PM Presents Bhatnagar Prizes to 13 Scientists

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today presented the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prizes 2006, the nation’s most prestigious award in science, to 13 eminent Indian scientists for their outstanding research contributions. Shri Kapil Sibal, the Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Science presided over the presentation ceremony organized today by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) at the Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

The Prime Minister also presented the CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award 2006 as also the CSIR Award for S&T Innovations for Rural Development. The winners of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for the year 2006 are: Dr. Vinod Bhakuni, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow and Dr. Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi for Biological Sciences, Dr. Gufran-ullah Beig, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and Dr. Pulak Sengupta, Jadavpur University, Kolkata for Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean & Planetary Sciences, Dr. Atish Dabholkar, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Dr. Sanjay Puri, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi for Physical Sciences, Dr. Virender Singh Sangwan, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad for Medical Sciences, Dr. Srinivasan Sampath, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Dr. K George Thomas, Regional Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram for Chemical Sciences, Dr. Ashish Lele, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and Dr. Sanjay Mittal, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for Engineering Sciences, Dr. Vikraman Balaji, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Siruseri and Dr. Indranil Biswas, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for Mathematical Sciences.

The SSB Prize was instituted by the CSIR in 1957 in the name of its founder Director General and principal architect, the late Dr. (Sir) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. It carries a cash prize of Rs. 2,00,000, a citation and a plaque, and is given annually to the Indian scientists below the age of 45 years, in recognition of their outstanding basic and applied research contributions in science and technology. Between 1958 and 2006, over 400 scientists and technologists from all over the country have won this prestigious award in their own disciplines of research work.

The Prize is given on the basis of the contributions made by the awardees through their work done primarily in India during the five years preceding the year of the Prize. The awardees are selected by the Governing Body of CSIR, based on the recommendations of the specially constituted Advisory Committee.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : September 26, 2006