Odisha-born scientist gets Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence

Bhubaneswar: The prestigious Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence, 2014 was conferred on Odia scientist Dr. Lalit Mohan Das for his outstanding contribution to science.

In a function organized here by Odisha Bigyan Academy (OBA), Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Awarded Dr. Lalit Mohan Das with medal, citation, stole and a cash prize of Rs Two lakh.

Similarly, the Samanta Chandra Sekhar Award was given to Prof. Dr. Pradeep Kumar Chand, Dr. Swati Mohanty and Dr. Ajay Parida; they each got a cash award of Rs One lakh, medal, stole and citation.

In the Odisha Young Scientist Award category, Dr. Biswaranjan Paital, Dr. Sasmita Mohapatra, Dr. Milan Kumar Biswal and Dr, Swarup Kumar Parida were awarded with Rs 25,000, stole and citation for their outstanding work.

Besides, Prof. Dr. Jibanananda Mohanty, Prof. Dr. Khageswar Pradhan and Prof. Dr. Dhruba Raj Nayak were felicitated as senior scientists.

While addressing the gathering, the CM said that we are well aware that science and technology has brought tremendous benefits to the mankind.

“Recently, I have emphasized upon the three Ts  – teamwork, technology and transparency for governance and delivery of all the public services This will ultimately lead to the fourth T – Transformation of the state,” the CM  said.

Our academic and research institutions have to continuously enhance their quality to match with international standards. Our research programmes need to search for out-of-the-box solutions to combat the challenges faced by the state. Science may be international, but the application is essentially local, he added.

The technology and scientific research should help in connecting the unconnected. There is a need to strengthen the mechanism for transfer of technology so that all this research does not remain in the journals, but is applied in the field to help the society, he concluded.