President Murmu honored 24 scientists with National Science Award, Jayant Narlikar received Vigyan Ratna posthumously

New Delhi. President Draupadi Murmu on Tuesday honored eminent astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar posthumously with the Vijayan Ratna Award for his contribution to cosmology and popularization of science. The award was received by R Srianand, Director of the Pune-based Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Narlikar had established this centre.

Murmu also presented the National Science Award at a function held at the Republic Pavilion of Rashtrapati Bhavan. In the second National Science Awards, 24 awards were presented to eminent scientists in four categories – Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva and Vigyan Team.

“The objective of the National Science Awards is to recognize the remarkable and inspirational contributions made individually or in team by scientists, technologists and innovators in various fields of science, technology and technology-based innovation,” the official statement said. Eminent agricultural scientist Gyanendra Pratap Singh was honored with the Vigyan Shri Award for his contribution in the field of agricultural science.

Singh is known as a wheat ‘breeder’. Yusuf Mohammad Shaikh, Director of Physics Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, was awarded the Vigyan Shri Award for his contribution in the field of nuclear energy. K of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology. Thangaraj won this award in the field of Biology. Pradeep Thalappil of IIT-Madras has received the Vigyan Shri Award in the field of Chemistry.

Anirudh Bhalchandra Pandit, Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, was awarded the Vigyan Shri Award in the field of Engineering Sciences. S Venkat Mohan, director of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, received the award in the field of environmental science. Mahan Maharaj, a monk of the Ramakrishna sect and professor of mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, was honored with the Vigyan Shri Award in the field of mathematics and computer science.

Jayan N of the Center for Liquid Propulsion Systems was awarded the Vigyan Shri Award for his contribution to space science and technology. According to the statement, Jagdish Gupta Kapuganti (Agriculture Science), Satendra Kumar Mangrothiya (Agriculture Science), Debarka Sengupta (Biology), Deepa Agashe (Biology), Dibyendu Das (Chemistry), Waliur Rahman (Earth Science) and Arkaprava Basu (Engineering Science) have received the Science Youth Award.

The Science Youth Award recipients also included Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Mathematics and Computer Science), Shweta Prem Agarwal (Mathematics and Computer Science), Suresh Kumar (Medicine), Amit Kumar Agarwal (Physics), Surhood Srikant More (Physics), Ankur Garg (Space Science and Technology) and Mohanshankar Sivaprakasam (Technology and Innovation). The Sugandh Mission team of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which initiated the ‘Lavender Mission’ in Jammu and Kashmir, won the Science Team Award.