excellence and exemplary achievement of Indians living abroad. The 56-year old, was one of six global leaders nominated in the categories of excellence in education and academics. Eminent global leaders in their fields selected winners of the Jury awards, while the Popular Choice awards were determined by online vote totals. Among the 19 recipients honored, she was the only honoree to receive awards in both categories for which she was nominated – the Jury Award and the Popular Choice Award.Renu Khator, who comes from a small UP town of Farrukhabad, earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Kanpur. Khator is the University of Houston System's first woman chancellor and the first Indian immigrant to head acomprehensive research university in the United States.