3 PAU students win nat’l biotech youth award

Ludhiana: Three students of the microbiology department at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) — Preetiman Kaur, Riya Bansal and Swati Pandey — have been awarded the ‘National Biotech Youth Award, 2023’.
The award was given during two-day national-level students’ conference on ‘Industry-Academia Meet for Students and Urban India on Biomake In India’, organised by the Microbiologists Society of India (MBSI) and held at Krishna Institute of Allied Sciences, Karad, Maharashtra on May 20 and 21. In the conference, 40 awardees were selected from different states for their outstanding contributions to microbiology or biotechnology.
Preetiman Kaur was awarded for her M Sc. project ‘Biosorption of electronic waste through microbial cultures: A Bioremediation Technology’, which she completed under the guidance of Dr Shivani Sharma, mycologist (mushrooms). Riya Bansal was awarded for her doctorate research, focused on the development of liquid PSB biofertilizer for potato, and being carried out under the guidance of Dr Pratibha Vyas, assistant professor (microbiology). Swati Pandey was awarded for her doctoral research project, ‘Valorisation of brewers spent grain to arabinoxylans and a novel symbiotic supplement’, under the guidance of Dr Keshani. tnn