YEAR BOOK 2015 - The National Academy of Sciences, India

538 Pages·2015·2.81 MB·English

YEAR BOOK

2015

The National Academy of Sciences, India
(The Oldest Science Academy of India)
POSTAL ADDRESS
The National Academy of Sciences, India
5, Lajpatrai Road, Allahabad - 211 002, India

PHONE
[phone]

FAX
[phone]

E-MAIL
[email protected]

WEBSITE
http://www.nasi.org.in
http://www.nasi.nic.in

PUBLISHED BY

Dr. Niraj Kumar & Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh
Executive Secretary Asstt. Executive Secretary Grade II
CONTENTS

The Academy 1

Council 8

Rules and Regulations
Rules 10
Regulations 28
Regulations for Academy's Awards 34
Regulations for M.N. Saha Distinguished Fellowship 57

Past Presidents 58

Past General Secretaries 59

Other Officers of the Academy 61

Founder Fellows 63

Honorary Fellows 64

Foreign Fellows 68

Fellows 80

Deceased Honorary Fellows, Foreign Fellows and Fellows 291

Scientific Contributions of Fellows Elected in year 2014 295

Scientific Contributions of Foreign Fellows Elected in year 2014 300

Subject wise list of Honorary Fellows, Foreign Fellows and
Fellows
Agricultural Sciences 301
Animal Sciences 304
Biochemistry, Biophysics, Biotechnology 309
Chemical Sciences 316
Earth Sciences 323
Engineering Sciences including Engineering Technology 326
Mathematical Sciences 332
Medical & Forensic Sciences 337
Physical Sciences 343
Plant Sciences 351
Science & Society 358
Annual Sessions 359

List of Symposia/Seminars/Workshops held in the recent past 361

Sectional Presidents 364

Committees
Fellowship Scrutiny Committees 366
Membership Scrutiny Committees 368
NASI Science Teacher Award Committees 368

Prof. Meghnad Saha Distinguished Fellowship 369
NASI Platinum Jubilee Chair 369
J.C. Bose Chair 369
ICMR Chair in Public Health Research 369
Distinguished Woman Scientist Chair 369

Lecture Awardees
Prof. A.C. Banerji Memorial Lecture Awardees 370
Prof. Meghnad Saha Memorial Lecture Awardees 371
Prof. N.R. Dhar Memorial Lecture Awardees 372
Dr. B.P. Pal Memorial Lecture Awardees 374
Dr. P. Sheel Memorial Lecture Awardees 375
Dr. P. Sheel Memorial (Young Woman Scientist)
Lecture Awardees 376
Prof. Saligram Sinha Memorial Lecture Awardees 377
Prof. R.C. Gupta Endowment History of Science Lecture
Awardees 377
Prof. R.N. Tandon Memorial Lecture Awardees 378
Prof. B.K. Bachhawat Memorial Lecture Awardees 379
Prof. B.K. Bachhawat Memorial Young Scientist Lecture
Awardees 380
Prof. U.S. Srivastava Memorial Lecture Awardees 381
Prof. Shri Ranjan Memorial Lecture Awardee 382
Award Lecture in the field of Toxicology 382
Prof. Krishnaji Memorial Lecture Awardees 383
Award Lecture in the field of Biodiversity 384
Prof. Archana Sharma Memorial Lecture Awardee 384
Prof. R.N. Tandon's 90th Birthday Lecture Awardee 385

Prof. Meghnad Saha Platinum Jubilee Lifetime Honorary
Fellowship 385

NASI President's Platinum Jubilee Gold Medal 385
NASI-Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellows 386

NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award 389

NASI-Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award 392

SICO-Sponsored NASI Awardees 399

The NASI - Swarna Jayanti Puraskar Awardees 401

The NASI - Millennium Awardees 404

The NASI - Science Teacher Awardees 405

U.P. Education Minister's Gold Medal Recipients 407

Academy's Local Chapters 409

Benefactors 414

Life Members 415

Contact
THE ACADEMY

A Brief History and Activities of the Academy

India could Justly feel proud for its unique contributions to science in
the ancient past. However, successive foreign invasions and alien
rule for centuries pushed science in the background and the country
went through with what may be described as the dark age for
science. Western science attracted Indian intelligentsia after the
establishment of the western system of education and the
universities; and despite many constraints, the country could produce
giants like Sir J.C. Bose & Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray.

The 1st world war and the world-wide economic depression caused a
setback to scientific research globally - much more so in India whose
scientists found it difficult even to publish their research work since
they had to be almost entirely dependent on foreign journals. The
post world war India also saw the rise of the freedom movement
which incidentally also drew attention to the numerous problems of
the Indian populace like poverty, hunger, diseases, recurrent floods,
droughts, famines etc. Patriotic scientists felt deeply concerned with
these.

It was in this background that the idea of establishing a forum for
scientists, which would help them in publishing their researches and
bring them together to discuss and find scientific solutions to the
problems of the country, was mooted by Prof. Meghnad Saha, a great
scientist, patriot and then Professor of Physics at Allahabad
University in 1929. His views were published in the article entitled 'A
Plea for an Academy of Sciences' in December 1929 issue of the
Allahabad University magazine.

Thus, the National Academy of Sciences, India was founded in the
year 1930, with the objectives to provide a national forum for the
publication of research work carried out by Indian scientists and to
provide opportunities for exchange of views among them. The
Memorandum of Association was signed by seven distinguished and
patriotic scientists namely Prof. Meghnad Saha, Prof. K.N. Bahl, Prof.
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D.R. Bhattacharya, Prof. P.C. MacMohan, Prof. A.C. Banerji, Prof.
Ch. Wali Mohammad and Prof. N.R. Dhar. Of these, the Academy
had the good fortune of having the continued association of Prof. N.R.
Dhar until very lately when he expired on December 5, 1986 at the
age of 96 years. Apart from being one of the founders of the
Academy and taking continued interest in its welfare, Prof. Dhar also
had donated the piece of land on which the Academy building stands
today.

The Rules and Regulations of the Academy were based on those of
the Royal Society of England and Asiatic Society of Bengal. These
have since been revised and updated to meet the emerging
challenges. Prof. Meghnad Saha was elected its first President.

The Academy started with 57 ordinary Members and 19 Fellows.
Today it has 1665 Members and 1673 Fellows from all parts of the
country; including 23 Honorary Fellows and 96 Foreign Fellows from
various disciplines of Science and Technology. The Academy is
financially supported by the Department of Science & Technology,
Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India; and it is also
recognized as the Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation by
the DSIR, Govt. of India.

Presently, the President of the Academy is Prof. Akhilesh K. Tyagi,
Director, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi A
list of the Council Members of the Academy is given in the end
of the introductory part. The Executive Secretary of the Academy is
Dr. Niraj Kumar, who is also having the designated responsibilities of
Public Information Officer, Public Grievance Officer and Transparency
Officer. Sri A. K. Srivastava, Deputy Executive Secretary of the
Academy is also acting as the Vigilance Officer.

NASI - envisions the cultivation and promotion of Science &
Technology in all its branches through –
 organising meetings and holding discussions on scientific and
technological problems; and promoting scientific and
technological research for societal welfare;
 undertaking such scientific works of technological or public
importance as it may be called upon to perform;
The Academy 3

 publication of proceedings, journals, memoirs, transactions
and other works as may be considered desirable;
 creating an adequate impact of the Academy all over the
country by opening Chapters of the Academy in other cities in
the country, where reasonable number of scientists are
interested;
 co-operating with other organizations in India and abroad,
having similar objectives, and to appoint representatives of
the Academy to act on national and international bodies;
 maintaining a Science Library;
 performing all other acts, matters and things that may assist
in, conduce to, or be necessary for the fulfillment of the aims
and objects of the Academy.

A Brief Details of the Activities of NASI:

Being the oldest science Academy of this country, NASI has carved a
niche in science popularization and promotional activities. In the
recent past the Academy performed in an outstanding way by
accomplishing the following major tasks successfully, with the active
support of its Fellows/Members; and financial support of the DST,
New Delhi –

Publications

 Apart from regular publications (Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, India-Sec. A & B; and the Science
Letters), the Fellows/Members/Officials of the Academy
published a large number of papers/reports on the topics of
research, eg. A book on Water & Health (publisher- Springer),
research papers on Ganga, Nutrition etc.
 A history of science in India was published titled
“Introduction to history of science in India”; other parts (I
to VIII; subject wise) are to be published soon.
 A book on Dengue and Chikungunya (in Hindi) of about
400 pages is also under publication in collaboration with the
ICMR, New Delhi: A first of its kind in India.
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Science Communication Activities

 The highlights of activities were Children Science Meet,
Summer & Winter Schools, Vacation Training
Programmes, Workshops, Vigyan & Health Chaupals,
Seminars, National Technology Day, National Science
Day and World Environment Day etc. The Academy also
encouraged school teachers for their out of the class science
activities by giving away NASI-Science Teacher’s Awards.
 NASI-HQ and its 17 Chapters organized hundreds of science
communication activities throughout the year.
 A first of its kind activity (started by this Academy for the
young researchers in 2011), a series of workshops on
Scientific Paper Writing was organized by the Academy. So
far, seven such workshops have been organized, during last
three years.

Science Education Programmes in joint collaboration of other
National Science Academies

The NASI together with other two National Science Academies
namely - Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi and Indian
Academy of Sciences, Bangalore jointly sponsoring the Summer
Research Fellowship programme under the joint Science
Education Panel to provide opportunities to under and post-
graduate students and teachers to learn and re-fresh new
technologies.

Annual Session/Symposia/Seminars & Scientific Discussions

83rd Annual Session of the Academy was held in Goa.
Symposium on “Space for Human Welfare” was organized as a
part of this programme during December 5-7, 2013. This was
attended by a galaxy of renowned scientists, like Prof M G K
Menon, Dr. K Kasturirangan, Dr. K Radhakrishnan, Dr. George
Joseph, Dr. T.K. Alex et al. The proceedings of this symposium
would be published soon.

84th Annual Session of the Academy and the National
Symposium on “Desert Science-Opportunities and Challenges”
The Academy 5

were organised at Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur from
December 4-6, 2014. Dr Anil Kakodkar, Former Chairman,
Atomic Energy Commission, Govt. of India, was the Chief Guest;
while Dr R. S. Paroda, world famous agriculture scientist, was the
guest of honour. Dr Manju Sharma, former Secretary to the Govt.
of India, coordinated the symposium. The session and
symposium were attended by a large number of students,
teachers and scientists from all across the country.

Fellowship/Membership

The Academy awarded 51 Fellowships, 4 Foreign Fellowship and
43 Memberships to scientists belonging to different disciplines, in
recognition of their outstanding scientific contributions. NASI-
Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellowships (2015) were also
announced/awarded.

Singhania Library

Library services has been enriched through digitization and
procurement of more books. Facilities of storage, reading room,
e-library, citation index etc. have also been improved. Internet
and photocopying facilities for educational purposes are provided
to the students almost free-of-cost. The library is connected to
the National Knowledge Network (NKN). A good number of
Hindi Books (Science) were also added to the Library.

Recognition and Awards

Several Fellowships and Awards were given to Scientists during
the year.

 NASI–Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Awards (2014) for
the Application Oriented Innovations covering both Physical
and Biological Sciences.
 NASI–Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Awards (2014) in the
fields of Biological/Physical/ Chemical Sciences.
 NASI – Swarna Jayanti Puruskars (2014-15) for Best Paper
Presentations in the Annual Session, held at Jodhpur.
 NASI Scopus Awards (2013)