Renowned biochemist Govindarajan Padmanabhan has been selected for the first Vigyan Ratna Puraskar, the topmost science award instituted by the government this year.

The government on Wednesday announced 33 Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskars, which include 18 Vigyan Yuva Puraskars for young scientists, 13 Vigyan Shri Puraskars, and a Vigyan Team award that went to Team Chandrayaan-3.

Earlier this year, the government instituted the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar to recognise outstanding and inspiring contributions of researchers, technologists, and innovators in the fields of science, technology, and innovation.

The Vigyan Shri awardees are astrophysicist Annapurini Subramanian, agriculture scientist Anandharamakrishnan C, Avesh Kumar Tyagi (Atomic Energy), Prof. Umesh Varshney and Prof. Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar (both in the field of 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) and Prof. Rohit Srivastava (Technology and Innovation).

The Vigyan Yuva awardees are Krishna Murthy S L 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 Space and Prashant Kumar (Space Science and Technology) and Prabhu Rajagopal (Technology and Innovation).

The awards will be given every year and replace the 300-odd awards that were given by various science departments.

President Droupadi Murmu is expected to confer the awards on August 23, National Space Day, to commemorate the landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the south pole of the moon.

Image source: Times of India