IIT Madras Professors Selected For Government's Swarnajayanti Fellowship
Two faculty from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have been selected for the prestigious ‘Swarnajayanti Fellowship' Awards for 2019-20 presented by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. 21 researchers from across the nation have been selected for this recognition.
Prabhu Rajagopal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, was selected under ‘Engineering Science' discipline. P Anbarasan, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras, have been selected under ‘Chemical Science' discipline.
Under this scheme, a select number of young scientists, with a proven track record, are provided special assistance and support to enable them to pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology.
Speaking on the occasion, Prabhu Rajagopal said, “As the world races towards quantum supremacy, sound-based analogues of currently prevalent technologies are increasingly attractive as they can access a wide range of phenomena and also harness waste heat more naturally. Grateful to the DST for recognizing the breakthrough potential of my work in Quantum Phononics. The prestigious Swarnajayanti Fellowship award is an important milestone and is sure to help seek wider support and scale up this effort.”
“I thank my colleagues, mentors and the leadership at IIT Madras for putting in place mechanisms whereby cutting-edge research and technology translation impacting society positively are nurtured.”
Thanking the DST, P Anbarasan, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras, said, “The Swarnajayanti Fellowship is an important milestone in anyone's research career. This fellowship will help us to strengthen our research activities on the development of novel synthetic techniques for the construction of chiral intermediates/molecules of therapeutic importance in its enantiopure form. I take this opportunity to thank my esteemed mentors, well-wishers and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras for their unconditional support. I also thank my beloved students, who are the pillars of my research, for their commitment and hard work.”
The Fellowships are scientist specific and not institution-specific, very selective and have close academic monitoring. The Government of India instituted the ‘Swarnajayanti Fellowships' to commemorate India's 50 years of Independence.