Panjab University alumnus Ajay Sood appointed Principal Scientific Adviser to PM

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New Delhi, April 20

A Panjab University alumnus, Ajay Sood, is the new Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, said an official announcement.

Sood, currently an Honorary Professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, replaces K. Vijaya Raghavan who retired recently.

Sood was awarded Padma Shri in 2013 for his stellar work in the field of science.

He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018. Apart from the Bhatnagar Prize in Physics in the year 1999, the highest award of the government of India below age of 45 years, Sood has received over a dozen awards for multiple achievements from various institutions.

After completing MS Physics from Panjab University, Chandigarh, in 1972, Sood did his PhD in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru in 1982. After being a post-doctoral Max Planck Fellow at Max Planck Institute fur FKF, Stuttgart, in Germany between 1983 and 85, Sood worked on atomic research at Kalpakkam before joining IISc. He has also been an honorary professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research at Bangalore since 1993.

“Have admired Ajay for decades for being a scholar with great intellect, impeccable integrity and huge international reputation,” tweeted former DG, CSIR, Raghunath Mashelkar.