Naveen Patnaik presents Biju Patnaik award for scientific excellence

Dr Kulamani Parida and Dr Rajani Kanta Choudhury were today honoured with the prestigious Biju Patnaik award for the year 2008 and 2009 respectively for their contribution to the development of science.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs two lakh, a memento, a shawl and a citation.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presented the award to the two scientists at a function here.

On this occasion, Samanta Chandra Sekhar award was conferred on Dr Tapan Kumar Adhya, Dr Prafulla Kumar Sahu, Prof Rabindra Kumar Mishra and Dr Manmohan Parida for the year 2008 and on Dr Rabindra Nath Padhi, Dr Arun Kumar Pati, Prof Mohammed Khalid Khan and Dr Debi Prasad Mishra for 2009.

Similarly, the young scientist award was presented to Dr S Goswami and Dr Sachidananda Dehuri for the year 2008 and to Dr Mamata Mohapatra and Prof Sandhyarani Biswas for 2009.

Dr Murari Mohan Das and Mrs Manaswini Das were awarded as the popular science writer of 2009.

In addition to it, Prof Rebati Charan Das, Prof Swadinanda Patnaik,Prof Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi, Dr Renupada Naik and Dr Dwijesh Panda were felicitated as senior scientists.

Presenting the award, the chief minister said the government was giving priority to the development of science and IT in a bid to raise the standard of living of the people.

Mr Patnaik said scientific research and application of IT could only help in the development of the state and remove the evils from the society.

Science could help for the efficient energy management,solve problems relating to climatic change, global warming, use of water, health and productivity, he said.

Among others, Minister of state for Science and Technology Ramesh Chandra Majhi and Science and Technology Secretary P K Jena graced the function.