Kurukshetra University confers Goyal awards to seven scientists

Prof K K Aggarwal, Chairman National Board of Accreditation (NBA), who was the chief gust on the occasion, emphasised that scientists should work for the betterment of agriculture, health and education in the country.

We need to make our young minds inquisitive and try to break the strict boundaries of disciplines and promote interdisciplinarity. Science must come close to nature to serve the humanity, a release by Kurukshetra University (KU) quoted him as saying.

Prof Som Nath Sachdeva, Vice-Chancellor, KU, and chairman, Goyal Awards Committee, said, “It is a great honour for KU to give these awards to scientists who have done the country proud by their work. This will motivate young researchers and students to take basic and applied sciences as a career option.”

Nath said the KU had awarded 100 outstanding scientists since 1992 when the awards were instituted by late Ram S Goyal, a US-based NRI and philanthropist.

The scientists who received the Goyal Award of Rs 2 lakh each besides a medal and citation are Dr N K Mehra, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Applied Sciences), Dr A Ajayaghosh, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram (Chemical Sciences), Dr Shyam Sunder, Institute of Medical Sciences (Life Sciences), and Dr Rohini M Godbole, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Physical Sciences), the release said.

The young scientists who received the Rajib Goyal Young Scientist Award included Rajneesh Mishra, IIT, Indore (Applied Sciences), Kana M Sureshan, IISER, Thiruvananthapuram (Chemical Sciences), and Suman Chakraborty, IIT, Kharagpur (Physical Sciences).

This award carries Rs 1 lakh in cash besides a medal and a citation, it said.