Professor CNR Rao, chairman of the scientific advisory council to the Prime Minister, will be awarded the lifetime achievement award instituted by the H K Firodia Foundation for 2011. He will be felicitated on November 17, 2011 for his contributions to physical sciences over the past five decades.
Besides, Roddam Narasimha, professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, and Manindra Agarwal of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, will jointly receive the H K Firodia award.
The awards were announced by eminent scientist R A Mashelkar and Arun Firodia, chairman of the Kinetic Group, in Pune.
Mashelkar, who is a member of the awards selection committee, said, "Professor Rao is known as 'Mr Science of India'; he is one of the world's foremost solid, state and materials chemists, known for his numerous original discoveries. The foundation has instituted this special award to recognise world class contributions made by an Indian scientist who has devoted his lifetime to research in any branch of science."
This is the 16th year of the awards. Besides Mashelkar, other eminent scientists in the country, such as Anil Kakodkar, Govind Swarup and Vijay Bhatkar are part of the award selection committee.
Narsimha is one of the foremost aerospace scientists of India and a world renowned fluid dynamist. He has made path-breaking contributions to aerospace technology and atmospheric sciences. He will be awarded Rs 2 lakh.
Agarwal has carried out breakthrough research in encryption algorithms and developed two codes, namely 'Trinetra' and 'Indra'. These codes have been specially developed for the Indian Navy and Air Force to ensure security of inter-services communication. Agarwal will receive Rs 1 lakh.
The H K Firodia awards were instituted in 1996 in the memory of the late H K Firodia, a doyen of the automobile industry, to recognise excellence in science and technology.
[Source: Times of India]
