Marking the National Science Day which commemorates the discovery of Raman Effect by CV Raman, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize to India’s Top Young Scientists.
Given out in seven disciplines – Biological, Engineering, Medical, Chemical, Physical, Mathematical, as well as Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Plenary Sciences – the awards were presented for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018, with a total of 34 winners with only one woman among the awardees.
Reportedly, “In four of the seven categories, the winners were awarded a cash prize and a plaque.”
“Scientists and researchers should have an inter-disciplinary approach. Such an approach will help in finding faster and better solutions for the various scientific questions” PM addressed the gathering.
As per the reports, many Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) won eight awards and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (IISc), won seven prizes. While most awards conferred to IITs came in the fields of Engineering and Mathematics, IISc received prizes in the fields of Engineering, Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Chemical Sciences.
Other awards congratulated the pioneering works including, “designing models and algorithms to solve online problems and problems of clustering, scheduling and network design (Amit Kumar of IIT-Delhi), and the development of end-to-end carrier-class networking solutions and carrier Ethernet switch routers used in the national infrastructure (Ashwin Anil Gumatse of IIT-Bombay), and molecular mechanisms for red cell invasion as highly potent targets for malaria vaccine targets (Deepak Gaur of JNU, New Delhi),” as stated in the media reports.
Some of the other work included research on cancer cells, neuronal physiology, dynamic geological processes, alternate fuels, metamaterials and genome replication, the reports added.
Named after the founder Director of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the prize annually recognizes outstanding Indian work in various disciplines of Science and Technology.
Image Courtesy: The Indian Express
