The Hindu : National : Seven-fold increase in prize money for young scientists

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Seven-fold increase in prize money for young scientists

Special Correspondent

President Kalam gives away awards at science congress

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

SHOWING THEM THE WAY: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam interacts with children at the Children's Science Congress at the 94th Indian Science Congress in Chidambaram on Friday.

CHIDAMBARAM : President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Friday gave away the Young Scientists Award instituted by the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) to 13 youngsters. An added bonanza this year is a five-fold increase in prize money, from Rs 5,000 to 25,000. Add to this Rs. 10,000 announced by Annamalai University Pro-Chancellor M.A.M. Ramaswamy, the total goes up to Rs. 35,000 each.

The prizes were presented at the 94th Indian Science Congress here. All the awardees, including three women, are below 32 and have shown significant achievements in their chosen fields.

The awardees are: D.N. Kambrekar of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad; Kuhali Biswas of the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong; Nallusamy Anandaraja of the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; Vinod Kumar of the Kurukshetra University; K. Saraswat of the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa; P.R. Gogate of the University of Mumbai; Manish Tiwari of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; Partha Sarathi Mandal of Kolkata; Diksha Kaushik of Bhopal University; Chandan Chakraborty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; S.Vidyadhara of the Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore; Nihar Ranjan Jena of Banaras Hindu University; and Shubha Vij of the University of Delhi.

Mr. Anandaraja developed a farmer-friendly interactive multimedia compact disc to initiate agriculturists into modern farm technology.

Mr. Saraswat, who studied depletion of oxygen level in certain coastal zones, found that the problem seemed to aggravate wherever anthropogenic pressure was high. The finding will help scientists evolve remedial measures.

Mr. Gogate worked on harnessing the spectacular effect of cavitation in chemical and physical processing.

Mr. Tiwari has sought to resolve the controversy over the intensity of monsoon over the eastern and western segments of the Arabian Sea.

Mr. Chakraborty has shown how the fuzzy clustering technique could be utilised for assessing group discussion.

Mr Vidyadhara demonstrated how bone grafting could be done precisely.

Ms. Vij probed the genome sequences of rice, while Mr. Kambrekar carried out a study on genetic diversity through molecular characterisation.

The ISCA launched the award in 1981 to identify and nurture young talent.

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