PU Bhagyatara Award for Kana M Sureshan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 26

The Department of Chemistry, PU, organised the Bhagyatara Award ceremony here today.

The award was given to Dr Kana M Sureshan (FRSC), Associate Professor, School of Chemistry, IISER, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

During the function, he talked on ‘Synthesis of Biopolymer mimics via Topochemical Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition Reaction’. He showed with examples, how simple chemical reactions such as ‘Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition reactions’ can be used for generating solid-state based chemicals, which can be used for harvesting water from the atmosphere. These chemicals have high affinity for water vapour and will absorb it from the atmosphere even at low-humidity situations such as those in deserts. The absorbed water molecules can be released later by simple warming.

He also showed how gels generated from biomolecules such as peptides can be made porous and used for removing spilled oil from water. The application of such a process is massive and significant — a ship wreck and oil-spilling can be handled effectively.

Prof Shankarji Jha, Dean, University Instructions, PU, reminded all scientists, especially young researchers, to adopt a path to sustainability in their future scientific endeavours.

Department Chairman Prof KN Singh welcomed the audience and the speaker and expressed the importance of such awards in nurturing young minds towards research.

The award

Panjab University Bhagyatara Award is a prestigious award of Rs 50,000. It is awarded annually by the university to an outstanding scientist who has made significant contribution to the areas of organic chemistry/biochemistry/pharmaceutical chemistry/dairy chemistry. Professor Megh K Jain, who is an aluminous of the PU and now settled in the USA, has instituted the award in memory of his parents — Bhagyavati and Tara Chand Jain.