CSIR announces Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2020 to 14 scientists

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced the names of the recipients of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for 2020, the country’s highest science award.

Indian scientists below the age of 45 are conferred this award for outstanding work in seven fields—Biology, Chemistry, Environment Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine and Physics.

The recipients are as follows:

A cancer researcher, Bushra Ateeq from the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT-Kanpur, got the award for her contribution towards comprehending the progression of the disease and biomarkers, particularly in prostate and breast cancer

Dr Ritesh Agarwal, Professor in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh received it in the medical sciences category, for his noteworthy contributions in the field of Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA).

Jyotirmayee Dash from the School of Chemical Science at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, has been awarded for her work towards enhancing drug delivery through the application of organic synthesis of molecules.

Subhadeep Chatterjee from the Laboratory of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad is a winner for his work that explores mechanisms which stimulate or suppress bacterial disease in plants.

Research on neural circuits and neural locomotion using models of zebrafish has won Vatsala Thirumalai, Neural Circuits and Developmental Laboratory at National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru this prestigious award.

The other winners include Subi George, New Chemistry Unit; Rajesh Ganapathy, International Centre for Material Science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru; Rajat Hazra, Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute at Kolkata; UK Anandavardhanan, Department of Mathematics, IIT-Bombay; Surajith Dhara, School of Physics at the University of Hyderabad; Kinshuk Dasgupta, Materials Groups, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai; Amol Kulkarni from Chemical Engineering and Process Development at the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune; Suryendu Dutta, Professor at Department of Earth Sciences at IIT-Bombay; and Abhijit Mukherjee from Department of Geology and Geophysics, IIT-Kharagpur.