Chennupati Jagadish, a Distinguished Professor of Australian National University (ANU) hailing from Vallurupalem village in Thotlavalluru mandal of Krishna District enhanced the pride of Telugu people, particularly his native place, in the global arena by winning the ‘Companion of the Order of Australia’ (AC).
It is the highest civilian honour of Australia scheduled to be conferred on Mr. Jagadish by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove at a function to be held in Canberra on April 15 in recognition of his valuable contributions to the field of science and technology.
Mr. Jagadish is an acclaimed physicist and neurologist and currently heads the Department of Electronic Materials Engineering Research School of Physics and Engineering at ANU specializing in semiconductor optoelectronics and nanotechnology.
He holds five US patents and has published more than 820 international journal and conference papers apart from authoring several books and editing special issues of scientific journals.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone, Mr. Jagadish said that he was humbled to be chosen for the prestigious award and attributed his success to the sacrifices made by his parents Chennupati Dharma Rao and Vimala Kumari and the guidance he received from his mentor Chaganti Sambi Reddy, who was his father’s friend, and teacher Valluru Srinivasa Rao.
“Without their help, I would have stayed back in my village helping my father in agriculture. They made a great impact on my life”, he asserted.
Mr. Jagadish did his schooling at Vallurupalem and studied Intermediate at JKC College in Guntur, B.Sc (Physics) at VSR College in Tenali, M.Sc (Tech) Applied Physics at Andhra University and M.Phil and PhD degrees at Delhi University.
“Based on information given by a friend, I had applied for a post-doctoral fellow position with Professor David Atherton at Queen’s University at Kingston in Canada. In 1990, I moved to ANU as a Research Scientist with my wife Vidya and two-month old baby daughter on a two-year contract. After a stint of two years ANU offered me a permanent position”.
“In the subsequent years, ANU gave me its highest award Peter Baume Award for Excellence in Science Research and Research Leadership. The Companion of the Order of Australia is a great thing to happen in my life”, he added, thanking all those who supported him in his endeavours.
