VISAKHAPATNAM: The GITAM (Deemed to be University) will celebrate its 38th Foundation Day on August 11 at their campus here. As a part of it, the GITAM award committee will be presenting GITAM Foundation Award - 2018 to world renowned biologist and geneticist of Rockefeller University, New York, Michael Warren Young. In a release, GITAM vice-chancellor MS Prasada Rao said that the award was given to persons in recognition of their outstanding contribution to any field of science, economics, literature, education, public service and fine arts.
The award has been instituted with donation from GITAM president MVVS Murthi and has a corpus of `3 crore. Karan Singh, PK Bishnoi, PMS Prasad, Sanjay Baru, Justice B Sudarshan Reddy, MS Swaminathan, VR Panchamukhi, C Rangarajan, A Sivathanu Pillai, Bharat Ratna CNR Rao, Takaaki Kajita (2015 Nobel Prize winner) were some of the earlier recipients of the award.
This year’s GITAM Foundation awardee Michael Warren Young was awarded the Nobel prize in 2017, in Physiology or Medicine along with Jeffrey C Hall and Michael Rosbash, for “discovering molecular mechanisms that regulate the circadian rhythm in humans and other organisms”. GITAM Foundation Award carries a cash prize of one million rupees and a citation. Michael Warren Young will deliver a public lecture on his research findings during the GITAM Foundation Day celebrations.