National Geoscience Awards for five Odisha scientists

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, Apr 5:

President Pranab Mukherjee today presented the National Geoscience Awards – 2014 at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The annual awards are presented to honour individuals and a team of scientists for their outstanding contributions in the field of fundamental or applied Geosciences, Mining and Allied areas.

This year, 33 geoscientists were awarded in 13 disciplines including Mining Technology, Basic Geosciences, Geo-Information System, among others.

While Prof. Ashok Kumar Singhvi was conferred with the highest honour National Geoscience Award for Excellence for his outstanding contributions in the field of sedimentary technologies, five scientists from Odisha were also honoured among the recipients. They are: Biswajeet Lenka (Mineral Discovery & Exploration), Dr Muduru Lachhana Dora (Mineral Discovery & Exploration), Dr Simanchal Padhy (Geophysics / Applied Geophysics), Dr Swati Mohanty (Mineral Beneficiation) and Dr Rajeev Patnaik (Basic Geosciences).

Availability and use of minerals in any country have been one of the factors determining self-sufficiency of its economy.  These natural resources have to be explored, extracted, refined and processed to use them for national building. At the same time, we must understand that sustenance of mankind depends only on environmentally sustainable mining practices. Our effort to use our natural resources should be informed of the dangers of natural and manmade disasters. He stated that he was happy to note that the Geoscientists of the country are working hard to meet these challenges. The diverse fields work of the awardees are a testimony to this inherent spread of the geoscientific developments in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee said on the sidelines of the event.

The National Geoscience Awards, formerly known as the National Mineral Awards, was instituted by the Ministry of Mines in 1966, to honour individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in fundamental and applied geosciences and mining and allied fields. Among the dignitaries present on the occasion were Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Steel & Mines and Vishnu Deo Sai, Minister of State for Steel & Mines.

Here is the list of National Geoscience Awardees – 2014