At the CSIR Foundation Day celebration today, CSIR awards for different categories were given here today.
CSIR Young Scientist Awards, 2011 were instituted in 1987. CSIR Young Scientist Awards seek to promote in- house excellence in various fields of science and technology. CSIR scientist, below 35 years of age, as reckoned on 26 September (CSIR Fondation Day) of the preceding year, is eligible for the Award.
These awards are given annually in the fields of Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences and Engineering Sciences Physical Sciences (including instrumentation).
Each award consist of a citation, a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand only) and a plaque. CSIR Young Scientist Awardees are also entitled to a research grant of Rs. 5.0 Lakhs (Rupees five lakh only) per annum for a period of five years and an honorarium of Rs. 7,5000/- (Rupees seven thousand and five hundred only) per month till the age of 45 years.
Till 2010, 140 scientists (including 17 women scientists) have received the CSIR Yound Scientist Award and out of these 15 scientists have been conferred with the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. For the year 2011, Advisory Committee consisting of eminent scientists recommended the following seven scientists for the CSIR Young Scientist Awards. This year, none was found suitable in Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences (including instrumentation).
In Chemical Sciences, Dr Bikash Kumar Jena was given the CSIR Young Scientist Award for the year 2011 in Chemical Sciences. Dr Bikash Kumar Jena is from CSIR Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar . It is given for his outstanding contribution in the area of materials chemistry particularly in developing methods for synthesizing shapes control structures useful for sensing , electrocatalysis and surface enhanced Raman scattering studies.
Dr Dattatraya Hanumant Dethe gets the CSIR Young Scientist Award for the year 2011 in Chemical Sciences. He is from CSIR National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. It is for his outstanding contributions in total synthesis of biologically active alkaloids, using novel methodology, which is expected to open new avenues to synthesis of various types of important molecular architectures.
The CSIR Young Scientist Award for the year 2011 in Chemical Sciences has been awarded to Dr Rahul Banerjee of CSIR National Chemical Laboratory, Pune , for his outstanding contributions in the design of new materials for hydrogen storage and carbon sequestration based on metal-organic frameworks.
The CSIR Young Scientist Award for the Year 2011 in Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences has been awarded to Dr Arun Singh of CSIR National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad , for his significant contributions to understand the mantle derormation patterns of the Indian Plate using seismic anisotropy studies. He has successfully demonstrated the anisotropic nature of the Indian plate and its linkage to the geodyamics of the Himalayan-Tibetan Mountain System.
The CSIR Young Scientist Award for the year 2011 in Earth , Atmosphere , Ocean and Planetary Sciences has been awarded to Dr Rajeev Saraswat of CSIR National Institute of Oceanography, Goa , for his excellent work on developing unique techniques to infer relative strength of northeast and southwest monsoon during the past 140000 years using temporal changes in the morphology and abundance of benthic foraminifers and the first ever quantitative estimation of past sea water temperature changes in the Indian Ocean as well as study of foraminifera response to various physio-chemical parameters under laboratory conditions.
The CSIR Young Scientist Award for the year 2011 in Engineering Sciences has been awarded to Dr Amol Arvindrao Kulkarni of CSIR National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, for his outstanding work on microreactors and designing ability to transform basic understanding into viable processes.
The CSIR Young Scientist Award for the year 2011 in Engineering Sciences has been awarded to Dr Kaushik Biswas of CSIR Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute , Kolkata, for his outstanding contributins towards development of rare earth dopped fluoride nanocrystal containing transparent glass ceramics which represent promising future materials.
CSIR Diamond Jubilee Invention Award for School Children 2010 were also given today.In order to enhance creativity amongst school children, CSIR announced for the first time Diamond Jubilee Invention Award for School Children on 26 April , 2002 the day celebrated as WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DAY throughout the world. The objectives of this competition are: to capture creativity and innovativeness amongst school children and create awareness about IPR.
There are 60 awards to be given each year. The first prize winner becomes eligible for WIPO’s Young inventor’s Award, carrying a medal and a certificate besides cash prize of Rs. 50,000/-
For the year 2010 , only two inventions were selected out of 353 proposals received for the various categories of prizes to be given . No first prize is however being given. The winner gets a cash prize, trophy and a certificate.
CSIR instituted a Gold Medal in 2004 in the fond memory of Prof. G N Ramachandran, a pioneer of protein chemistry and the sounding father of structural biology in India, for recognizing excellence in the interdisciplinary subject / field of Biological Sciences & Technology.
Till the Year 2008, five Scientists have been bestowed with this prestigious award : Prof. M Vijayan (2004) , Prof. P Balaram (2005) , Prof. T P Sing (2006), Prof. C Ramakrishnan (2007), Prof. M R N Murthy (2008) .
For the year 2009, 2010 and 2011, the Advisory Committee recommended Prof. R V Hosur (2009), Prof. R.V.Hosur and Dr Dinakar M. Salunke (2010) for Prof. G N Ramachandran gold Medal.
Prof. R.V.Hosur of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research , Mumbai , has made outstanding contribution in deciphering protein structure and dynamics using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. His research over the last decade pertains to multidimensional NMR, protein folding and self association, DNA structure and dynamics. He has developed new NMR pulse sequences to solve complex macromolecular structures providing new insights.
DR Dinakar M. Salunke of Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Gurgaon, has addressed fundamental issue pertaining to the specificity of antigen recognition and provided structural insights into the maturation of antibody response using elegantly designed crystallographic studies. He has also elucidated diverse facets of molecular mimicry in the context of humoral immune response.
Prof. Jayant B. Udgaonkar of National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research , Bangalore, has made pioneering contributions to the understanding of protein folding, stability , dynamics of aggregation. His pathbreaking contribution showing that polypeptide chain contraction and collapse precede structure formation during folding, has received international acclaim. His recent finding about the pathways for the aggregation of the prion protein provides a lucid molecular explanation for a number of neurodegenerative disorders.
Master Shantanu gangwar from Delhi Public School, R K Puram ,New Delhi and Master Ankit Kumar Mittal from Dr Raghubir Prakash s D Sen Secondary School, Barnala, Punjab were given CSIR Diamond Jubilee Invention award for School Children 2010.
The CSIR Technology Awards 2011 seek to foster and encourage multi-dsciplinary in-house team efforts and external interaction for technology development, transfer and commercialization., For the Year 2011, five awards are given in four categories. Each Technology Award comprises of a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, a plaque and a citation.
The Technology Award for Life Sciences goes to CSIR North East Institute of Science and technology (CSIR-NEIST), Jorhat for developing Terminalia chebula based bioformulation (Muga Heal) as an anti-flacherie agent and a silk fibre enhancer.
The Technology Award for physical Sciences including Engineering goes to CSIR Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CSIR-CIMFR), Dhanbad for developing technology for extraction design of locked-up coal by Highwall Mining in India.
The Technology Award for Innovation has been given to CSIR Central Leather Research Institute (CSIR-CLRI), Chennai for developing salt free tanning technology.
The Technology Award for Business Development and Technology Marketing is given to CSIR Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun (CSIR-IIP) for significantly enhancing the business through commercialization of its technologies against stiff global competition and marketing of its knowledgebase.