Dr Govindarajan Padmanabhan, a celebrated biochemist, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Vigyan Ratna Puraskar, the government's highest science award this year.
Today, August 7, the government announced 33 Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskars, including 18 for young scientists, 13 for Shri Puraskars, and a Vigyan Team award to Team Chandrayaan-3, reports PTI.
Earlier this year, the government established the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar to recognise outstanding and inspiring contributions to science, technology, and innovation by academics, technologists, and inventors.
The Vigyan Shri awardees are:
Dr Annapurini Subramanian (Astrophysics)
Dr Anandharamakrishnan C (Agriculture Science)
Dr Avesh Kumar Tyagi (Atomic Energy)
Prof Umesh Varshney and Prof Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar (Biological Sciences)
Prof Syed Wajih Ahmad Naqvi (Earth Sciences)
Prof Bhim Singh (Engineering Sciences)
Prof Adimurthi Adi and Prof Rahul Mukherjee (Mathematics and Computer Science)
Prof Dr Sanjay Behari (Medicine)
Prof Lakshmanan Muthusamy and Prof Naba Kumar Mondal (Physics)
Prof Rohit Srivastava (Technology and Innovation)
The Vigyan Yuva awardees include:
Krishna Murthy SL and Swarup Kumar Parida (Agricultural Science)
Radhakrishnan Mahalakshmi and Prof Aravind Penmatsa (Biological Sciences)
Vivek Polshettiwar and Vishal Rai (Chemistry)
Roxy Mathew Koll (Earth Sciences)
Abhilash and Radha Krishna Ganti (Engineering Sciences)
Purabi Saikia and Bappi Paul (Environmental Science)
Mahesh Ramesh Kakde (Mathematics and Computer Science)
Jitendra Kumar Sahu and Pragya Dhruv Yadav (Medicine)
Urbasi Sinha (Physics)
Digendranath Swain and Prashant Kumar (Space Science and Technology)
Prabhu Rajagopal (Technology and Innovation)
The prizes will be granted annually, replacing the 300-odd awards provided by various science departments.
President Droupadi Murmu is expected to present the awards on August 23, National Space Day, which commemorates the landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the Moon's South Pole.