The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) unveiled the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for 2022 on Monday, recognizing the exceptional contributions of 12 scientists in various fields.
Among the distinguished awardees is Akkattu T Biju, a Malayali scientist affiliated with the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. Biju’s remarkable achievements in the realm of chemical sciences earned him this honor. He has served as an associate professor in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the institute since June 2017, following six years as a senior scientist at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Biju’s dedication to chemical science has garnered him multiple accolades, including the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and a Bronze Medal from the Chemical Research Society of India in 2019.
In this year’s roster of awardees, other notable names include immunologist Dipyaman Ganguli from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata; microbiologist Ashwani Kumar from CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh; biologist Maddika Subba Reddy from the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting Diagnostics in Hyderabad; and Debabrata Maiti from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, an esteemed honor, is bestowed upon scientists under the age of 45 and comprises a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh along with a citation.
It is noteworthy that the announcement of these awards coincides with a controversy over the government’s plans to streamline the National Science Awards.
The diverse spectrum of awardees encompasses various scientific disciplines, with Ganguli being recognized in medical sciences, Kumar and Reddy for their contributions to biological sciences, and Biju and Maiti for their significant impact in the field of chemical sciences.
In the category of Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean, and Planetary Sciences, Vimal Mishra from the Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar has been honored. In the Engineering Sciences category, Dipti Ranjan Sahoo from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and Rajnish Kumar from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras have received the esteemed prize.
Furthermore, in the realm of Mathematical Sciences, Apoorva Khare of the Indian Institute of Science-Bengaluru and Neeraj Kayal from the Microsoft Research Lab India, Bengaluru, have been selected for recognition. Lastly, in the Physical Sciences category, Anindya Das of the Indian Institute of Science-Bengaluru and Basudeb Dasgupta of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai have been acknowledged for their exceptional contributions.
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, established in memory of CSIR’s first Director General, traditionally marks its announcement on the institution’s foundation day, which falls on September 26.
Notably, the previous year’s recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for 2021 included eminent scientists such as Kanak Saha, Kanishka Biswas, Amit Singh, Arun Kumar Shukla, T Govindaraju, Binoy Kumar Saikia, Debdeep Mukhopadhyay, Anish Ghosh, Saket Saurabh, Jeemon Panniyammakal, and Rohit Srivastava.
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