MALLESWARAM:Five scientists from the Indian Institute of Science have been selected for the prestigious Swarnajayanti fellowships given by the Central government.
The fellowships for 2013-14 were announced earlier this week. Eleven scientists have thus been honoured by the Department of Science and Technology.
The fellowship is given to young scientists to carry out basic research in science and technology.
The IISc scientists who have been awarded the fellowship are:
Gautam Bharali of the Department of Mathematics, Satish A Patil of the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Navin Kashyap of the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering, Saptarshi Basu of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Aninda Sinha of the Centre for High Energy Physics.
Of the 11 scientists chosen for the 2013-14 fellowships, five are from IISc.
The awardees get `25,000 a month for up to five years, in addition to their salaries. The fellowship also covers grants for equipment, consumables, contingencies, and national and international travel.
Aninda Sinha is on the faculty of the Centre for High Energy Physics. He tries to decipher the working of nature through the ‘string theory’.
The theory is a mathematical framework that aims to explain the interaction between subatomic particles. Sinha applies the theory to other fields like condensed matter physics.
Satish Patil, Assistant Professor the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, is working on the synthesis of new material, from solar cells to biodegradable polymers, for drug delivery, and 'organic electronics', an area where individual components can be made from small organic molecules.
Saptarshi Basu is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He tries to gain insights on droplets under different heating rates, and diagnosing problems in fuel cells.
Gautam Bharali, on the faculty at the Department of Mathematics, works on a branch called 'several complex variables'. He has also guided many master's and PhD students.
Navin Kashyap is Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering at IISc, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen’s University, Australia.
His research interests include coding for data communication and storage, and information theory. He has guided students from both India and abroad, and regularly publishes in refereed, international journals