Two from city get Young Scientist award

Two scientists from the city have won the prestigious NASI-Scopus Young Scientist award, 2016.

Amit Singh, an assistant professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc, earned the recognition for his extensive research on understanding tuberculosis. Dr Jaydeb Sarkar, an associate professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru, has been recognised for his work in the field of mathematics.

Singh’s research focuses on understanding how mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the tuberculosis infection that affects around 30% of the world’s population and why its treatment requires six to 12 months of multi-drug therapy. “We developed cutting edge tools, which can precisely tell us about the biological state of TB bacteria inside human cells.

We have collaborated with chemists at IISER, Pune, and Scripps Research Institute, Florida, USA, and developed several drugs to target drug-resistant TB bacteria,” he said. Talking about his research, Sarkar said: “I try to explore the relationship between four different mathematical traditions: operator theory, commutative algebra, complex geometry and several complex variables.” 

Elsevier’s Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and the NASI instituted the NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Awards in 2006 to recognise India’s contribution to world science. The awards are given in nine areas of science, technology and medicine and carry a citation, plaque and a cash prize of Rs 75,000.