ISSUE 180: APRIL - JUNE, 2005

INSA Medal for Young Scientist

The INSA Medal for Young Scientist for researchers below the age of 32 years is considered to be the highest recognition of promise, creativity and excellence. The award is made annually to those distinguished for these attributes as evidenced by their research work carried out in India. The Council has decided to raise the minimum age limit from 32 years to 35 years for this award from the year 2006.

Following young researchers have been selected for the INSA Medal for Young Scientists Award – 2005. Awards will be presented to the recepients during the Anniversary General Meeting at Hyderabad.

1. Ms Sharmistha Banerjee (b.07.01.1973), Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad 500076.For her work on Isocitrate dehydrogenase and aconitase represents usage of modern proteomics methodology and approach and the identification of two isomers of Isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICD1 and ICD2) in Tuberculosis
bacteria.
2. Dr Bikramjit Basu (b.15.09.1973), PhD, Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016.For his work on the fracture toughness tribological behaviour of stabilized zirconia, zirconia composites (nanoscale).
3. Dr KRS Chandrakumar (b.16.02.1974), PhD, Scientific Officer, Theoretical Chemistry Section, Radiation Chemistry and Chemical Dynamics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085.
For his research work on chemical reactivity using density-based methods.
4. Dr Partha Sarathi Chakraborty (b.18.11.1973), PhD, Postdoctoral
Fellow, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Imperial College, UK.For his contribution in the area of “Non-commutative Geometry”especially his works on quantum Heisenberg manifold and on quantum groups are seminal, creating new ideas linking the construction of Dirac Operators with combinatorial methods.
5.Dr Deepankar Choudhury (b.01.07.1974), PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian For his work on geotechnical earthquake engineering related to earthquake resistant design of foundations, anchors and retaining structures.
6. Dr Tarun K Dalai (b.20.05.1973), PhD, Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA For his contribution to isotropic geochemical studies of chemical weathering of Himalaya and its impact on long term global change.
7. Dr (Mrs) Suman Lata Jain (b.26.10.1975), PhD, Research Associate, Chemical and Biotechnology Division, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun 248005. For her work in transition metal catalyzed organic reactions.
8. Dr Subhradip Karmakar (b.04.02.1974), PhD, SRF, Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansary Nagar, New Delhi-110029. For his work on the role of cytokines on trophoplast
invasion and for the development of an in-vitro assay to study trophoblast invasion.
9. Dr (Ms) Ananth Krupa (b.03.03.1976), PhD, Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Dr Tim Hunt’s Lab in Cancer Research, UK. For her contributions to the understanding of the diversity, regulation and specificity of protein kinases and related proteins involved in cellular signal
transduction.
10. Ms Pallavi Kshetrapal (b.09.11.1974), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad 500007. For her contributions in the area of mechanism of Egfr/Ras pathway in cell fate specification.

  
Contents
INSA Medal for Young Scientist 
INSA Awards 2005 announced in the
General Body Meeting of the Academy
International Activities
XIX CODATA International Conference
& 24th CODATA General Assembly
Local Chapter Activities
The Darashaw Nosherwanji Wadia
Medal Lecture (2004)
Professor Satyendranath Bose
Medal (2004)
Professor K Rangadhama Rao
Memorial Lecture
Awards and Honours
Change of Address
Obituaries
Announcements
11. Dr Alagarsamy Perumal (b.13.06.1975), PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of  Technology, Guwahati 781039. For his work on the magnetic and transport properties at low temperatures of disordered metallic alloys and thin films.
12. Dr V Richa Rikhy (b.20.08.1975), PhD, Department of Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005. For elucidating the mechanism of synaptic vesicle recycling in Drosophila.
13. Dr Anirban Roy (b.02.06.1975), PhD, Plant Virus Laboratory,Cental Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres,Kolkata 700120. For isolation of local economically important viroid pathogens from citrus, cowpea, mungbean and Hibiscus.Genomic diversity characterisation and development of molecular tools for diagnostics.
14. Dr K Sandeep (b.03.04.1973), PhD, TIFR Centre, Bangalore 560012. For his contributions on non-compact partial differential equations, addressing several interesting problems
related to astrophysics and geometry, especially using
the methods of calculus of variations.
15. Dr Pranav Kumar Sharma (b.25.01.1973), PhD, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA.For his contribution for uncovering a new type of
membrane organization of a class of lipid anchored proteins and for providing a biological significance for this organization.
16. Dr Jimmy Stephen (b.31.05.1974), PhD, Fellow (QRS),DRS Group, National Geophysical Research Institute,Hyderabad 500007.
                                      For his contribution to estimation of mechanical strength and anisotropy of the Indian lithosphere.
17. Dr Ashima Vohra (b.19.08.1974), PhD, Lecturer, Department of Microbiology,Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi 110007. For isolation of a novel strain of Pichia anomala as a source of highly stable phytase and its application in chick feed, study on phosphorous balance and patents on the strain. Anil Kumar Bose Memorial Medal to Dr Vijay V Patel, Scientist “E”, Aeronautical Development Agency, Vimanpura Post, Bangalore 560 093.For his research paper on “Some Applications of Randomized Algorithms for Control Systems Design”.(Published in Automatica 2002 , Vol. 38, pp 2085-2092).
Anil Kumar Bose Memorial Medal to Dr Vijay V Patel, Scientist “E”, Aeronautical Development Agency, Vimanpura Post, Bangalore 560 093. For his research paper on “Some Applications of Randomized Algorithms for Control Systems Design”. (Published in Automatica 2002 , Vol. 38, pp 2085-2092).		  


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