Elsevier and National Academy of Sciences, India Announced the Winners of the 2015 NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Awards

The awards ceremony, held at the Hotel Hyatt Regency, New Delhi, was attended by more than 125 guests representing India’s top scientific community. The awards were presented by Dr. R. Chidambaram Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India & Chairman Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet.

Elsevier first launched the Scopus Young Scientist Awards in 2006.In India, theprogram was officially institutionalized within its scientific community through Elsevier’s collaboration with NASI in 2009. The program honors young researchers who are building their careers in academic research and helps them gain recognition of their work. 

This year’s NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Awards program attracted nearly 650 applications from multiple premier research institutions acrossIndia. Applications were judged by a panel of 32 subject experts from India’s academic community. Elsevier provided quantitative analyses using data from Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.Furthermore, the jury looked at criteria such as:

· Quality and number of publications;
· Nature and uniqueness of research;
· Outcomes of research;
· Impact on society;
· Vision of the researcher.

Special consideration was also given to novel and innovative ideasthathold potential for commercial application.

Per discipline, the award winners are:

Agriculture
Dr. GnanavelVenkatesan
Scientist
Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Nainital

Dr. Swarup K. Parida
Staff Scientist
National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi

Biological Sciences
Dr. Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya
Principal Scientist
CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata

Chemistry
Dr. Subi Jacob George
Associate Professor
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore

Earth, Oceanographic & Environmental Sciences
Dr. Tarun Gupta
Associate Professor
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Engineering
Dr. SubhransuRanjan Samantaray
Assistant Professor
Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar

Mathematics
Dr. UK Anandavardhanan
Associate Professor
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai

Medicine
Dr. Rajnish Kumar Chaturvedi
Scientist
CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow

Physics
Dr. G. V. Pavan Kumar
Assistant Professor
Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Pune

Social Sciences
Dr. Subharati Ghosh
Assistant Professor
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

“NASI Scopus Young Scientists awards are now considered as a premier recognition of hard work, innovations and aspirations of young scientists of India” said Professor AkhileshTyagi, President, NationalAcademy of Sciences, India. “We are proud to associate with Elsevier for the same as they encourage healthy competition, instill confidence and help establish credibility of first steps taken in the pursuit of scientific excellence.

Youngsuk “Y.S.” Chi, Chairman of Elsevier, said, “I congratulate this year’s winners who continue to advance research excellence in India and all around the world. At Elsevier we are honored to support these award recipients and other stakeholders across the Indian scientific community with highest quality content and cutting edge digital solutions. We are thrilled to be part of this exciting time for Indian Science, and tonight’s event is a celebration of this country’s commitment to driving forward innovation and growth through research”.