Indian on People's 'Sexiest Man' list

Silicon Valley: A geophysicist of Indian origin has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People magazine along with Hollywood superstars Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt.

Michael Manga, a 37-year-old geology professor of UC Berkeley, who won the the $500,000 MacArthur 'genius' grant earlier this year, was included in People magazine's world's 14 sexiest men list including Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Orlando Bloom among others.

"My first inclination, of course, was to say no, because that's not how I perceive myself," Manga, father of two boys, said. "But it is a way to let people know about science and that it is OK to be a scientist."

The People magazine's list has included academics since 1997 and magazine editors who scanned pictures of this year's MacArthur winners and came across the pony-tailed Manga, said Elizabeth Sporkin, People's executive editor.

"I think a lot of people would be thrilled to have him as their professor," Sporkin said. "He has long hair, he's hip, he's young."

Manga's wife "laughed for an hour" when her husband told her he was going to be in America's favourite celebrity rag. "He just isn't a People magazine kind of guy," she says.

Manga was one of only two men in academia admitted to the ranks of America's dreamiest dudes. "That's why I agreed to do this," he explains. "I wanted to get information out to people who wouldn't normally hear or see anything about science."

Although finding it amusing, Michael concedes he is teased about it. "The MacArthur is so much better," he says. "The nice thing about being at Berkeley is that no one reads People, so no one knows about this yet. And that's the way it should be. It's kind of embarrassing in a way, because it's not how I perceive myself."

His father, who is of Indian origin, immigrated to Canada from South Africa. Manga was born in Hamilton and raised in Ottawa.