Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Memorial Award is given every year for outstanding research by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was instituted in 1958 in the honour of its first Director General Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. The awards are given in the fields of Physical Sciences; Chemical Sciences; Biological Sciences; Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean, and Planetary Sciences; Engineering; Medical Sciences and Mathematics (alternate years). Each award carries a cash prize of Rupees one lakh and a certificate.
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar was a renowned Indian chemist. He was born on Feb. 21, 1894, at Bhera in West Punjab. He obtained his M.Sc. from the Punjab University in 1919. After taking his D.Sc. from London University under Prof. Donan, he worked under Prof. Haber at Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Berlin, and later under Prof. Freundlich, an expert on colloids.
He was a Professor of Chemistry at Banaras Hindu University from 1921-24. From 1924 to 1940 he worked as Director of the University Chemical Laboratories, Lahore. There he made significant contributions in the field of physical chemistry, especially in magneto-chemical studies. He also wrote a book on magneto-chemistry.
He became the first Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1940 and held this post till his death. In 1943 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In the same year the Secretary of the Royal Society Prof. A.V. Hill visited India to advise the government on the coordination of scientific research in India. Dr. Bhatnagar was one of the members in the meeting along with Hill, Saha and Bhabha.
In 1946, when Pt. Nehru was the head of the Interim Government, Dr. Bhatnagar took up his views on the development of science in India to translate them into reality. He concentrated on applied sciences and managed to get substantial funds from industrialists for the building up of research laboratories. He opened a chain of National Research Laboratories in India.
This great scientist died on Jan. 1, 1955. After his death, Bhatnagar Memorial Award was instituted in his honour.