ACADEMY NEWS

Proc Indian Natn Sci Acad 83 No. 1 March 2017 pp. 233-244 Printed in India.

Participants at the Anniversary General Meeting at NISER, Bhubaneshwar

82nd ANNIVERSARY GENERAL MEETING,BHUBANESHWAR

The 82nd Anniversary General Meeting of the Councilwas held at National Institute of Science Education& Research, Bhubaneswar from December 28-30,2016. This three day event included two symposiaon Food Security in a Changing World (Convener:Dr Anindita Bhadra, Department of BiologicalSciences, IISER-Kolkata) and NISER: A BriefScientific Journey (Convener: Professor VChandrasekhar, Director, NISER, Bhubaneswar).

Professor R Gadagkar delivered the PresidentialAnniversary Address on How and Why I do Myresearch: Some Reflections on the Pursuit andEvaluation of Science. During this meeting, 30 newFellows were inducted to Fellowship of the Academy,

18 Young Scientist awardees were presented the INSAMedal for Young Scientist, 13 Teachers werepresented the INSA Teachers Award and 1 younghistorian was presented the INSA Young Historianof Science Award.

The Council, at its meeting at NISERBhubaneshwar, decided to offer INSA Medal forPromotion and Service to Science (2017) to ProfessorGoverdhan Mehta, University DistinguishedProfessor and Dr Kallam Anji Reddy Chair, Schoolof Chemistry, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad;Daulat Singh Kothari Memorial Lecture (2017) toProfessor D Balasubramanian, DistinguishedScientist & Director of Research Emeritus, LV PrasadEye Institute, Hyderabad; Indira Gandhi Prize forPopularization of Science (2017) jointly to Professor

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Arnab Bhattacharya, TIFR, Mumbai and Dr NarottamSahoo, Senior Scientist, Gujarat Council of ScienceCity, Ahmedabad (for Career Scientists) and MrPallav Bagla, Science Editor, NDTV (for MediaPersonnel) and INSA Srinivasa Ramanujan ResearchProfessorship (2017) to Professor RBalasubramanian, The Institute of MathematicalSciences, Chennai.

Award Lectures during the 82nd AnniversaryGeneral Meeting

Seven award lectures were delivered at NISERBhubaneshwar:

The Golden Jubilee Commemoration Medal(Chemical Sciences) (2013): Professor VChandrasekhar, Director, National Institute of ScienceEducation & Research, Bhubaneshwar delivered theGolden Jubilee Commemoration Medal (ChemicalSciences) Lecture on Single Molecule MagnetBehavior in 3d/4f and 4f Complexes.

Sunder Lal Hora Medal (2014): Professor BKThelma, Department of Genetics, University of Delhi,New Delhi delivered Sunder Lal Hora Medal Lectureon Making Headway from Genome Architecture toGenome Medicine with Impressive Technologies andBig Data.

Professor V Chandrasekhar delivering the medal lecture duringAGM

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal (2013): ProfessorIndira Nath, Former, Raja Ramanna Fellow andEmeritus Professor, National Institute of Pathology,New Delhi delivered Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar MedalLecture on Urban Health and Climate Change- ASystems Approach.

Professor Indira Nath receiving SS Bhatnagar Medal fromProfessor Gadagkar

Professor BK Thelma delivering the SL Hora Medal Lecture atAGM

Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture(2014): Professor Sudhir K Sopory, InternationalCentre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,New Delhi delivered Jawaharlal Nehru BirthCentenary Lecture on Plant Survival under StressEnvironment.

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Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal (2016): ProfessorV Ravindranath, Centre for Neuroscience, IndianInstitute of Science, Bengaluru delivered ShantiSwarup Bhatnagar Medal Lecture on TheDegenerating Brain: Mechanisms to Therapy.

INSA-Vainu Bappu Memorial Award (2016): DrAnil Bhardwaj, Director, Space Physics Laboratory,Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuramdelivered INSA-Vainu Bappu Memorial AwardLecture on X-ray Emission from the Solar SystemBodies.

Professor SK Sopory delivering JL Nehru Birth CentenaryLecture at AGM

Professor V Ravindranath receiving the citation from ProfessorGadagkar, Professor Mittal is on right

CV Raman Medal (2016): Professor NSathyamurthy, Director, Indian Institute of ScienceEducation & Research, Mohali delivered CV RamanMedal Lecture on Atoms and Molecules in a ConfinedEnvironment.

Professor Gadagkar presenting the citation to Professor NSathyamurthy

Condolence at the passing away of thedistinguished Fellows

Professor Gadagkar read the obituary notes forProfessors BB Chattoo, MGK Menon, V Ramamurti,Vijay Kumar Sharma, BLK Somayajulu, JP Thapliyaland Dr Subramaniam Nagarajan, esteemed Fellowsof the Academy who passed away. A minute’s silencewas observed as a mark of respect to the departedsoul.

Dr Anil Bhardwaj receiving INSA-Vainu Bappu Memorial Award

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Felicitations to the outgoing members of the CouncilThe outgoing members of the Council (Professors JP Mittal, Rajendra Prasad, Vice-Presidents, R Ramesh,Member) were felicitated by the Professor Gadagkar, President, INSA. He presented them a shawl as a token ofrespect.

Professor Gadagkar felicitating the outgoing members of the council

Felicitation of Professor Raghavendra Gadagkar, the out-going President, INSA by President-elect,Professor AK Sood

Professor AK Sood, President-elect was invited to felicitate the outgoing President, Professor RaghavendraGadagkar. He was also presented an album containing photographs highlighting the major activities of INSAduring his tenure as President. Professor Sood thanked Professor Gadagkar for guiding the Academy andinitiating many new programmes under his leadership. He expressed confidence that his continuing supportand guidance will be useful to the Academy in times to come.

The President-Elect felicitating the outgoing President

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AWARD LECTURES DELIVERED UNDERLOCAL CHAPTERS

6th Etienne Wolff-Ramanujan Lecture (2015):Professor R Gadagkar, President INSA delivered the6th Etienne Wolff-Ramanujan Lecture on Cooperationand Conflict in a Tropical Insect Society at InstitutDe France, Académie des sciences, France onDecember 13, 2016.

Dr Biren Roy Memorial Lecture (2016): ProfessorAvinash Khare, Department of Physics andAstrophysics, University of Delhi delivered Dr BirenRoy Memorial Lecture on Creation of GeneralRelativity: Einstein and Hilbert at Department ofPhysics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhion January 19, 2017.

Institute, Hyderabad has been nominated for themembership of ICSU-ISSC (InternationalSocial Science Council) Strategy WorkingGroup (SWG) Support Team.

l Dr Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, Secretary,Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi has beennominated for the membership of scientificcommittee of Integrated Research on DisasterRick (IRDR) Programme of ICSU.

l Dr Ch. Mohan Rao, CSIR- Centre for Cellularand Molecular Biology, Hyderabad has been re-nominated for the membership of IUPAB(International Union of Pure & AppliedBiophysics) Council.

l Dr Bipulbehari Saha, Director-R&D, NagarjunaAgrichem, Hyderabad has been nominated forthe position of Titular Member of COCI(Committee on Chemistry and Industry) ofInternational Union of Pure & AppliedChemistry (IUPAC).

l Professor TK Chandrashekar, School ofChemical Sciences, National Institute ofScience Education & Research, Bhubaneswarhas been re-nominated for the membership ofIUPAC Bureau.

Workshop/Symposia/Conference supported bythe Academy

l A Brainstorming Session on Early EarthGeodynamics and the switch over to PlateTectonic regime was organized at Jamia MilliaIslamia, New Delhi by International Union ofGeological Sciences - International QuaternaryResearch (IUGS-INQUA) National Committeeon December 2, 2016.

l ‘ IMPLAST 2016: 11th International Symposiumon Plasticity and Impact Mechanics’ wasorganized at Indian Institute of Technology,New Delhi under the aegis of InternationalUnion of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics(IUTAM) National Committee duringDecember 11-14, 2016.

Professor Avinash Khare receiving the award from ProfessorYogesh K Tyagi, Vice-Chancellor, University of Delhi. Professor

SK Gupta, Convener of Delhi Local Chapter is on right

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Nominations/Election of Indian scientists forvarious positions at International Council forScience (ICSU) and its different Unions

l Professor LS Shashidhara, Indian Institute ofScience Education and Research, Pune has beennominated for the membership of ICSU-ISSC(International Social Science Council)Transition Task Force (TTF) Support team.

l Professor Harsh K Gupta, KoteswaramProfessor, National Geophysical Research

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l ‘8th Annual Meeting of Proteomic Society,India & 3rd Meeting of Asia OceaniaAgricultural Proteomic Organization &International Conference on Functional &Interaction Proteomics: Application in Food &Health’ was organized at Hotel The Grand, NewDelhi under the aegis of International Union ofBiochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB)National Committee during December 14-17,2016.

l A Brainstorming Session and Workshop onQuaternary Environments and Climates: Focuson Holocence and Anthropocence was held atBirbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences,Lucknow under the aegis of International Unionof Geological Sciences - InternationalQuaternary Research (IUGS-INQUA) NationalCommittee during February 21-23, 2017.

Visit of Overseas Delegates to INSA

l Professor Francesco Sciortino, Dipartimento diFisica, Universita’ di Roma “La Sapienza”Roma, Italy visited India as Dr DS KothariINSA Chair awardee for three weeks fromJanuary 15-February 5, 2017. During his visitto India, Professor Sciortino visited JawaharlalNehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research,Bengaluru and Delhi University.

l Professor Robert James Wasson, Institute ofWater Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of PublicPolicy, National University of Singapore visitedIndia as Dr Vikram Sarabhai INSA Chairawardee for three weeks from February 8-March 1, 2017. He visited Delhi University;Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur;Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences,Lucknow and Physical Research Laboratory,Ahmedabad. A three day workshop on‘Knowledge for Flood Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR)’ coordinated by Professor Wasson andProfessor AK Singhvi, Honorary Scientist,AMOPH Division, Physical ResearchLaboratory, Ahmedabad was organized at INSAduring February 10-12, 2017.

Overseas Visits by INSA Delegations

l Professor R Gadagkar, President and DrChandrima Shaha, Vice-President (InternationalAffairs) INSA, visited France during September25-28, 2016 to participate in the 350thAnniversary of the French Academy of Sciences- World Science Day held on September 27,2016 at Paris. A Common Statement aboutScience, as given below, was issued at thismeeting:

l Professor R Gadagkar, President INSA, visitedHalle, Germany and delivered the first lectureof the Leopoldina Lecture series of INSA andGerman National Academy of Sciences on Canwe understand an insect society, and why shouldwe care? on December 5, 2016.

l Professsor Indira Nath, Former, Raja RamannaFellow and Emeritus Professor, NationalInstitute of Pathology, New Delhi and Dr Jaya

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Sivaswami Tyagi, Department ofBiotechnology, AIIMS, New Delhi participatedin G20 initiative of the National Academies ofthe G20 states organized by German NationalAcademy of Sciences Leopoldina (GNASL) inHalle during January 24-26, 2017.

Support for Visiting Scientists during December2016 -February 2017

l Eight Indian scientists were supported by theAcademy for attending various internationalconferences abroad.

l Four Indian and six foreign scientists visitedabroad and India, respectively, under INSABilateral Exchange Programmes.

SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS DURINGDECEMBER 2016 - FEBRUARY 2017

Indo-Australia Researchers FellowshipProgramme

The Academy with the support from Department ofScience and Technology launched an Indo-AustraliaEarly and Mid-Career Researchers FellowshipProgramme for the year 2016-17 to provideopportunity to Indian Researchers/Scientists to visitAustralia to collaborate with the AustralianResearchers. A meeting for selection committee ofIndo-Australia Early and Mid-Career ResearchersFellowship Programme for the year 2016-17 was heldon December 21, 2016 at INSA. The committeeselected 20 Indian scientists to visit Australia underthis programme.

SCIENCE & SOCIETY PROGRAMME

National Science Day Lectures 2017

Professor Balram Bhargava, AIIMS, New Delhidelivered the INSA-TWAS Keynote Lecture onGandhian Innovation in Healthcare which wasorganised on the occasion of ‘National Science Day’celebrations under Delhi Local Chapter on February27, 2017 at University of Delhi South Campus.

Indian National Science Academy incollaboration with Indian Institute of Technology,

Delhi celebrated the National Science Day onFebruary 28, 2017. Three lectures were organized atIIT, Delhi. Professor M Balakrishnan, DeputyDirector & Professor of Computer Science &Engineering, IIT Delhi delivered lecture onASSISTECH: Technology Solutions for Mobility andEducation of Visually Impaired. Professor U Singh,Head, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, AIIMS,New Delhi delivered lecture on Technology in theService of Persons with Locomotor Disability. Mr.VR Mehta, Executive President, Bhagwan MahaveerViklaang Sahayata Samiti delivered lecture on JaipurFoot – A Marvel in Frugal Engineering.

AWARDS AND HONOURS TO INSA FELLOWS

The Government of India has awarded CivilianAwards to following Fellows of the Academy:

Padma Vibhushan : Professor UR Rao

Padma Shri : Professor JN Goswami

The Cell Stress Society International, USA, haselected Professor SC Lakhotia as its Senior Fellow.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS OF THE ACADEMY

Indian Journal of History of Science (IJHS)

Volume 51, No. 4 (December 2016) issue of IJHShas been published. This is a thematic issue on CrossCivilizational Interactions in Antiquity— India, Iran,Greece and China. The papers are outcome of ahistory of science seminar organized during January7-9, 2015 at National Museum, with Drs LotikaVaradarajan and Surajit Sarkar of the AmbedkarUniversity, Delhi as Conveners. This issue containspapers on an Indic text on earth science; Throne inIndian perspective; Hybrid creatures in Iranian andIndian art; Commonalities between Yajna ritual inIndia and Yasna ritual in Iran; Indian high-Tin bronzesand the Grecian and Persian world; Ve—ikkampavidhi:A text on Pyrotechny; Central Asia as a melting potof Persian, Greek, Indian and Chinese CulturalTraditions; Taxila – an alternative urbanisationbetween the Silk road and the UttarÈpatha; Buddhismin Khotan and Soghdiana; K‚†‡a iconography inKhotan Carpets, Xinjiang; Benaki Collection ofFustat Textiles and Indian Science and the birth of

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the Islamic golden age in the eighth century fromBalkh to Baghdad.

Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics(IJPAM)

Volume 47, No. 4 (December 2016) issue of IJPAMhas been published.

OBITUARY

Paramvir Singh Ahuja

Paramvir Singh Ahuja (b 19December 1952; d 22 January2017) obtained his PhD fromUniversity of Nottingham, UKas a Commonwealth Scholarand was a Post-DoctoralNSERC Fellow at McGillUniversity at Montreal,Canada. He worked at thePlant Breeding Institute at Cambridge, UK andNuclear Research Institute at Julich in Germanyduring his PhD. He was Head of the Department ofPlant Tissue Culture at CIMAP, Lucknow duringwhich period the Department became a Centre ofExcellence. Thereafter, he joined as Head of PlantBiotechnology and Biodiversity ConservationDivision at Palampur, now known as IHBT. Later,he became the Director of the CSIR-Institute ofHimalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT). He alsohad an additional charge as Director of CIMAP andas Scientific Director of NBRI, Lucknow. He wasalso a Visiting Scientist to the Ohio State Universityat Columbus, USA.

Dr Ahuja made significant contributions in therelease of a salt tolerant wheat variety. He played aleading role in the landmark release of the firstsomaclonal variety in India in the aromatic grassCymbopogon winterianus popularly known asCIMAP BIO-13 which remains popular even afterthree decades. He made a commendable contributionin the area of conservation and improvement ofMedicinal and Aromatic plants. His work onreproductive biology, tissue culture of MAPS led tothe development of gene bank at CIMAP. He has

provided leadership for the production of severalsomatic hybrids in Tropane Alkaloids and has been apioneer in hairy root production and secondarymetabolites. He significantly contributed tocharacterization of the Indian Tea germplasm. Hisresearch on tea, rose and potato transgenics, isglobally acknowledged. His role in bioprospectionof novel enzymes and plants, genes from highaltitudes and their validation and translation foradoption by the industry is noteworthy. He played apivotal role in introducing stevia as a crop to thecountry and several other medicinal plants ascommercial crops, thereby promoting diversifiedagriculture. He developed commercially viableprocesses for production of Steviol glycosides andthe enzyme SOD. He significantly contributed toextension of rural technologies to remotest triballocations in Himalayas.

Dr Ahuja was recipient of VASVIK Award forthe contribution “Research in Agricultural Sciences& Technology”; Professor Pran Nath MehraMemorial Award; Birbal Sahni Medal by theBotanical Society of India; Professor RN TandonMemorial Lecture Award to name a few. He was amember of Research Councils/ Scientific AdvisoryCommittees/Management Councils of severalprestigious institutions of the country. He was also amember of various national and internationalscientific societies. He was elected Fellow of NationalAcademy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi andNational Academy of Sciences, Allahabad.

Dr PS Ahuja was elected to the Fellowship ofthe Indian National Science Academy in the year2013.

Laxman Singh Kothari

Laxman Singh Kothari (b 13April 1926; d 22 January2017) obtained his PhD fromUniversity of Mumbaispecializing in NeutronPhysics and Solid-StatePhysics. He served in variouscapacities at Bhabha AtomicResearch Centre, Mumbai and

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later became Professor of Physics at University ofDelhi. He was also a Member of IUPAP Commissionon Physics Education and was an Editorial BoardMember of Physics Letters.

Professor Kothari’s major research work wasfocused on neutron scattering, thermalization anddiffusion in solids and light and heavy water. Heobtained many interesting results, which were verifiedexperimentally. He worked on transient and partiallyilluminated solar cells, and studied the effect ofelectric field on the atomic scattering factor for X-ray scattering. He co-authored seven books includingtwo in Hindi and edited four books.

Professor Kothari was a Member of AmericanNuclear Society. He was elected Fellow of theInstitute of Physics (London). He also served asEditor of INSA Publications during 1975-78.

Professor LS Kothari was elected to theFellowship of the Indian National Science Academyin the year 1966 and served as Treasurer of INSAduring 1989-92.

Anjan Kundu

Anjan Kundu (b 24 January1953; d 31 December 2016)obtained his PhD from PatriceLumumba University,Moscow. He then continuedhis postdoctoral research inUSSR at the Joint Institute ofNuclear Research, Dubna. Onreturning to India, he joined asCSIR pool officer at Jadavpur University, Kolkataand later as a Lecturer of Physics at Birla Institute ofTechnology & Sciences, Pilani. He then joined SahaInstitute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata as Faculty andultimately became Senior Professor until hissuperannuation in 2012. He was also a SeniorAssociate at the International Centre for TheoreticalPhysics, Trieste, Italy and also served as an ExternalExpert for City University of London. He held visitingpositions at numerous centres all around the world.

Professor Kundu made pioneering contributionsto nonlinear dynamics and integrable systems both

at classical and quantum levels. A Gauge unificationscheme formulated by him is well recognized throughKundu, Kundu-Eckhaus and RKL equationsappearing in titles and abstracts of citations. Aninnovative ancestor model scheme of Kundu unifiesquantum group. A challenging problem of formulatingthe theory of non-ultralocal quantum systems wassolved by him through novel braided Yang-Baxterequation. Delta-function anyon gas of Kundu becamea basic model in 1D anyons, to which many papersand PRLS are devoted. New integrable extension ofCalogero model, an innovative non-linearizationscheme and non-holonomic deformation of integrablesystems, formulation of integrable defect and variablemass sine-Gordon equation, topological models withHopf invariant and non-spherically symmetricSkyrmion, pioneering quantum integrable models likerelativistic Toda chain, quantum mKdV andderivative NLS were his other significantcontributions.

Professor Kundu won many scholarshipsincluding National Science Talent Search (NSTS)Scholarship & Certificate; Govt. of India ExchangeScholarship; Excellent Student Badges &Scholarship. He was a Member of the Editorial Boardof World Journal of Mechanics, Scientific ResearchPublishing, USA and of the Proceedings of RoyalSociety of London. He was elected Fellow of theIndian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.

Professor Anjan Kundu was elected to theFellowship of the Indian National Science Academyin the year 2014.

Subrahmaniam Nagarajan

Subrahmaniam Nagarajan (b07 November 1945; d 25December 2016) received hisPhD in Agriculture from DelhiUniversity. He was a WheatPathologist at IndianAgricultural Research Instituteand also the first Chairpersonof the Protection of PlantVarieties and Farmer’s Right Authority (PPV &FRA), Government of India. He joined as Director

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of Indian Agricultural Research Institute at New Delhiand later became Project Director of All India WheatProgram and re-established the Wheat Research andDevelopment Programme at Karnal.

Dr Nagarajan research was focused onepidemiology of the cereal rusts, propounded stemrust rules and explained the nature and recurrence ofPuccinia graminis tritici and P. recondite tritici. Hesuggested that the urediospores originating from theNilgiris spread to Central India under the influenceof tropical cyclone that occurs in the Bay of Bengalduring November. Based on this, a diseasemanagement strategy was formulated andimplemented to contain crop losses. He also explainedthe nature and recurrence of the leaf rust (P. reconditetritici ) and the stripe rust (P. striformis) over the Indo-Gangetic plain. He proposed ‘gene deployment’ as astrategy and developed gene matching technique topostulate the resistance genes in a variety whichresulted in no serious crop loss due to rust epidemicsfor almost 12 years. He along with his colleaguesidentified two new leaf rust resistance genes: Lr48and Lr49 and also developed a wheat variety DBW14for the eastern Gangetic plain. He authored more than130 research papers, 50 chapters in various booksand two textbooks.

Dr Nagarajan was conferred with many awardsincluding the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of ICAR;Award of Distinction at the International PlantProtection Congress, The Hague; Om Prakash BhasinAward; Chaudhri Ram Dhan Singh Award forcontribution to Wheat Improvement by HAU, Hisar;KS Bilgrami Memorial Medal of INSA; NormanBorlaug Award by Coromandel Fertilizers; ASCheema Award by Young Farmer’s Association ofPunjab; Dr BP Pal Gold Medal for Wheat Pathologyand Wheat Improvement; and Silver JubileeCommemoration Medal of INSA for contribution toAgriculture and Allied Sciences. He was a Memberof the Centre Commissioned External Review(CCER) of CIMMYT, Mexico; Central PesticideRegistration Committee; Central VarietyIdentification Committee; and Management boardsof many agricultural institutes; Chairman MEC; andCo-Chair RCGM.

Dr Subrahmaniam Nagarajan was elected to theFellowship of the Indian National Science Academyin the year 2005.

Bhamidipati Lakshmidhara KanakadriSomayajulu

Bhamidipati LakshmidharaKanakadri Somayajulu (b 05March 1937; d 19 December2016) obtained his PhD fromBombay University. He joinedBARC Training School andsubsequently the GeophysicsGroup of the Tata Institute ofFundamental Research(TIFR), Mumbai while pursuing his doctoral studies.He spent three years at Scripps Institution ofOceanography, California during his PhD and laterdid his post-doctoral work there. On his return toIndia, he joined Oceanography and Climate StudiesArea, Earth Sciences and Solar System Divisionof Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad andserved the institution until his superannuation in 1997.

Professor Somayajulu extensively researchedon the physico-chemical reactions within the oceansand water-sediment interface and has developed manyresearch methodologies which include the nuclearmethods for determination of the growth rates ofmanganese nodules, advection-diffusion mixing ofocean waters, cosmic ray-produced 32Si and 10Be instudies for determining the calculation of sedimentaccumulation rates and geochemical methods forstudying reactive elements in sea water. He also madesignificant contributions in the area of monsoonvariability on decadal to millennia time scales basedon studies of sediment cores from the Arabian Sea.His studies on 32Si distribution in the oceansestablished the potential of this nuclide as a tracerfor studying ocean mixing. He conducted beryllium-10 studies on manganese nodules which helped toestablish the slow rate of growth of the nodules. Healso participated in several international oceanexpeditions that include the Antipode expedition tothe South Pacific, the GEOSECS Indian OceanExpedition, and as Chief Scientist in several cruises

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to the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Hisresearches have been documented as chapter in abook, The Indian Human Heritage, and as severalpeer-reviewed articles. He also edited a book, FromMantle to Meteorites: A Garland of Perspectives - AFestschrift for Devendra Lal, published by IndianAcademy of Sciences in 1990.

Professor Somayajulu was a recipient of SSBhatnagar Prize; Hari Om Ashram Prerit Award inOceanology; Jawaharlal Nehru Birth CentenaryLecture Award of INSA; KR Ramanathan MemorialLecture Award of PRL, and the National Award inOcean Sciences and Technology of the Ministry ofEarth Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the IndianAcademy of Sciences, Bangalore; National Academyof Sciences, Allahabad; American Geophysical Unionand the Geochemical Society/European Associationfor Geochemistry. He was a Member of the GoverningCouncil of NCAOR, Goa, and RAC of theDepartment of Ocean Development and also anexecutive member of the International Associationof Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO).

Professor BLK Somayajulu was elected to theFellowship of the Indian National Science Academyin the year 1983 and served as its Council as Memberduring 1988-90.

Jagdamba Prasad Thapliyal

Jagdamba Prasad Thapliyal (b05 November 1922; d 30November 2016) received hisPhD from Banaras HinduUniversity. He was a formerProfessor and Head ofDepartment of Zoology,Banaras Hindu University anda Professor and Head ofDepartment of Zoology at North-Eastern HillUniversity, Shillong. He also served as UGCProfessor at Manipur University and ResearchAssociate at Rockefeller Foundation, USA.

Professor Thapliyal’s area of interest was incomparative endocrinology and chronobiology. Heestablished the role of thyroid in (i) development and

physiology of non-mammalian vertebrates; (ii)regulation of reproduction in reptiles, and (iii)photoperiodic responses, reproduction and migrationof birds. He proposed the hypothesis that duringevolution of homeothermy, thyroidal hormonesacquired control over oxidative metabolism and sexsteroids over reproduction.

Professor Thapliyal was honoured with the GoldMedal from Indian Society of Life Sciences and UGCNational Lecturership. He was elected Fellow of theZoological Society of India; National Academy ofSciences, Allahabad; International Society ofChronobiology; European Society of ComparativeEndocrinology; Indian Society for ReproductiveEndocrinology; American Society of Zoology; AsiaOceania Society for Comparative Endocrinology andmany other professional bodies.

Professor JP Thapliyal was elected to theFellowship of the Indian National Science Academyin the year 1978 and served as its Council as Memberduring 1987-89.

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Proposal for lectures in the remote/rural areas

The Academy has launched a programme under which INSA Fellows, Young Scientists& Teachers’ Awardees are encouraged to deliver Popular Lectures to young students andteachers of schools and colleges in remote/rural areas in India.

Proposals are invited from Fellows, INSA young scientists and INSA teacher awardeeswith details like names and addresses of the schools/colleges where they wish to deliverlecture/ with title/s of lecture/s, proposed dates and the quantum of required travel support.Proposals may be sent to Executive Director, INSA at esoffice@insa.nic.in and toscisoc@insa.nic.in at the earliest.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nomination for Election of Fellows, Foreign Fellows and Pravasi Fellows

Nominations are invited from the Fellows of INSA for election of Fellows, Foreign Fellowsand Pravasi Fellows. Nomination forms can be downloaded from the INSA websitewww.insaindia.res.in.