Ashoke Sen FRS is an Indian theoretical physicist and distinguished professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS),Bangalore. A former distinguished professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute,Allahabad,He is also an honorary fellow in National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER),Bhubaneswar,India he is also a Morningstar Visiting professor at MIT and a distinguished professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. His main area of work is string theory. He was among the first recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics "for opening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory".
Manindra Agrawal is an Indian computer scientist and professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur. He was the recipient of the first Infosys Prize for Mathematics,the Godel Prize in 2006;and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Mathematical Sciences in 2003. He has been honoured with Padma Shri,India's 4th highest civilian award,in 2013.
Padmanabhan Balaram is an Indian biochemist and a former director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore,India. He is a recipient of the third highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Bhushan (2014) as well as the TWAS Prize (1994). He has been conferred the 2021 R. Bruce Merrifield Award by the American Peptide Society.
Ashok Jhunjhunwala is an Indian academic and innovator. He received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur and PhD from the University of Maine. He has been a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras since 1981. He is currently holding the position of President of IIT Madras Research Park. During his career,he has contributed extensively to technology innovation and adoption in the Indian context.
Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan is the Chairman of Axilor Ventures,an accelerator that helps start-ups during the early stage of their business journey. Kris served as the vice chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. Kris is one of the co-founders of Infosys. Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader,he was voted the top CEO in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He was elected president of India's apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14 and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.
Ashutosh Sharma is an Institute Chair Professor and C V Seshadri Chair Professor at the Department of chemical engineering of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He is the founding Coordinator of DST Thematic Unit of Excellence on Soft Nanofabrication and Chairman of Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur. He is best known for his pioneering research work in the areas of colloids,thin film,interfaces,adhesion,patterning and in the fabrication and application of self-assembled nano-structures.
Yamuna Krishnan is a professor at the Department of Chemistry,University of Chicago,where she has worked since August 2014. She was born to P.T. Krishnan and Mini in Parappanangadi,in the Malappuram district of Kerala,India. She was earlier a Reader in National Centre for Biological Sciences,Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,Bangalore,India. Krishnan won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for science and technology,the highest science award in India in the year 2013 in the Chemical Science category.
Roop Mallik is an Indian biophysicist who works on nanoscale molecular motor proteins that transport material such as viruses,mitochondria,endosomes etc. inside living cells. The motors,such as kinesin and dynein generate forces of pico-newton order to carry our various cellular processes namely cell division,vesicular transport,endocytosis,molecular tethering etc. His lab is working to understand how motor proteins help in degradation and clearance of pathogens,and also how these motors work inside the liver to maintain systemic lipid homeostasis in the animal. Mallik is currently a professor at the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering,Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Dilip Devidas Bhawalkar is an Indian optical physicist and the founder director of the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT),an institute under the Department of Atomic Energy,serving as a centre for higher studies in the fields of lasers and particle accelerators. He is credited with pioneering research in optics and lasers in India and is reported to have contributed in making CAT a partner in the International Linear Collider and Large Hadron Collider experiments of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize,the highest Indian award in science and technology. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2000.
Palliakaranai Thirumalai Narasimhan (1928–2013),popularly known as PTN or Jim,was an Indian theoretical chemist,one of the pioneers of computational chemistry in India and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur. He was known for his studies on quantum-mechanical interpretation of magnetic resonance data and his contributions in developing IIT Kanpur into a Centre of Excellence in academic research in basic sciences. He was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy,Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences,India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology,one of the highest Indian science awards,in 1970,for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Vadapalli Chandrasekhar is an Indian inorganic and organometallic chemist and is currently a distinguished professor and the centre director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Hyderabad. He is known for his studies on the chemistry of inorganic clusters and rings and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy National Academy of Sciences,India,The World Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology,one of the highest Indian science awards,in 2003,for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Mangalore Anantha Pai was an Indian electrical engineer,academic and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. A former professor of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur,he is known for his contributions in the fields of power stability,power grids,large scale power system analysis,system security and optimal control of nuclear reactors and he has published 8 books and several articles. Pai is the first India born scientist to be awarded a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California,Berkeley.
Madan Rao is an Indian condensed matter and biological physicist and a senior professor at National Centre for Biological Sciences. Known for his research on molecular dynamics on cell surface,Rao is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology,one of the highest Indian science awards,for his contributions to physical sciences in 2004.
Nihar Ranjan Jana is an Indian neuroscientist and professor at the IIT Kharagpur,known for his studies on E3 ubiquitin ligases,protein homeostasis and neurodegenerative disorders. Jana is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences,India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development,in 2008 and TATA Innovation Fellowship in 2014 for his contributions to Neurodegenerative diseases.
Subramaniam Ganesh is an Indian geneticist,molecular biologist and a professor at the department of biological sciences and bio-engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur. Known for his pioneering studies on Lafora progressive myoclonic epilepsy and other neurodegenerative disorders,Ganesh is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences,India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development,one of the highest Indian science awards,for his contributions to biosciences in 2008.
Balaji Prakash is an Indian structural biologist,biochemist and the Associate Dean of Sciences &Professor,Biological and Life Sciences,at the School of Arts and Sciences,Ahmedabad University,since July 2020. Prior to this he served as senior principal scientist and the head of the department of molecular nutrition of the Central Food Technological Research Institute. Known for elucidating the structure of a unique GTP-binding protein,Prakash is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences,India and was a senior research fellow of The Wellcome Trust,UK. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development,one of the highest Indian science awards,for his contributions to biosciences,in 2009.
Professor Maneesha Inamdar is a stem cell and developmental biologist conducting research at Bangalore,India. She is presently Director of inStem,India’s first stem cell institute. She is on deputation from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR),Bangalore. She is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy and a J C Bose National Fellow.
Ashwani Pareek is Executive Director of NABI a prominent plant biologist and educator noted chiefly for his contribution in plant molecular biology and biotechnology. He is currently working as Professor of plant molecular biology and biotechnology at the School of Life Sciences,Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi,and adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia,Perth,Australia. He is a recipient of several honors including the Visitors award for Technology Development from the President of India for developing Stress Tolerant Rice of the Next Generation (STRONG) that has the potential to enhance the income of rice farmers. The award ceremony was held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 2 May 2018. Recently on 26 February 2020,he has been awarded "Tata Innovation Award 2020" by Department of Biotechnology,Govt of India. He has interest in understanding the physiological and molecular adaptations in xero-halophytic plants and development of transgenic rice plants with enhanced tolerance towards multiple abiotic stresses.
Bushra Ateeq is a Professor and a Senior Fellow of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (BSBE),IIT Kanpur specializing in cancer biology and molecular oncology. She was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Medical Sciences in the year 2020. Her research interest involves exploration of the genetic and epigenetic changes that initiate cancer and its progression. She is also focusing on understanding the molecular events that drive cancer and resistance towards chemotherapeutic drugs.
Dr.Krishnarajanagar Nagappa Ganesh is an Indian Bio-Organic chemist and served as the (founding) director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,Tirupati since 2017 till April 2023. He is also the founding Director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,Pune,that was established in 2006 and served the office till 2017. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in chemical sciences (1998) for "his outstanding contribution towards the understanding of the chemical principles of DNA molecular recognition and for his work on various facets of DNA structure and its interaction with drugs and proteins". He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy since 2000.
