Dr. Purabi Saikia was conferred the most prestigious ‘Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2024’ for her contribution in the field of environmental science.
Dr. Purabi Saikia and Bappi Paul jointly shared the award under the environmental sciences category.
Plant ecologist Saikia is an associate professor at the Institute of Science, Benaras Hindu University, Botany Department. Dr. Saikia was earlier associated with the Central University of Jharkhand in Ranchi.
Hailing from Lakhimpur District of Assam, Dr. Saikia is the sixth Assamese to receive the prestigious ‘Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award’.
Mihir Kanti Chaudhuri, a former vice chancellor of Tezpur University, received the SSB Prize in 1989 for his contributions to inorganic chemistry.
Later in 1994, Jitendra Nath Goswami was conferred the SSB Award for his contribution in the field of geochronology. Goswami was Chandrayan-1’s chief scientist, and he was also associated with Chandrayan-2 and Mangalyan.
Bhupendra Nath Goswami, former Director of IITM, was awarded the prestigious SSB Award in 1995 for his contributions to the meteorology field.
In 2001, Prashant Goswami received the SS Bhatnagar Prize for his contributions to atmospheric modeling.
In 2021, Binoy Kumar Saikia, Principal Scientist at the North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, wins the prestigious SSB Award for his contribution in the field of coal and atmospheric aerosol chemistry.
Taking to Social Media Platform X. Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu congratulated Saikia for her achievement.
What is the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize?
The prize is called the “Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science and Technology” in honor of the late Dr. (Sir) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the founding director of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India. The prize recognizes exceptional contributions to technology and research each year.
Each year, the following disciplines receive SSB Prizes, each worth Rs 5,00,000 (five lakh only), for notable and outstanding research, whether applied or fundamental:
(i) Biological Sciences,
(ii) Chemical Sciences,
(iii) Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences,
(iv) Engineering Sciences,
(v) mathematical sciences,
(vi) Medical Sciences and
(vii) Physical Sciences.
