Modi to honour KU prof for excelling in science

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, December 9

Prof Pawan K Sharma, Department of Chemistry, Kurukshetra University, has been selected for the prestigious Srinivasa Ramanujan Birth Centenary Award to be presented at the 106th Indian Science Congress to be held in Jalandhar from January 3 next year.

The official spokesperson said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would present the award to Sharma at the inaugural session of the Congress.

The award, instituted in 1989 to commemorate the birth centenary of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, is given every year to a distinguished scientist of the country.

Sharma, a chemical scientist, is a lead researcher in the area of ‘base modified nucleosides’, or modified DNAs, and is the first to introduce a novel sulfa drug fragment into the major groove of the DNA.

He has very strong research collaboration with prestigious research centres around the globe. He was recently invited by the Centre for Comparative Genomics, Murdoch University, Australia, to deliver a lecture on his latest researches in the field of gene applications for therapeutics and diagnostics.

Dr Kailash Chandra Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, congratulated Sharma while appreciating his efforts in raising the benchmarks of research at KU.

His researches at the interface of chemistry and biology involving modified genetic material in the cutting-edge areas of Antisense and Antigene technologies have helped in providing insight into some of the basic issues associated with refining these technologies to make them suitable for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.