CSIR Young Scientists Awards and Technology Awards Presented

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Shri Somnath Chatterjee has called upon scientific community to strive for solving the problems afflicting our country, like lack of availability of safe drinking water, food, health, education and housing. He said this while presenting the CSIR Young Scientists Awards and Young Technology Awards for 2005 on the occasion of CSIR Foundation Day, here yesterday. Delivering Foundation Day lecture, Shri Chatterjee said that “We must perceive science as a social movement and need to make scientific research in our country more and more application based”. Congratulating the young scientists for their excellence in science and technology, Shri Chatterjee urged the scientific community to take on the challenges and underteke gigantic task of transforming India into a knowledge-driven, modern and a developed country.

On this occasion, Minister for Science and Technology & Ocean Development, Shri Kapil Sibal said that a phenomenal transformation in the attitude and approach to R&D in the industry has taken place. From a ‘back seat’ position a mere ten years ago, R&D in Indian industry is now in the ‘front seat’ of corporate strategy, he said. In several sectors, business driven research has given way to research driven business.

Mentioning science as the largest societal benefector, the Minister said that Government has been empowering the CSIR through massive infrastructural support. He asked the CSIR to build up competence, capability and technology options in the emerging areas of biotechnology, nanotechnology and new materials etc.

Dr. Swati Piramal, Director, Strategic Alliances and Communication, Nichlos Piramal India Ltd., Mumbai presented the CSIR Foundation Day Lecture.

Young scientists who received the awards are :

CSIR Young Scientists Awards 2005

These awards are given for outstanding contributions made by young CSIR scientists based on work done primarily in India. It comprises a citation, a plaque and a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/-. The award also carries a grant of Rs. 10 lakh spread over five years for pursuing a research project independently.

Recipients of this year’s awards are:

Chemical Sciences: Dr. Anup Kumar Misra of Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow for his significant contribution in the area of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, particularly towards synthesis of polysaccharides.

Engineering Sciences: Dr. Guruswamy Kumarswamy of National Chemical Laboratory, Pune for his significant contributions towards understanding the role of non-crystalline co-monomer “defects” in crystallization of ethylene copolymers.

Eath, Atmosphere, Ocean & Planetary Sciences: Dr. Mangesh Uttam Gauns of National Institute of Oceanolography, Goa for his significant contributions to the study of micro-zooplankton in the Arabian sea and for identifying existence of a ‘Microbial lop’, which has provided new insights into the biogeochemistry of a part of the Arabian Sea.

CSIR Technology Awards 2005

The CSIR Technology Awards, comprising Technology Shields and Technology Prizes were instituted in 1990 to foster and encourage multidisciplinary in-house team efforts and external interaction for technology development, transfer, marketing and commercialization. While the Technology Shield comprises a prestigious rolling shield, a citation, a plaque and a grant of Rs. 30 lakh for a specific project, the Technology Prize comprises a citation, a plaque and a cash award of Rs. 2 lakh.

Recipients of this year’s awards are:

Prize for Biological Sciences is awarded to the team at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow comprising Dr. Rakesh Tuli, Dr. Samir V. Sawant, Dr. PK Singh, Mr. Mithilesh Kumar and Mr. CP Chaturvedi for the development of artificial promoters, novel o-endotoxin coding genes and indigenous transgenic to cotton lines for resistance to insect pests.

Prize for Chemical Technology is awarded jointly to the teams at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. While the team comprising Dr. RBN Prasad, Mr. SK Roy, Dr. BVS K Rao, Dr. PP Chakrabarti, Dr. Vijay Kale, Dr. BLA Prabhavati and Mrs. KN Prasanna Rani of IICT, Hyderabad have been awarded for enzymatic degumming of rice bran oil (50 tpd capacity); the team comprising of Mr. Prashant P Barve, Mr. Shrikant Ghike, Mr. Milind Y. Gupte, Mr. Ravindra W Shinde, Mr. RV Naik, Dr. JG Wadkar, Dr. S Devotta, Dr. (Mrs.) Bote and Dr. RA Kulkarni of NCL, Pune have been awarded for development of a complete process technology for manufacture of 2-Acrylamido-2-methy1-1 propane sulfonic acid (ATBS).

Prize for Engineering Technology is awarded to the team at National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore comprising of Shri M. Subba Rao, Shri H.N. Sudheendra, Dr. R. Sundaram, Shri P. Ravi Kumar, Shri M.N. Neelakante Gowda, Shri Kotresh M. Gaddikeri, Shri R.S. Rawat and Shri M. Govindan Kutty of Advanced Composite Division for development of advanced composite technologies for aerospace applications.

Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General CSIR also spoke on this occasion. An exhibition showcasing current focus of R&D and recent important achievements by CSIR was also organized as a part of this function. A book on the new materials was also released by Shri Sibal.

Source : Ministry of Science & Technology
Date : September 27, 2005