Odia chemical scientist gets prestigious award

BHUBANESWAR: Prof Jyotirmayee Dash of Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata has been conferred the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Chemical Sciences, 2020 for her excellent contribution in the field of science.

A native of Jagatsinghpur district, she had joined IISER, Kolkata as an Assistant Professor before moving to IACS. She applies principles of chemical biology to modulate structure and function of nucleic acid targets leading to the development of new therapeutic tools for anticancer research. Prof Dash is the first Odia woman to be conferred the award given to scientists below the age of 45. 

“We work on the structure and function of nucleic acids to develop new tools for the discovery of anti-cancer drugs. We use interdisciplinary research at the interface of Chemistry and Biology,” she said.

Earlier, Prof Dash was awarded the Alexander Von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship at FU Berlin, Germany and Marie Curie fellowship at University of Cambridge, UK. Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan congratulated the Odia scientist on being conferred the prestigious award for her significant contribution in the field of science.