Two Women Scientists From Pune Win National Awards In Chemistry And Astrophysics

On Friday, February 11, the winners were revealed by The Department of Science and Technology (DST) in honour of International Day for Women and Girls in Science. This day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 to promote complete and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls around the world, with the goal of attaining gender equality and women's empowerment.

The Excellence awards are given to scientists under the age of 40 who have had their work recognised by one of India's science academies. The DST is funding a project with Rs 15 lakh for three years.

Ruta Kale, an NCRA Reader, was one of nine women scientists honoured with the SERB Women's Excellence Award 2022. She researches the evolution of radio galaxies as well as radio astronomy techniques. She holds a PhD from the Raman Research Institute in "A multi-wavelength investigation of radio halos and relics in clusters of galaxies." Between 2015 and 2017, she worked as a DST-INSPIRE faculty member at NCRA.

Meanwhile, the NCL's Polymer Science and Engineering Division is led by Asha SK. Her research group focuses on the development of more ordered polymer architectures for use in optoelectronic devices such as lasers, photo diodes, solar cells, and LEDs.

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Ashima Bhaskar of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Yogita Adlakha of Translational Health Science and Technology, and Nitika Sandhu of Punjab Agricultural University were among the other SERB Excellence winners in the Life Sciences category this year.

From the engineering stream, Neha Khatri of CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation and Mudrika-NXEKhandelwal of IIT-Hyderabad were chosen.

The other winners were Chandini U of the Indian Institute of Science, Binita Pathak of Dibrugarh University (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), and Debashree Chakraborty of NIT-Suratkal (Chemical Sciences).