2 girl students receive medals from President

Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 20

Two girl students of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) — Saloni Rose and Divita Gupta — were all smiles after receiving the President’s gold medal from country’s President Ram Nath Kovind during the institute’s seventh convocation here on Sunday.

Chennai-based Saloni Rose, who is also a state-level badminton player, said receiving the medal from the President was an icing on the cake.

“Now I want to pursue doctorate in neurosciences from the University of Regensburg, Germany,” said Saloni, daughter of scientist parents.

Saloni’s father Rajesh Rose and mother Supriya Rose work as nuclear engineers in nuclear power plant in Rajasthan. Saloni is overall academic topper. She also topped in her specialised field of bio-sciences with 9.9 out of 10 marks.

The second recipient of President’s medal, Divita Gupta, is a native of Amritsar. She has topped in her specialised field of chemistry with 9.4 out of 10 marks.

As the duo were the only students among total 155 who received their awards from Kovind, the rest students were apparently disappointed over the missed opportunity.

“We were elated when we were told that the President was coming to our function. It was a chance for us to meet and shake hands with the President, but now we are certainly disappointed,” said a group of students.

Earlier, when Kovind left the auditorium, all dignitaries accompanied him to see him off. Seeing this, most of the students also left the hall under the impression that the function was over. Later, professors were seen calling the students back to the auditorium to receive their degrees.

A total of 155 students of BS-MS, BS and PhD received their degrees during the function.