Indian Scientists Awarded Merck Young Scientist Award 2019
Merck, a science and technology company operating worldwide, awarded Indian researchers their first Merck Young Scientist Award 2019 in Chemical Sciences recently at Bangalore. This award is given to researchers who are experts in solving some of the toughest problems in chemical sciences, with less than ten years of experience.
A senior Indian scientist from the National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune, Dr. Sakya Singha Sen, has been awarded for doing remarkable research in chemical science. Involving the synthesis of compounds with the main group element and their catalytic application, Dr. Sen and his research team specialize in main group chemistry.
Currently, all the catalysts that are mostly used belong to precious metals iridium, palladium, platinum, etc. Their abundance in the earth is very less and these are very expensive metals. These may be over soon if they are used for a longer period.
The Indian Scientist, Dr. Sen said, “Using metals that are abundant in Earth such as silicon and calcium, my group is trying to do the same chemical transformation. Instead of using those precious metals, we can do the same transformation with these metals as calcium is the fifth most
The other Indian Scientists who got this award are, Dr. Basker Sundararaju, Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Kanpur; Dr. Mahendran K .R, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram (RGCB); Dr. Siddhesh S Kamat, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune; Dr. Dipyaman Ganguly, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata (CSIR-IICB); and Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi (IGIB).
A cash award of INR 2,00,000 along with a Travel Award of INR 1,50,000 was awarded to each of the winners.
Eminent scientists from top Indian Academic institutes were among the jury and the Chair member was Dr. Shahid Jameel, Chief Executive Officer, The Welcome Trust / DBT India Alliance, along with the Co-Chairs, Dr. Radha Rangarajan, CEO, Co-Founder, Vitas Pharma, Dr. Davinder Gill, Chief Executive Officer Hilleman Laboratories, Prof Apurva Sarin, Director, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and Dr. Anurag Agrawal, Director Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology.
About Merck: In more than sixty countries, Merck is a global company working on breakthrough technologies and solutions. It was found by Friedrich Jacob Merck in Darmstadt, Germany in 1668 and has been functional for more than 350 years. A total of € 2.2 billion in research and development has been invested by the company.
Editor’s Note: Indian Scientists get Merck Awards, Merck Young Scientist Award 2019
