Former IISc director is first recipient of nation's top science award
- Noted biochemist Govindrajan Padmanaban, a former director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru on Wednesday named as the first recipient of Vigyan Ratna — India’s top most science award instituted by the Union government.
- Vigyan Ratna is among the 33 Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (national science awards) that are given to eminent as well as young scientists in 2024.
- These awards will be given every year by the Centre, which has decided to come out with a uniform set of awards rather than having over 300 awards by different scientific departments.
- Padmanaban, internationally acclaimed for his research on malaria parasites, is also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards.
- Among the 13 Vigyan Shri awardees is Annapurni Subramaniam, director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru (space science and technology) and IISc professor Umesh Varshney (biological sciences).
- Annapurni is an eminent researcher in astronomy and astrophysics with expertise in ground and space-based astronomy.
