BRSI Annual Awards Winners 2020-2021:
The winners of BRSI annual awards for the years 2019 and Fellows for the year 2020 were honored in the opening session of BSAEH-2021, Jaipur for those present in person and those attending online virtually.
HONORARY FELLOW-2020: PROFESSOR V NAGARAJA
Professor V Nagaraja is currently Honorary Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science and Jawaharlal Nehru for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore (after serving as President, JNCASR). In his tenure as a faculty of IISc, he has been teaching microbiology and molecular biology and carrying out research in the areas of molecular biology of mycobacteria, regulation of gene expression and DNA- protein interactions, etc. He has published over 200 papers, has several patents and has transferred technologies to industries. Professor Nagaraja is a Fellow of all the three national science academies of India and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is a recipient of several awards, including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, TWAS prize in Biology, IISc Alumni Award for excellence in research. Ranbaxy Award, Process-product- and technology development Award of DBT, Sir Visveswariah Senior Scientist Award (Lifetime achievement) of Karnataka State, G.N. Ramachandran Gold medal of CSIR, etc.
HONORARY FELLOW-2020: DR ANJAN RAY
Dr Anjan Ray is currently Director of CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehradun. He is a multidisciplinary scientist specializing in translational research with an emphasis on sustainable technology deployment. His research interests have spanned in various fields such as surfactants, oleochemicals, lubricants, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, water treatment, energy efficiency, biofuels and renewable energy policy. Dr Ray has over 40 publications and two book chapters to his credit. He holds an Indian patent and several US patents for processes related to production of renewable fuels. He is a Founder Member of the Indian Society of Cosmetic Chemists and a Life Fellow of The Indian Chemical Society.
FELLOW-2020: PROFESSOR SUDHIR KUMAR SOPORY
Professor Sudhir K Soporyis currently SERB Distinguished Fellow and Senior Emeritus Scientist at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. He has worked in many laboratories in Germany and USA as post-doctoral fellow and as Visiting Scientist. He was Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in the School of Life sciences. He held the positions of Group Leader and Director at ICGEB and Vice-Chancellor of JNU. His area of research is molecular plant physiology with major emphasis on plant stress biology and photobiology. Professor Sopory has over 240 publications. He is Fellow of all the three national science academies of India and the World Academy of Sciences. He has won many awards and honours, including Shanti Swaup Bhatnagar Award and Padma Shri from Govt of India.
FELLOW-2020: DR GA RAVISHANKAR
Dr G A Ravishankar is presently the Vice-President, R&D in Life Sciences and Professor of Biotechnology at DayanadaSagar Institutions, Bangalore. He served as scientist at CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute at Mysore for 28 years and as Visiting Professor in many universities in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Russia. His area of research has been plant biotechnology and has published about 300 papers, six books and over 50 patents. Dr Ravishankar has received several awards, including Young Scientist award (Botany) of Indian Science Congress, National Technology Day Award of Government of India, LaljeeGoodhoo Smarak Nidhi award, Prof V. Subramanyan Industrial Achievement Award of AFST (I), Prof. Vyas Memorial Award of Association of Microbiologists of India, Life-Time Achievement Award by Society for Applied Biotechnologists, etc. He is elected Fellow of International Academy of Food Science and Technology (Canada), Institute of Food Technologists (USA), Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK); National Academy of Sciences, India; National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Association of Food Scientists & Technologists of India and Association of Microbiologists of India.
FELLOW-2020: DR NARHARI SASTRY
Dr G. Narahari Sastry is currently the Director at CSIR – North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat. He served over 17 years at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology at Hyderabad and five years at Pondicherry University. He obtained Ph.D. from University of Hyderabad and spent about five years as Post-doc in Israel and Switzerland. He has made pioneering contributions in the area of computer aided drug design, computational chemistry and molecular modeling. Dr Sastry has over 280 publications, 10,300 citations with an h-index of 51. He is a fellow of several prestigious societies and academics, including Fellow of all the three national science academies of India, Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, Fellow of Telangana Academy of Science, etc. He has been awarded Swarnajayanti Fellowship of DST, National Bioscience Award of DBT, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Fellow of CSIR, J C Bose National Fellowship, AvH fellowship, etc.
FELLOW-2020: PROFESSOR YASHPAL SINGH MALIK
Professor Yashpal Singh Malik is currently Dean at the College of Animal Biotechnology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab. Earlier to this, he served as National Fellow in Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Vetinery Research Institute, Izatnagar. Prof Malik did his post-doctorate at University of Minnesota, USA, University of Ottawa, Canada, and Wuhan Institute of Virology, China. His areas of research are Animal Biotechnology, Host-Pathogen Interaction, Evolution and Epidemiology of Virology, with major emphasis on zoonotic microbes. Prof Malik has two patents and has published seven books and 227 papers with h index of 35, and 4200 citations. Prof Malik is recipient of ICAR Jawaharlal Nehru Award; Associate Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and National Academy of Veterinary Sciences. He is Fellow of the Society of Immunology and Immunopathology, Indian Association of Veterinary Microbiology, Immunology and Specialists of Infectious Diseases, Indian Association of Veterinary Public Health Specialists, National Academy of Biological Sciences, etc. Prof Malik has been the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Immunology Immunopathology and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology and Frontiers in Veterinary Sciences.
FELLOW-2020: PROFESSOR LATHA RANGAN
Professor LathaRangan is currently Professor and Head at the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. She has worked as post-doctoral fellow in United Kingdom and as Visiting Scientist in Germany and USA. Her areas of research are Applied Biodiversity using an integrative approach that has helped in tapping bio-resources from wilderness to mining ‘omics’. Professor Rangan has over 130 publications. She is Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (India), National Academy of Biological Sciences, and has won Prof. Hiralal Chakravarty Award of ISCA, Women Bio-Scientist Award of BRSI, Dr JN Baruah Memorial Award of Assam Science Society and many Best paper and poster awards.
FELLOW-2020: PROFESSOR KESHAB MONDAL
Dr Keshab Chandra Mondal is Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore. His area of research is microbial enzymes, gut flora, probiotics and fermented foods. Prof. Mondal has published over 145 papers, 16 book chapters and one text book. He is the recipient of Indo-Hungarian fellowship and Tempus Public Foundation fellowship, Hungary. Presently, he is the Associate Guest Editor for Frontiers in Nutrition, Frontiers in Sustainable Food system and Frontiers in Microbiology.
LIFE-TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: PROFESSOR DATTA MADAMWAR
Professor Datta Madamwar is currentlyScientificAdvisor at Charotar University of Science &Technology, Changa, Anand, Gujarat. Formerly, hewas Professor and Head, Departmentof Biosciences and Dean, Facultyof Science at SardarPatel University, VallabhVidyanagar. Heworked as a Post-DoctoralFellow at TIFR, Mumbai, University of Frankfurt and University of Konstanz and also served at BITS, Pilani. His research focus has been on Microbial Bioremediation, Environmental Biotechnology, Non-aqueous Enzymology, and Cyanobacterial Biotechnology. Professor Madamwar has published over 270 papers, several book chapters and one patent, with an h-index of 60 and more than 11,600 citations. He is a recipient of European Commission Visiting Scientist Fellowship and is Fellow of International Bioprocessing Association, the Biotech Research Society, India, Association of Microbiologists of India, Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy and Gujarat Science Academy. He has won BHU-Centennial Award of BRSI and is member of editorial board of several national and international journals.
WOMAN SCIENTIST AWARD-2019: DR REETA RANI SINGHANIA
Dr Reeta Rani Singhania is currently Research Professor at National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. She worked at CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Trivandrum for PhD studies and obtained the degree in Biotechnology in 2011. She has worked as Academic Researcher at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; as post-doctoral fellow at University Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France; as DBT-Bioscience Energy Overseas Fellow at DBT-IOC Centre for Advanced Bioenergy Research Faridabad, and as scientist at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, India. Her major research interests are in Microbial & Enzyme Technology and Bioprocess Technology, with current focus on biofuels. She has four US patents, edited three books and published over 100 papers, book chapters and conference communications with more than 6000 citations and h index of 29. She is the recipient of DBT-Bioscience Energy Overseas fellowship, IBA-IFIBiop Young Scientist award, AU-CBT Excellence award of BRSI, Elsevier Best Paper award and Most Cited Paper award from Bioresource Technology, Elsevier. She has served as Guest Editor of various international journals for special issues and is an editorial board member of Bioresource Technology, Biofuel Research Journal and Journal of Energy and Environmental Sustainability. She is the Editor of Bioresource Technology Reports and Associate Editor of Heliyon Energy.
YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD-2019: DR KIRTIKUMAR C BADGUJAR
Dr. Kirtikumar C. Badgujar is currently Assistant Professor at South Indian Education Society’s Arts, Science and Commerce College affiliated to Mumbai University. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai in 2015. His main focus of research is Environment-friendly catalysis, biocatalyst designing, biocatalytic transformations, neoteric solvents for biocatalysis, nano-biocatalysis, biomass valorization and carbon dioxide utilization. He has published 30 papers, three book chapters and seven patents to his credit. He has won The Best Ph.D. Thesis Award-2016 by the Institute of Chemical Technology and Young Scientist Award-2015 by the Indian Council of Chemists.
INDUSTRIAL MEDAL AWARD-2019: DR BRAHMA NAND SINGH
Dr. Brahma N. Singh is currently working as Senior Scientist at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. Dr. Singh is specialized in the field of herbal nanobiotechnology for advanced healthcare products development. He has extensively worked on efficient drug delivery of therapeutically active phytochemicals and developed several herbal technologies for the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis, prevention of cavity formation known as “Zanthodent”, polyherbal oxidative stress quencher known as “AnTiOX” and herbal dental gel for fast relief from tooth pain known as “DentoGel”. These developed technologies have been licensed to ten pharmaceutical industries. He has nine patents and published 49 papers having 4915 citations. He has won BRSI-Young Scientist Award, DST-Young Scientist Award and Indo-Canadian Certificate of Appreciation Award
AU-CBT EXCELLENCE AWARD-2019: DR RANJNA SIROHI
Dr Ranjna Sirohi is currently Research Professor at Korea University, Seoul. She obtained B.Tech. degree in Biochemical Engineering and M.Tech. degree in Agricultural Engineering with specialization in Food Biotechnology Engineering. She obtained PhD degree from GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. Earlier, she has worked as Junior Research Fellow at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal; as Senior Research Fellow at ICAR-Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering & Technology, Ludhiana and as Visiting Researcher at the École PolytechniqueFédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. She has qualified GATE and ICAR-NET and was awarded Senior Research Fellowship by CSIR, New Delhi. Her major research interests are in the areas of Bioprocess Technology – Food Engineering. She has 63 publications/communications that include books, research and review papers, book chapters, etc with 95 citations. Dr Sirohi has won Research Excellent award in the international conference on New Horizons in Biotechnology, Trivandrum; Best Poster award in 8thInternational Forum on Industrial Bioprocessing-2019, Miri; Sarawak, Malaysia and Research Excellence Award in International Conference on Bio-Innovation for Environmental and Health Sustainable Developments, Lucknow. Her PhD thesis has won the Best Thesis Award from the International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability.
AU-CBT EXCEELENCE AWARD-2019: MS BUNUSHREE BEHRA
Ms. Bunushree Behera is currently pursuing her doctoral research in area of algal biofuels at National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha. She did her M. Tech. (Biotechnology) from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur. She received Gold Medal for Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Bhubaneshwar. Her doctoral research is aimed to cultivate and harvest microalgae using cost-effective resources for biodiesel production. She has published 19 papers and has 91 citations. She was selected as Best Research Scholar for 2019 in National Institute of Technology Rourkela and received best paper awards in 1st and 2nd International Conference on Bioprocess for Sustainable Energy and Environment in 2018 and 2020.
SB CHINCHOLKAR MEMORIAL AWARD-2019: DR PARTHASARATHI RAMAKRISHNAN
Dr Parthasarathi Ramakrishnan is currently Principal Scientist at CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, where he is leading the Computational Toxicology Facility, Technology Development Innovation Centre and Environmental Monitoring and Intervention Hub. Dr Parthasarathi obtained PhD from CLRI, University of Madras and has served as a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories, USA. He has more than 20 years of research experience in applied biochemistry to unravel important issues in human health and the environment. He has authored over 100 paper with 6100 citations, h-Index 42 and has six patents.
SBS-MKU GENOMICS AWARD-2019: DR SANTOSH KUMAR UPADHYAY
Dr. Santosh Kumar Upadhyay is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He did his doctoral research at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow and obtained PhD in 2013 from UP Technical University, Lucknow. He has also worked DST-INSPIRE faculty at National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali. His research interests are on the characterization of various defence related proteins of bread wheat. He has also established CRISPR-Cas mediated genome editing in wheat and developed a freeware for target prediction. He has published over 55 papers, four books and 25 book chapters. Dr Upadhyay has won INSA Medal for Young Scientist, NASI-Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award, NAAS-Young Scientist Award, Early Career Research Award, etc.
MALAVISA MEMORIAL (YOUNG FACULTY) AWARD-2019: DR PE SENTHILKUMAR
Dr. P. Senthil Kumar is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai. He received Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering degrees from Anna University, Chennai. His research interests are in the fields of Water/Wastewater Analysis, Pollution Control Treatment Methods and Environmental Nanobiotechnology. He holds one Indian patent, over 270 papers, one book and about 100 book chapters, with about 7100 citations and h-index of 45. He has been awarded the IEI Young Engineers Award, Hiyoshi Think of Ecology Award, CTS Best Teacher Award and Young Scientist Awards.
BHU CENTINNIAL AWARD-2019: PROFESSOR PW RAMTEKE
Professor Pramod Ramteke is currently Professor Emeritus at Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj and Adjunct Professor at RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur and Mandsaur University, Mandsaur. Formerly, he was Dean of Post Graduate Studies at SHUATS. His major research focus has been on the development of microbe- based eco-friendly processes to utilize agricultural wastes for the production of biofuel and industrially important enzymes; sustainable crop production; biodegradation of environmental contaminants. Prof Ramteke has over 200 publications, four patents and nine books. He has won several honours and awards, including J. C. Bose Gold Medal, Prof. K. S. Bilgramy Memorial Award, Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Royal Society of Biology, Academy of Microbiological Sciences, the Biotech Research Society, India, etc.
