Eight young scientists to receive Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards for 2013

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has selected eight young scientists for the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards for the year 2013.

The awards were announced by CSIR director-general Samir K Brahmachari on the council's 71st foundation day celebrations today.

The list of awardees include:

Biological science: Dr Sathees Chukkurumbal Raghavan, Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

Chemical sciences: Dr Yamuna Krishnan, National Centre for Biological Sciences, (TIFR) UAS-GKVK, Bangalore.

Engineering sciences: Dr Bikramjit Basu, Materials Research Centre, IISc, Bangalore; Dr Suman Chakraborty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IITKgp).

Mathematical sciences: Dr Eknath Prabhakar Ghate, School of Mathematical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

Medical sciences: Dr Pushkar Sharma, National Institute of Immunology (NII, New Delhi).

Physical sciences: Dr Amol Dighe, Department of Theoretical Physics, TIFR, Mumbai; Dr Vijay Balakrishna Shenoy, Department of Physics, IISc, Bangalore.
No awardees were chosen for excellence in the earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences category.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh will present the awards at a date which will be fixed later.

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, instituted in honour of  late Dr (Sir) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (born: 21 February 1894; died: 1 January 1955), an eminent scientist, founder-director and principal architect of  the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is the most coveted national recognition for young scientists and engineers for research and development work done in India.

The prize, instituted in 1957 by CSIR, has so far been conferred on over 450 scientists and technologists in various disciplines of science for their outstanding R&D contribution. Each prize carries a citation, cash prize, a plaque and an honorarium till superannuation.