Eleven scientists including four from the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science have been selected for the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for 2009.
The winners include N.Jayaraman, S.K.Sateesh, Giridhar Madras, and J.R.Haritsa of the IISc; Abishek Dhar of the Raman Research Institute and Amitabh Joshi of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.
The others are Charusita Chakravarty of IIT, Delhi; Bhaskar Saha of the National Centre for Cell Science; V.Suresh of the University of Hyderabad; S.G.Honavar of the L.V.Prasad Eye Institute and R.Gopakumar of the Harish Chandra Research Institute.
The names were announced at the council’s 67th foundation day celebrations here on Saturday.
Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the council was actively considering rebranding itself like the IITs, underlining its strong focus on research. As a first step, moves were afoot to start an academy of science and industrial research to leverage the research being undertaken in each of its 37 laboratories.
Noting that funding was no more a constraint for the council, he appealed to CSIR scientists to pursue research relevant to the needs of the country. “We cannot look to the West to solve our problems.”
Young scientists awards
Mr. Chavan presented the CSIR young scientists award, the CSIR technology award and the CSIR diamond jubilee invention award for schoolchildren.
The winners of the young scientists award are D.B. Das of the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar; S.Pabbaraja of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad; K.V. Ramesh of the CSIR Centre for Mathematically Modelling and Computer Simulation, Bangalore; Nimisha Vedanti of the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad; B. Madhan of the Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai; and F.A. Malik of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu.
The technology awards were bagged by the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehra Dun, and the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow.
There was no first or fourth prize in the category of awards for innovation among schoolchildren.
Neha Lalit Sharma, a Standard XI student of the Swami Vivekanda Junior College, Mumbai, won the second prize, and Harjas Singh Sodhi, a Standard VIII student of the Modern School, Delhi, the third prize.
Sikhar Bhandari, a Standard XII student of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Mehta Vidyalaya, Delhi; Vishakh Hegde, a Standard XI student of the V.V.S.Sardar Patel Pre-University College, Bangalore; and V.Pranav, a Standard IX student of the Atomic Energy Central School, Mysore, won the fifth prize.
