My Science School

G. Madhavan Nair

G. Madhavan Nair (born October 31, 1943, erstwhile Travancore, presently Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) is the former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India since September 2003 and was also the Chairman, Space Commission. He was succeeded by K. Radhakrishnan. He was also the Chairman of Governing Body of the Antrix Corporation, Bangalore. Madhavan Nair was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009. He also served as the Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology Patna until he stepped down voluntarily due to his alleged involvement in Antrix-Devas deal.

Known for

• Indian Space Program

Awards

• Padma Bhushan (1998)


• Padma Vibhushan (2009)

Fields

• Rocket Technology


• Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Institutions

• Indian Space Research Organisation


• Bhabha Atomic Research Center

To read more about G. Madhavan Nair click G. Madhavan Nair

 

Narinder Singh Kapany

Narinder Singh Kapany (born 31 October 1926) is an Indian-born American Sikh physicist known for his work in fibre optics. He was named as one of the seven 'Unsung Heroes' by Fortune in their 'Businessmen of the Century' issue (1999-11-22).[4][5][6] He is also known as "Father of Fiber Optics". The term fibre optics was coined by Singh Kapany in 1956. He is a former IOFS officer.

Known for

• Pioneering work on Fiber optics

Awards

• Pravasi Bharatiya Samman


• The Excellence 2000 Award


• FREng (1998)

Fields

• Physics

Institutions

• Agra University


• Ordnance Factories Board


• Imperial College of Science


• British Royal Academy of Engineering


• Optical Society of America


• American Association for the Advancement of Science


• Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB)


• University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)


• Stanford University

To read more about N. S. Kapany  Click  Narinder Singh Kapany

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Colloquially known as "father of the Indian nuclear programme", Bhabha was also the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) which is now named the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honor. TIFR and AEET were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as director.

Known for

• Indian nuclear programme


• Cascade process of Cosmic radiations


• point particles


• Bhabha Scattering


• Theoretical prediction of Muon

Awards

• Adams Prize (1942)


• Padma Bhushan (1954)


• Fellow of the Royal Society

Fields

• Nuclear Physics

Institutions

• Atomic Energy Commission of India


• Tata Institute of Fundamental Research


• Cavendish Laboratory


• Indian Institute of Science


• Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment

To read more about Homi Jehangir Bhabha click H. J. Bhabha

Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan (born 24 October 1940 in Ernakulam) is an Indian space scientist who headed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from 1994 to 2003. He is the former chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the chairman of Karnataka Knowledge Commission. He is a former member of the Rajya Sabha (2003–09) and a former member of the now defunct Planning Commission of India. He was also the Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, from April 2004 to 2009.

Fields

• Space Research

Institutions

• National Institute of Advanced Studies


• Indian Space Research Organization

Awards

• Padma Shri (1982)


• Padma Bhushan (1992)


• Padma Vibhushan (2000)

To Read more about Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan  Click K. Kasturirangan 

 

Vijay P. Bhatkar is an Indian computer scientist, IT leader and educationalist. He is best known as the architect of India's national initiative in supercomputing where he led the development of Param supercomputers. He is a Maharashtra Bhushan, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan awardee. Indian computer magazine Dataquest has placed him among the star pioneers who shaped India's IT industry. He was the founder executive director of C-DAC and is currently working on the developing Exascale supercomputing mission for India.

Known for

• Architect of PARAM series of Supercomputers

Awards

• Padma Shri


• Padma Bhushan


• Maharashtra Bhushan

Institutes

• Indian Institute of Technology Delhi


• Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda


• Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology

To Read more about Vijay Bhatkar  Click Vijay Bhatkar 

Harish-Chandra (11 October 1923 – 16 October 1983) was an Indian American mathematician and physicist who did fundamental work in representation theory, especially harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups.

Fields

• Mathematics


• Physics

Institutions 

•    Indian Institute of Science


• Harvard University


• Columbia University


• Tata Institute of Fundamental Research


• Institute for Advanced Study

Awards

• Fellow of the Royal Society


• Cole Prize in Algebra (1954)


• Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal

To read more about Harish-Chandra click Harish-Chandra?

Sivaraj Ramseshan (October 10, 1923 – December 29, 2003) was an Indian scientist known for his work in the field of crystallography. Ramaseshan served as Director of the Indian Institute of Science and was awarded the Padma Bhushan. Ramaseshan is the nephew of Indian scientist and Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman and cousin of Subramanyan Chandrasekhar.

Fields

• Physics

Institutions

• Indian Institute of Science


• Indian Institute of Technology

Awards

• Padma Bhushan

As scientist

On completion of his doctorate, Ramaseshan joined the Indian Institute of Science as a lecturer. During this time, he developed an interest in X-ray crystallography and was instrumental in improving the material science division in the National Aerospace Laboratories. Ramaseshan also taught as a professor in the Indian Institute of Technology.

To read more about Sivaraj Ramseshan Click S. Ramseshan

Ravi Sankaran (October 4, 1963 – January 17, 2009) was an Indian ornithologist whose work concerned the conservation of several threatened birds of India. He was the Director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Ravi studied at the Rishi Valley School, Madanapalli, Andhra Pradesh; obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from Loyola College, Chennai and a doctorate from Bombay Natural History Society Ravi joined the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in 1985 in the endangered species project on the great Indian bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) and florican species (family Otididae) and played a role in developing recovery plans for these species. He also established Florican Watch, involving local people.

Ravi Sankaran studied several endangered birds of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. His work on the Narcondam hornbill, Nicobar megapode and the edible-nest swiftlets aided the development of conservation management of these species. Ravi was also involved in a project Strengthening community conservation efforts in Nagaland: a programme to impart technical support on biodiversity conservation and livelihood options to communities, a collaborative programme between the Nagaland Empowerment of People through Economic Development, Kohima (NEPED), and SACON, in collaboration with other organisations such as Kalpavriksh, Pune; Ecosystems India, Guwahati; Aranayak, Assam; ATREE, Bangalore; and Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore.funded by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Mumbai.

Awards

• WTI Endangered Species Award-2004

To know more about Ravi Sankaran click Ravi_Sankaran

Satish Dhawan (25 September 1920 – 3 January 2002) was an Indian aerospace engineer, widely regarded as the father of experimental fluid dynamics research in India. Born in Srinagar, Dhawan was educated in India and further on in the United States. Dhawan was one of the most eminent researchers in the field of turbulence and boundary layers, leading the successful and indigenous development of the Indian space programme. He succeeded M G K MENON, as chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1972.

Fields

• Mechanical and aerospace Engineering

Institutions

• Indian Space Research Organisation


• Indian Institute of Science


• California Institute of Technology


• National Aerospace laboratories


• Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian Space Commission

Awards

• Padma Vibhushan

Known for  Indian space programme

To know more about Satish Dhawan Click Satish Dhawan

Giridhar Madras is an Indian professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Education

Madras speaks four languages, English, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada. Madras received his chemical engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology at Madras in 1990. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University, United States, in 1994. Subsequently, he worked in the University of California at Davis, USA. He returned to India as an Assistant Professor of chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1998.

Fields

• Chemistry

Awards

• Scopus Young Scientist Award from Elsevier for being the most cited young author in engineering


• Presidential Swarnajayanthi fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, India, 2006


• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize from CSIR, India, 2009


• J.C. Bose National fellowship, 2014

To know more about  Giridhar Madras CLICK Giridhar Madras

Pamposh Bhat (born 19 September, Bhopal, India) is a New Delhi-based environmentalist and award winning writer. Bhat has been awarded the prestigious Rajbhasha Award for Poetry in 1995 for her work "Kshitij Ki Khoj Mein"

Active in public life, she serves as the chairperson of the board of trustees for Jwala, a civil society group that seeks to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in India. She is a former member of the governing council of the [Solar Energy Society of India].At present member of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission advisory committee.

Occupation

Managing trustee, jwala trust for sustainable development

Education and career

Bhat studied at St. Joseph's Convent at Bhopal and attended the University of Bhopal (now Barkatullah University) where she studied Science as an undergraduate student and was awarded an MSc in Chemistry by the University.

She began her career at the University of Kashmir as a research scholar engaged by the University Grants Commission on a Phytochemistry research Project. She developed a strong interest in environmental policy during her tenure as a researcher and joined the United Nations Asia and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (UN-APCTT) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. At UN-APCTT she worked to promote the use of renewable energy and environmentally sound technologies in the country.

To read more about Pamposh Bhat Click Pamposh Bhat

Kedareswar Banerjee (15 September 1900 – 30 April 1975) was an X-ray crystallographer and director of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata. Early in his career he determined the structures of naphthalene and anthracene. In 1931, he worked with Sir William Henry Bragg and developed one of the first direct methods of crystal structure determination. He was Professor of Physics at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science from 1943 to 1952 and Director of the Association from 1959 until his retirement in 1965. Between 1952 and 1959 he was Head of the Department of Physics at Allahabad University.

               His interests in crystallography were widespread and, with his death, India has lost a renowned teacher. K. Banerjee joined the research group of Sir C. V. Raman at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Calcutta, a premier Indian research institute of India. He worked in various institutions including IACS, the India Meteorological Department, University of Dhaka and Allahabad University and finally retired as the Director of IACS, Calcutta in 1965.

Field

• X-ray Crystallographic

Institutions

• University of Allahabad,


•  India Meteorological Department, University of Dhaka,


•  Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

To Read More About Kedareswar Banerjee click on K. Banerjee

 

Nayudamma was born in an agricultural family at Yelavarru village near Tenali in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh state in India.

He had his primary education in the village and studied Intermediate in AC College here. Later, he did B.SC (Chemical Technology) at the famous Banaras Hindu University and a course in leather technology at Madras Institute of Leather Technology. He contributed to the initial development of the Central Leather Research Institute at Chennai, India. He was responsible for building the international image of the institute and for establishing close ties with the Indian leather industry.

Honours and positions

He was awarded many national and international awards and honours, including Padma Shri in 1971.

Nayudamma was conferred with the prestigious Raja-Lakshmi Award in the year 1983 from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai.

He served as the Director General of CSIR, New Delhi and also as the 4th Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi from 12 June 1981 to 27 October 1982. He also served on many prestigious national and international committees.

Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award

Recipients of this prestigious award include T. Ramasami, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Nori Dattatreyuudu, Sam Pitroda, G. Madhavan Nair, Kota Harinarayana, V. K. Aatre, R. Chidambaram, R.A. Mashelkar, J.S. Bajaj, K. Kasturirangan, Verghese Kurien, S.Z. Qasim, M.G. K. Menon and M.S. Swaminathan among others.

The award for 2009 went to eminent defence scientist, Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat who was instrumental in the successful launch of the Agni-III missiles for 3 consecutive times.

To read more about Dr. Y. Nayudamma  Click  Y. Nayudamma

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, FRS known as C R Rao (born 10 September 1920) is an Indian-born, naturalised American, mathematician and statistician. He is currently professor emeritus at Penn State University and Research Professor at the University at Buffalo. Rao has been honoured by numerous colloquia, honorary degrees, and festschrifts and was awarded the US National Medal of Science in 2002. The American Statistical Association has described him as "a living legend whose work has influenced not just statistics, but has had far reaching implications for fields as varied as economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national planning, demography, biometry, and medicine." The Times of India listed Rao as one of the top 10 Indian scientists of all time. Rao is also a Senior Policy and Statistics advisor for the Indian Heart Association non-profit focused on raising South Asian cardiovascular disease awareness.

Fields

• Mathematics and statistics

Institutions

• Indian Statistical Institute


• Cambridge University


• Penn State University


• University at Buffalo

Awards

• Padma Vibhushan


• National Medal of Science (2001)


• S. S. Bhatnagar Prize


• Guy Medal (Silver 1965, Gold 2011)

To read more about C R Rao click C Radhakrishna Rao

Koppillil Radhakrishnan (born 29 August 1949) is an Indian scientist. He is chairman of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, having taken the position in December 2014, and is chairman for the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.Radhakrishnan previously served as chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) between 2009 and 2014. He is a life fellow of the Indian Geophysical Union and is also an accomplished vocalist (Carnatic music) and Kathakali artist.

Fields

• Electrical engineering


• Space research

Awards

• 
  

  Padma Bhushan (2014)

  
  

Radhakrishnan hails from Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district, Kerala. After his studies from Christ College, Irinjalakuda, he completed his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1970 from the Government Engineering College, Thrissur. He started his career in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as an Avionics Engineer at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum, in 1971.

to know more about K. Radhakrishnan Click Koppillil Radhakrishnan