Three B'loreans bag Bhatnagar awards

Mahan Maharaj, a monk from Ramkrishna Mission, has been selected as the co-winner of the award in mathematics for his research in cutting edge areas of mathematics.

He is the first Indian monk to receive a science award even though many members of the priest community are among the top scholars in their respective disciplines.

The prize in mathematics has been shared by Mahan Maharaj from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Howrah and Palash Sarkar at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

“Mahan Maharaj did his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkley in 1997. He also studied at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai before joining Ramkrishna Mission in 1997. He was inspired by the thoughts of Ramkrishna Paramhans,” Vice Chancellor of the university Swami Aatmapriyanand told Deccan Herald.  

Balasubramanian Sundaram from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and Upadrasta Ramamurty from Indian Institute of Sciences have shared the award with two other colleagues in the field of chemical and engineering sciences respectively.

In the area of medical sciences, K Narayanaswamy Balaji is the sole winner of the prestigious award, which has been offered to 463 scientists between 1957 and 2010, Samir K Brahmachari, director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research announced here on Monday.

While Sundaram shared the prize with G Narahari Sastry from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, the co-winner in engineering sciences is Sirshendu De from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

The Bhatnagar award winners would receive their awards – Rs 5 lakh for each individual and citation – from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later this year. They will also receive a monthly stipend of Rs 15,000 from CSIR till their retirement.

Other winners are Amit Prakash Sharma at International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi and Rajan Sankaranarayanan at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad in biological sciences and Shankar Doraiswamy at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa in the category of earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences.