The President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu presented the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar-2024 at an award ceremony held at Gantantra Mandap, Rashtrapati Bhavan today (August 22, 2024).

In the first edition of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, 33 awards were presented to distinguished scientists in four categories - Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva, and Vigyan Team.

The Vigyan Ratna Award, given to the scientists who have made lifetime contributions in any field of Science and Technology, was presented to Prof. Govindarajan Padmanabhan, a pioneer of molecular biology and biotechnology research in India. The Vigyan Shri Awards, given to the scientists who have made distinguished contributions to Science and Technology, were presented to 13 scientists for their path-breaking research in their respective domains. The Vigyan Yuva-SSB award, given to recognize scientists who have exceptionally contributed to any field of science and technology, was given to 18 scientists for their significant contribution in the areas spanning from the study on the warming of the Indian Ocean and its consequences, to the development of indigenous 5G base station and communication and precision tests of quantum mechanics. The Vigyan Team Award, given to a team of 3 or more scientists for making ground-breaking research contributions in any field of science and technology, was given to the team of Chandrayaan-3 for the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 lander near the south pole of the moon.

The Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh thanked Hon’ble President of India Smt. Draupadi Murmu for sparing her valuable time to present the first edition of Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar-2024, beginning from this year. He said, the awards aim to recognise India’s scientific talent and the extraordinary achievements of Indian scientists in Science, Technology and Innovation.

Some important recipients of the awards included the following:

Prof. Govindarajan Padmanabha, NASI Honorary Scientist & Professor, Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore: Prof. Padmanabhan has been instrumental in creating the Biotechnology Industry Assistance Council, New Delhi that supports 1800 incubatees and generating more than 800 products in the area of Biotechnology. Prof. Padmanabhan elucidated the heme-bio synthetic pathway of plasmodium causing malaria and pioneered several molecular biology / biotech research efforts in the country

Dr Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR - National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram: Dr Anandharamakrishnan has significantly contributed to the field of food processing and has improved the understanding of innovative food processing technologies, nutrient delivery systems, 3-D food printing, food structure & digestion, and their applications towards achieving sustainable food systems

Dr Avesh Kumar Tyagi, Distinguished Scientist & Director, Chemistry Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai: Dr. Tyagi is a globally acclaimed scientist and technologist. He has made groundbreaking contributions to the advancement of processes and materials crucial to Indian Atomic Energy Program

Prof. Umesh Varshney, Honorary Professor, Department of Microbiology & Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru: Prof. Varshney is an outstanding biologist and his fundamental work is on essential processes of protein synthesis and DNA repair in tubercular bacteria, E. coli and holds promise towards the development of TB vaccines

Prof. Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar, Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune: Prof. Udgaonkar has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of protein structure and function including protein folding and misfolding in the field of structural biology

Prof. Syed Wajih Ahmad Naqvi, National Science Chair, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow: Prof. Naqvi is an outstanding Biogeochemical Oceanographer with national and international recognition. His pioneering research work had an enduring disruptive impact in the field of oceanography.

Prof. Bhim Singh, SERB National Science Chair & Emeritus Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi: Prof. Singh is prolific researcher and technology mentor with good applied and translational research in the field of power electronics that includes power quality and multipulse convertors, solar PV power generation.

Prof. Dr. Sanjay Behari, Director, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram: Prof. Behari is luminary in neurosurgery, epitomised by exemplary service, high quality research and significant advancements in medical technology and infrastructure. He has fostered an environment integrating health sciences with biomedical technology that translates into patents and medical devices as products.

Prof. Adimurthi Adi, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur: Prof. Adimurthi has made fundamental contributions in the analysis of partial differential equations and settling many important questions in the field. His research contributions can be classified into Semilinear elliptic PDEs, Functional Inequalities, and Hyperbolic conservation laws.

Prof. Rahul Mukherjee, National Science Chair, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata: Prof. Mukherjee has made outstanding contributions and his contributions to mathematical statistics is well recognized. His academic work in statistics encompasses a wide field, which includes Design of Experiments, Bayesian theory, Asymptotic analysis and survey sampling.

Prof. Lakshmanan Muthusamy, Professor of Eminence & DST-SERB National Science Chair, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli: Prof. Muthusamy is a towering figure in the nonlinear dynamics in the field of physics that includes celestial dynamics in mathematics with inter-disciplinary applications in the field of biology, chemistry, economics and sociology.

Prof. Naba Kumar Mondal, INSA Senior Scientist, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata: Prof. Mondal is a leading experimental Particle Physicist with international acclaim in the field of neutrino physics. He led the conception and design of the detector for the India-based Neutrino Observatory, the INO, useful for young experimentalists working on neutrino physics.

Dr Annapurni Subramaniam, Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru: Dr. (Ms.) Subramaniam has made pioneering contributions to physics of single and binary stars, blue stragglers, star clusters, star formation, galactic structure, Magellanic clouds etc. She led the in-orbit calibration and produced impactful scientific results with the UV imaging telescope and also in the Astrosat Mission

Prof. Rohit Srivastava Himanshu Patel, Chair Professor, IIT Bombay: Prof. Srivastava has significantly contributed to point of care medical devices, bio-medical microsystems and nanoengineered biosensors resulting in technology development that includes mobile based urine analysis, diabetes management, noninvasive hemoglobin measurement and lipid analysis systems

Dr Krishna Murthy S L, Senior Scientist, Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad: Dr Krishna Murthy has developed six salt tolerant varieties of rice and four genetic stocks for salinity and alkalinity tolerance. The extension related work helped cover a significant area with these varieties

Dr Swarup Kumar Parida, Scientist, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi: Dr Parida was instrumental in developing various concepts on integrated next-generation molecular breeding and deployed it for efficient genetic dissection of complex stress tolerance, yield and plant architectural traits in order to accelerate crop improvement of rice and chickpea

Prof. Radhakrishnan Mahalakshmi, Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal: Prof. (Ms.) Mahalakshmi brings fundamental insights to mitochondrial membrane protein biophysics, in health and diseases in the country. The work has implications for peptide-based therapeutics for disease alleviation

Prof. Aravind Penmatsa, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru: Prof. Penmatsa has provided novel structural insights to neurotransmitter uptake in the field of pharmacology. His work has revealed mechanisms of efflux pump function in antibiotic transport, to unravel mechanisms of multi drug resistance that is helpful for biomedical research

Prof. Vivek Polshettiwar, Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai: Prof. Polshettiwar belongs to the group of researchers with unique signature to discover, design and develop drugs from first principles. His work in nanocatalysis realms of "Black Gold" and “Defects” represents a quintessential example of fundamental science and innovation

Prof. Vishal Rai Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal: Prof. Rai has made seminal contributions to precision engineering of proteins and supports Indian biopharma sector for precise protein engineering to empower antibody-conjugates for directed tumor surgery and cancer chemotherapeutic

Dr Roxy Mathew Koll, Scientist F, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune: Dr. Koll has made outstanding and path breaking contribution to Indian ocean warming and its implication to Indian summer monsoon as well as marine productivity, and marine heat extreme events.

Dr Abhilash Senior Principal, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur: Dr. Abhilash has contributed significantly to the development of interdisciplinary indigenous processes for extraction of critical/strategic metals from secondary resources like mine and process wastes, etc, as well as contributed exemplarily in leveraging technologies for mining, metallurgical and waste recycling industries.

Dr Radha Krishna Ganti, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai: Dr. Ganti is an excellent researcher, who has indigenously developed 5G Base Station that includes multi-input multi-output (MIMO) SG base stations, 64/32/16 antenna MIMO RRH and software towards indigenization efforts.

Dr Purabi Saikia, Assistant Professor, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi: Dr. (Ms.) Saikia is a passionate researcher proficient in ecological niche modelling, quantitative ecological analysis, and RET plant species conservation. Her research publications have potential for field applications and also important as scientific evidence for policy planning

Dr Bappi Paul Assistant Professor, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar: Dr. Paul has developed a process and catalyst for direct hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to ethanol as a future fuel and also contributed in removal of volatile organic compounds emitted from industries and transportations leading to global air pollution.

Prof. Mahesh Ramesh Kakde, Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru: Prof. Kakde has made decisive progress on the main conjecture of non-commutative Iwasawa theory and the Gross-Stark conjecture which are central problems in number theory using path-breaking ideas.

Prof. Jitendra Kumar Sahu Professor, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh: Prof. Sahu is an accomplished paediatric neurologist and working on infantile epileptic spasms syndrome and treatment of infantile-onset epilepsies

Dr Pragya Dhruv Yadav, SCIENTIST 'F' & HEAD, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune: Dr. (Ms.) Yadav is an expert in high-risk pathogens and containment issues related to multiple infectious diseases and has contributed in the development and evaluation of multiple vaccines for COVID19 in the country

Prof. Urbasi Sinha Professor, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru: Prof. (Ms.) Sinha's main contribution in quantum information, communication and precision tests of quantum mechanics is well recognized in the scientific community. Her loophole-free experiments demonstrating decisive violation of Legett-Garg inequality and her recent work on Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry are the important scientific achievements

Dr Digendranath Swain, EXMD / STR, Vikram Sarabhai Space, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram: Dr. Swain is an expert in experimental solid mechanics of launch vehicle structures with outstanding contributions in supporting structural qualification tests using DIC and other experimental techniques

Dr Prashant Kumar, Scientist-SF, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad: Dr. Kumar has made valuable research contributions in the domain of atmospheric science and weather forecast and contributed to development of High-Resolution Rapid Refresh system used by Indian Meteorological Department.

Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai: Dr. Rajagopal's pioneering research on feature-guided ultrasound, waveguide sensing, robotic asset inspections and ultrasonic metamaterials is widely recognized.

Team Chandrayaan-3, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru: Team Chandrayaan-3 is awarded under Vigyan Team category. The Chandrayaan-3 arguably is the most globally visible and acknowledged scientific achievement for the nation and represents achievements in different areas of technology as a team work of scientists in Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

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