IISc alumni association remembers Ratan Tata, presents Entrepreneur Award

Bengaluru: At a programme hosted on Saturday, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) alumni association commemorated the birth anniversary of Ratan Tata and presented a young entrepreneur award. 

The ‘Smt Shuba & Prof Dwarakadasa Young Entrepreneur Award’ was presented to researcher Kavyashree Manjunath, PhD, by Prof
Eswarahalli Dwarakadasa. Kavyashree was recognised for her work in the field of drug discovery and immunogen development. According to the association, during her nine years of academic research, Kavyashree has solved and deposited 20 protein structures in the Protein Data Bank and co-authored 13 research articles, two review articles and a book chapter. It further said that Kavyashree transformed her expertise as a scientist to address “one of the most challenging but often ignored areas, the plastic pollution.”

“On the scientific side, I am sure the best work has been done,” Prof Dwarakadasa said. “However, if there is no audit of the material - how much is produced, how much is distributed and how is gotten back - any amount of scientific work is useless.”

During the first part of the programme, the association remembered Ratan Tata and his contribution to IISc. S Mohan, Professor Emiritus (Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, IISc) and M R Chandrashekar, ex-security officer, IISc, paid respects to Tata, while members of the executive committee and the audience paid homage.