Each year, Scientific India goes through a year selection process to identify the most inspired scientists and researchers whose ideas will transform the future. Here are 2018's best and brightest.
10. Prof. Pradip Dutta
Prof. Pradip Dutta, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He and his team have indigenously developed India’s first super critical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton Test Loop facility. The test loop facility is coupled with a solar heat source, making it possibly, the first of its kind in the world.
9. Prof. Rahul Banerjee
Prof. Rahul Banerjee , Department of chemical sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. He is known for his studies in the field of Metal–organic framework designing. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to chemical sciences in 2018.
8. Dr. Rajnish Kumar
Dr. Rajnish Kumar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, His research interests are in the areas of unconventional energy resources including natural gas hydrates. Role of additives in gas hydrate inhibition and growth and its application in methane recovery from marine gas hydrates, flow assurance, hydrate based gas separation process and methane storage and transportation are some of the projects in which the group is actively working.
7. Prof. Avinash Kumar Agarwal
Prof. Avinash Kumar Agarwal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur. He is known for his studies on internal combustion engines, Emissions, alternate fuels and CNG engines. He is an elected fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (2013), Society of Automotive Engineers, USA (2012), National Academy of Science, Allahabad (2018), Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (2018).
6. Dr Priyanka Joshi
Twenty-nine-year-old Priyanka Joshi, an alumna of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has been listed in the Forbes’ list of 30 Under 30 Europe in science and healthcare. Apostdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, Joshi,has dedicated her life to research to find a drug that can prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease.
5. Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan
Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIt Madras. His areas of interests include Computer Architecture, Secure Systems Engineering and VLSI Design. He is the lead researcher in the development of India’s first microprocessor, Shakti.
4. Prof. Abhijit Chakraborty
Professor Abhijit Chakraborty, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. His team have discovered a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune size planet around a Sun-like star. The planet has a mass of about 27 Earth Mass and size of 6 Earth Radii. It goes around the host star in about 19.5 days.
3. Dr. Rajeev K. Varshney
Dr. Rajeev Kumar Varshney is a geneticist or genomicist with more than 20 years of research experience in the area of international agriculture. He is currently working as global Research Program Director–Genetic Gains that includes several units viz. Genebank, Pre-Breeding, Cell, Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, Genomics & Trait Discovery, Forward Breeding, Seed Systems and Biotechnology- ESA at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India.
2. Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy
Dr G Satheesh Reddy, as Chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Secretary in Department of Defence Research & Development (DDR&D). He leads DRDO to achieve remarkable goals in year 2018.
1. Dr. K. Sivan
Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan is an Indian space scientist and the chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organization. He is the former Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and Liquid Propulsion centre. He also led the RLV-TD project and was involved in its design qualification, aerodynamic characterisation and hardware development. ISRO is again at top in Indian science research. ISRO has achieved remarkable goals in the last year. Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan leads ISRO to achieve remarkable goals in year 2018.
Note: We have calculated the score on the basis of their research news hits and TV, radio appearances in the past 12 months, plus social media. Finally we scored our candidates on their impact.