Organisms,objects 038; ocean are their work

Dr Rajan Sankaranarayanan
Biological Sciences

A senior scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,Hyderabad,Dr Sankaranarayanan has been recognised for his research in translation of the genetic code and on Mycobacterium tuberculosis,which causes TB. The research by Dr Sankaranarayanan,43,who hails from Tamil Nadu,and his team,scientists say,could lead to the development of a drug to combat the bacterium. He is carrying out the structural biology research at a state-of-the-art macromolecular crystallography laboratory he has set up at CCMB. He earned an MSc in physics from Madura College,Madurai Kamaraj University,in 1990 and a Ph D in molecular biophysics at the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore,in 1996. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire IGBMC,Strasbourg,France from 1996 till Dr Sankaranarayanan joined CCMB in 2002.

Molecules and medicines
G Narahari Sastry
Chemical Sciences

The scientist at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology,Hyderabad,has been researching molecular models trying to understand how non-bonded interactions control the structure and function of molecules and computer-aided drug design. Several of his theoretical predictions were verified experimentally. Dr Sastry,45,hails from Khammam district where he did his BSc before getting an MSc in physical chemistry from Osmania University and a PhD from the University of Hyderabad. He worked in Switzerland and Israel before returning to India to join Pondicherry University. In 2002,he joined IICT. He also won the B M Birla Science Award in 2001,the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship,the Swarnajayanti Fellowship in 2005,and the CRSI Medal in 2010.

He breaks rather than makes
Upadrasta Ramamurty
Engineering Sciences

Professor Ramamurty of the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore,is interested in how things break. Straddling the fundamental science of deformation and fracture,he studies exotic materials like metallic glasses,metallic foams and shape memory alloys to understand why some materials withstand more stress than others. With such materials finding wide-ranging applications in defence,bio-engineering and high-end consumer durables,Ramamurtys research at IIScs department of materials engineering is current and exciting. Ramamurty has been one of our brightest stars. One of the potentially interesting areas of research into which he has embarked recently is the use of nanoindentation to study biological systems. He has used very powerful,small-scale methods of poking things that allow him to probe the response on a scale of a few nanometers, says Vikram Jayaram,who chairs the department at IISc. An engineer,Ramamurty says some of the new materials he is working with have applications ranging from coronary stents to armour-piercing missile heads. But I dont make things,I break them, he says.

Simulating materials on supercomputer
S Balasubramanian
Chemical Sciences

With his background in physics and chemistry,Balasubramanian works with supercomputers that can simulate materials and their properties. For the last six to seven years,the computers at the Molecular Modelling Laboratory of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research,Bangalore,have been occupied with the structures and dynamics of environmentally benign recyclable industrial solvents. Most ordinary organic solvents are volatile. But substances like room-temperature ionic liquids act as non-volatile solvents that do not damage the ozone layer. My lab studies the properties of such compounds by way of simulations and theoretical research, he says. Was he expecting the Bhatnagar prize? I am agnostic about awards and recognitions, says the professor,who is now working on the thermodynamics of carbonic acid.

Tracking Indian Ocean currents
Shankar Doraiswamy
Earth,Atmosphere,Ocean and Planetary Sciences

At the National Institute of Oceanography,Goa,the scientist,44,has worked on the dynamics of the north Indian Ocean,which has helped understand the processes that drive the circulations in it. His broad area of research is physical oceanography. Ocean dynamics are an area where we study the circulation of the ocean. Work done by me and others shows that the reason for the current flowing into the wind is that it is driven more by the winds that blow along the Indian east coast than by the local west-coast winds. One implication is that in order to simulate the currents of even a part of the Indian coast,we have to model the entire Indian Ocean, he said. He started his career at NIO in 1995.

The science of encryption
Palash Sarkar
Mathematical Sciences

Professor Sarkar,42,has been working at the Indian Statistical Institute,Kolkata,since 1995 and been a professor since 2005. His area of work is cryptology,the study of secured transmission of information over an insecure channel. He says not much is known about the subject although it has applications in a number of areas including the use of credit cards and the Web browser. He has a B Tech in electronics and telecommunication from Jadavpur University and an M Tech in computer science as well as a PhD from the ISI. When he started working in cryptology about 10-12 years ago,he found it was uncharted territory. He says the award is a sign of recognition of the work done by all involved in such work at the institute. He has written papers in journals on cryptology,voting games and combinatorial designs,and co-authored a book on identity-based encryption with Sanjit Chatterjee.

Malarial parasites protein structure
Dr Amit Prakash Sharma
Biological Sciences

Sharma,43,is group leader of the structural and computational biology group at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi. For the last 10 years he has been working on deciphering the structure of malaria parasite proteins. He has published extensively on the subject. His work has uses in the development of new malarial drugs and in understanding why a vaccine may or may not work. Sharma hopes that the award would make it easier to obtain research grants for his laboratory. The award is really welcome. But I think what we need more from the government is quick access to research grants. We waste so much time preparing for and chasing grants,it sometimes affects our research. I hope this would change, he said.

Now in RKM order,he gave up engg for maths
Mahan Maharaj
Mathematical Sciences

A member of the Ramakrishna Mission order since 1998,the keen mathematician,40,has been with the RKM Vivekananda University,Howrah,since it came up in 2005. Maths is such a passion that he dropped out of electrical engineering at IIT-Kanpur to join an integrated five-year programme in mathematics there. It was only in 2008 that a department of mathematics came up at RKMVU and it is a remarkable achievement for us that Mahan Maharaj has got this award, said Swami Atmapriyanada,vice-chancellor. Maharajs research has been in 3D curved geometry,particularly in hyperbolic geometry and topology,his aides say. Maharaj has a PhD from University of California-Berkeley. He started teaching at Vidyamandir College after joining RKM order; at the RKMVU he teaches MSc students.

Equations of gravity meet those of fluids
Shiraz Minwalla
Physical Sciences

Minwalla,39,a theoretical physicist with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,Mumbai,since 2004,has been working on string theory since 1997 and on the connection between gravity equations and fluid dynamics since 2007.

String theory attempts to understand the nature of gravity and space-time in extreme situations,such as the very,very early universe.

The particular work for which I got the award was the discovery that the equations of gravity reduce,in a precise manner,to the equations of fluid dynamics in a particular limit. This discovery relates the two best studied nonlinear,differential equations in physics,and may have various consequences, Minwalla said.

Prior to his present position,he was an assistant professor at Harvard University.

Devices for common man,cheap yet effective
Sirshendu De
Engineering Sciences

Over the last few years,the chemical engineering professor at IIT-Kharagpur has been devising low-cost technologies and has won five patents. One device is for spinning the hollow fibre membrane used in dialysis; another involves technology for extraction of costly phytochemicals from plants including a polyphenol with anti-carcinogenic properties from tea leaves. Prof De,44,earned his B Tech,M Tech and Ph D from IIT Kanpur before joining IIT Kharagpur in 1997. His area of work is membrane separation and water treatment. He has also worked on development of a high-capacity,cost-effective arsenic adsorbent.

Once the research from the lab is taken to the fields and people are benefited,it motivates young researchers, he says,adding the award will encourage him to carry on more research.

Reporting by V Shoba,Shiv Sahay Singh,Mihika Basu,Sreenivas Janyala amp; Amitabh Sinha