Centre finally announces top national science prize for young talent after a year’s delay.

A year after being held back, 12 scientists awarded Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards for 2022

A year after it was surprisingly held back, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards for 2022 were declared on Monday, with 12 young scientists being selected for India’s top science prize.

Surprising Announcement

The announcement was also a surprise, having come at the launch event of ‘One Week One Lab’ programme of CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR). Traditionally, the Bhatnagar Prizes are announced on September 26, the foundation day of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the organisation that gives away these awards.

Award Recipients

N Kalaiselvi, director general, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), announced the names of the 12 recipients, all male scientists, in the presence of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Vice President, CSIR in New Delhi.

About the Bhatnagar Prizes

Bhatnagar Prizes, named after Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the first director general of CSIR, are given every year in seven scientific disciplines — biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, medicine, engineering and earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences — to outstanding researchers under the age of 45. The award carries a cash component of Rs 5 lakh.

List of Awardees

The list of awardees for the SSB awards 2022 are:

• Biology: Ashwani Kumar (CSIR – Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh) and M Maddika Subba Reddy (Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad)
• Chemistry: Akkattu Biju (Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru) and Deborah Maiti (IIT Bombay)
• Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences: Vimal Mishra (IIT Gandhinagar)
• Engineering: Dipti Ranjan Sahoo (IIT Delhi) and Rajnish Kumar (IIT Madras)
• Mathematics: Apoorva Khare (Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru) and Neeraj Kayal (Microsoft Research Lab, India)
• Medicine: Dipyaman Ganguli (CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Biology)
• Physics: Anindya Das (Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru) and Basudeb Dasgupta (TIFR Mumbai)

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards hold great significance in India’s scientific community, and the announcement of the winners for 2022 is seen as a historic event.

Anjali Marar works for Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru.