Souvik Maiti (born in 1971) is an Indian chemist known for his studies in the fields of biophysical chemistry and chemical biology focusing on nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. [1] He works at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. He is also visiting scientist at National Chemical Laboratory Pune.
He graduated with a bachelor's (1993) and master's (1995) degree in chemistry from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He completed his doctoral research in 1999 in the field of polymer chemistry from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.
He is known for his studies on biophysical aspect of quadruplexes, locked nucleic acids. He is also known for his work on silencing microRNAs by small molecules. His group has invented nucleic acid-based enzyme as silencers for microRNA, known as antagomirzymes.Antagomirzymes: oligonucleotide enzymes that specifically silence microRNA function [2] He is recipient of CSIR, NASI-Scopus, CDRI, AVRA Young Scientist Awards and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemistry, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards in 2014., [3] [4] [5] National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2015. [6] in Biology, as well as Swarnajayanti Fellowships in Biological Sciences. He is fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, and Indian National Academy of Science, Delhi.
Along with his colleague, Debojyoti Chakraborty, he has co-invented a rapid test for COVID-19, FnCas9 Editor-Linked Uniform Detection Assay, FELUDA. [7] [8] [9] [10] (named after Feluda, a popular fictional detective created by the late Satyajit Ray.) Tata Sons has obtained license from CSIR for commercial launch of this test. [11] [12] [13] [14] Tata group has established a new company, TATA MD and launched this test as a brand name "TATA MD Check". In 2021, CSIR and Tata MD partner to ramp up COVID testing capacity across tier 2, 3 towns and rural areas. [15] [16]
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) was a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and physics. The prize recognized outstanding Indian work in science and technology. It was the most coveted award in multidisciplinary science in India. The award was named after the founder Director of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. It was first awarded in 1958. From the year 2024, Govt of India continued the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology with new name the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Vigyan Yuva - Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquartered in New Delhi, it was established as an autonomous body in 1942 under the aegis of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. CSIR is among the largest publicly funded R&D organisations in the world. CSIR has pioneered sustained contribution to science and technology (S&T) human resource development in India.
Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar OBE, FNI, FASc, FRS, FRIC, FInstP was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered as the Father of Research Laboratories in India. He was also the first Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Garikapati Narahari Sastry is an Indian Chemist and a Professor at the Department of Biotechnology at IIT-Hyderabad. He served as Director of CSIR- North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat Jorhat, Assam from 19 February 2019 and served there till 10 January 2024. After taking charge as the Director, he has worked towards converting knowledge in the areas of computational modelling and Artificial intelligence from basic to translational research, by working closely with society and industry. Ultimately, revitalizing the strength of science and technology is essential in achieving the self-reliant and strong India. In the era of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, combining our traditional wisdom with modern science appear to be indispensable in the sectors such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Industrial and Societal development at large. Prior to joining as the Director, he headed the Molecular Modelling Division at the CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad, India. Sastry has made pioneering contributions in the areas of computational chemistry and computational biology.
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.
Kavirayani Ramakrishna Prasad is an Indian chemist. He is working in synthesis in organic chemistry. He is working in Indian Institute of Science. He received Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards in 2014.
thumb
Pratap Raychaudhuri is an Indian physicist who works at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. His specialization is in the fields of superconductivity and magnetism, transport based spectroscopy, and thin films. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 2014.
Kalobaran Maiti is an Indian physicist specialising in condensed matter physics and materials science. He obtained his MSc degree from Rajabazar Science College and PhD degree from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2010, the highest science award in India, in the physical sciences category for his contribution in the field of very high resolution photoelectron spectroscopy in understanding the physics of metal-insulator transition, charge density wave and Kondo systems. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy.
Ramamirtha Jayaraman was an Indian geneticist, known for his studies on bacteria, especially on Escherichia coli. His researches on the control of transcription of bacteria are known to have evidenced the participation of accessory factors in transcription and their interactions with RNA polymerase. He was a professor at the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) and a former scientist at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Post his retirement, he served as an emeritus scientist at MKU. He authored the reference manual, Jayaraman Laboratory Manual in Molecular Genetics and several pamphlets and articles; PubMed, an online repository of medical papers has listed 59 of them. 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 1982, for his contributions to biological sciences.
Umesh Varshney is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and the head of a laboratory at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He is a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and is known for his studies on protein synthesis and DNA repair in Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. An elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences (India), he is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Government of India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2001, and then in 2014 with the G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology for his contributions to biological sciences.
Vinod Bhakuni was an Indian molecular biophysicist and the head of the Molecular and Structural Biology Division of the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI). He was the founder of the Protein Chemistry laboratory of CDRI and was known for his contributions to the study of protein folding. A recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, he was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy 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 2006, for his contributions to biological sciences.
Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya is an Indian molecular biologist, epigeneticist and the principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He is a recipient of the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Bioscience Award of the Department of Biotechnology. 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 2016, for his contributions to biological sciences.
Samaresh Mitra is an Indian bioinorganic chemist and an INSA Senior Scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB). He is known for his research on inorganic paramagnetic complexes and low-symmetry transition metal complexes. He is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, India 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 1983, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Murali Sastry is an Indian material chemist, nanomaterial scientist and the chief executive officer of the IITB-Monash Research Academy. He is a former chief scientist at Tata Chemicals and a former senior scientist at the National Chemical Laboratory. He is known for his studies on surfaces, films and materials chemistry and is an elected fellow of Maharashtra 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 2002, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Echur Varadadesikan Sampathkumaran is an Indian condensed matter physicist and a Distinguished Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Known for his research on the thermal and transport behaviour of magnetic systems, Sampathkumaran is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India as well as The World 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, for his contributions to physical sciences in 1999.
Anurag Agrawal is an Indian pulmonologist, medical researcher, Dean of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, and the former director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, a CSIR institution. Known for his studies on lung diseases, Agrawal has been a senior fellow of the DBT-Wellcome Trust. 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 Medical Sciences in 2014. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology which he received in 2015 and the 2020 Sun Pharma Science Foundation award in Medical Sciences.
U. K. Anandavardhanan is an Indian mathematician specialising in automorphic forms and representation theory. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the highest science award in India, for the year 2020 in mathematical science category. He is affiliated to Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Kayarat Saikrishnan is an Indian structural biologist, a Professor in the Department of Biology and the dean of student and campus activities in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for the year 2019 in Biological Sciences "for his outstanding contributions in the area of structural biology by providing remarkable insights into the functioning of restriction-modification enzymes, which play a crucial role in bacterial defense".
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 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.