Pune: Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, senior scientist, and Arun Firodia, Chairman of Kinetic Group, announced the 23rd HK Firodia awards on Friday at a press conference held in the city.
The Lifetime Achievement award will be presented to Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys, who is also known for introducing the Aadhaar card. The HK Firodia Vijnan Ratna award will be given to Prof Sandip Trivedi, a renowned physicist, who has made seminal contributions to string theory, finding first models of accelerated expansion of Univac in flow energy string. Prof Satyajit Mayor, Director of National Centre for Biological Sciences, will be felicitated with the HK Firodia Vijnan Bhushan award.
“HK Firodia Science and Technology award is given in the name of my father, who is considered as the doyen of automobile products. This award is given to Indian scientists who make original, outstanding and world class contributions to modern science. Distinguished personalities like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Prof CNR Rao, Dr Swaminathan were the recipients of this award,” said Arun Firodia during the conference.
Dr RA Mashelkar, who has been part of this award since its inception, said, “It has a been great journey so far. This award is an effort to celebrate science and felicitate these icons, as it is very important to give scientists their due for the work they have done for the society.”
This award ceremony is scheduled to be held on February 1, 2019 at Balgandharva Rang Mandir. HK Firodia Memorial Foundation along with Rotaract District 3131 is organising an online science quiz, catering to individuals of the age group 18-31 and the top ten performers of the quiz will also be felicitated on February 1.
