During the 80th foundation day of the council for scientific and industrial research (CSIR) on Sunday the names of 11 scientists who were awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize which is the country’s highest science award for science and technology were announced. This prize is given to the scientists of India who are below the age of 45 for their outstanding research in seven fields: biology, chemistry, engineering, Environmental science, mathematics, medicine, and physics.
For the biological science, from the department of microbiology and cell biology, Indian institute of science Bengaluru, Dr. Amit Singh and from the department of biological sciences and bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, Dr. Arun Kumar Shukla were awarded. Amit Singh worked on deciphering the role of genes involved in Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis during his Ph.D. and thus becoming an expert in microbiology. Dr. Arun Shukla is an Indian structural biologist and he has been working at IIT Kanpur since 2014.
While talking about the chemical sciences from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore to researchers have been announced as recipients, Dr. Kanishka Biswas from the International Centre Of Material Science and Dr. T Govindaraju from the Bioorganic Chemistry Laboratory. Dr. Kanika Biswas studies thermoelectric materials and devices that use waste heat to convert into electricity. Dr. Govindaraju focuses on chemical biology and concentrates on solving challenging problems which relate to human health and society.
And for the Earth, atmosphere, ocean, and planetary sciences, Dr. Binoy Kumar Saikia from the coal and energy research group in CSIR North East Institute of Science and Technology Jorhat was named the recipient. The group in which he works, the coal and energy group, is considered as one of the excellent research groups which work on the area of coal sciences and Technology and concentrates on energy–environment interface in India and abroad.
Under the engineering sciences category, Dr. Debdeep Mukhopadhyay, from the Department of Computer science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur received the prestigious award. Dr. Debdeep initiated the secure embedded architecture laboratory SEAL at IIT Kharagpur, and with aim of embedded security and side-channel attacks.
Dr. Anish Ghosh from the school of mathematics in Tata Institute of fundamental research Mumbai and Dr. Saket Saurabh from the Institute Of Mathematical Sciences Chennai were awarded for the mathematical sciences category. Anish Ghosh works at the interface of lie groups ergodic theory and number theory. Talking about the ergodic theory, the fundamental to statistical mechanics is included in this. This will help to study the long-term average behavior of complex systems for example the behavior of molecules in a gas or the interaction of atoms in the crystal. Dr. Saket focuses more on performing research for the highest quality in multiple Parts of the algorithm.
Dr. Jeemon Panniyammakkal, from the Achutha Menon Centre for health sciences studies, Sree Chitra thirunal Institute of medical sciences and Technology located in Thiruvananthapuram, was awarded for medical sciences. And Dr. Rohit Shrivastava the department of biosciences and bioengineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay was also awarded the same. Dr. Jeemon is an experienced epidemiologist with experience of over a decade of observational epidemiological studies and also clinical trials. Dr. Shrivastava focuses on fluorescent biosensors, Nanoengineered sensors, and photothermal therapy for breast cancer.
Dr. Kanak Saha from inter University Centre for astronomy and astrophysics won the award for physical sciences. Dr. Kanak focuses on galaxies, their structures formation, and the evolution of galaxies.
M Venkaiah Naidu the vice president advised the CSIR to reinvent itself and turn futuristic along with pursuing the Science of the highest order during the ceremony. The vice president also asked the CSIR labs and institutes to mention challenges that require long-term scientific and technological solutions. He also asked the researchers to focus more on agricultural research and to find out innovations, techniques, and solutions to the problems faced by the farmers all around.
