IISc scientist wins The World Academy of Sciences award

U Ramamurty, a professor at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has won the $15,000 The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) award in the engineering category.

“I left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and came to India because I knew there is potential here. There must be more encouragement and funding. More Indians getting these kinds of awards will make our future generations confident of carrying out research here,” Ramamurty was quoted as saying by the Time of India.

The scientist said there are lots of opportunities for science in India and there needs to be more encouragement for those pursuing excellence. He also stressed on the need to increase research funding in the country.

The other Indians who received the award this year are Jagdish Ladha of the International Rice Research Institute, New Delhi, in the agricultural sciences category and Sandip Trivedi of the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Mumbai, in the physics category.

TWAS prizes or the TWAS-Celso Furtado Prize are given out in nine categories of agricultural sciences, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering sciences, mathematics, medical sciences, social sciences and physics every year. The prizes are given to those scientists who have been working and living in a developing country for at least 10 years immediately prior to their nomination.

The winners will talk about their research at TWAS’s 27th general meeting in 2016 and will also receive a plaque and the prize money of $15,000.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or Unesco looks after the administration and financial operation of TWAS.