KENDRAPARA: Siddhartha Pati (35), a noted horseshoe crab researcher will be conferred the prestigious Biju Patnaik Wildlife Conservation Award- 2024.
The award will be presented by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at a function to mark wildlife week in Bhubaneswar in the first week of October.
Pati completed his MSc in Biotechnology from Fakir Mohan University and earned his PhD from the varsity in 2019 with a fellowship from the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy, government of India. He pursued his post-doctoral research at University of Malaysia Terengganu. He has led several internationally-funded horseshoe crab conservation projects as principal investigator in Odisha.
Pati produced the world’s first silent clay art film, ‘A day for living fossil,’ to raise awareness on the biomedical and ecological importance of horseshoe crabs. At present, he is the executive director of Association for Bio-diversity Conservation and Research (ABCR) in Balasore and actively works for the conservation of horseshoe crabs and other marine species.
The researcher started horseshoe crab conservation and research work in 2015 at Balaramgadi beach. Pati said lysate extracted from the horseshoe crabs is effective against many diseases and is much sought-after across the globe.