Professors K.C. James Raju and Surajit Dhara from the School of Physics, University of Hyderabad (UoH), have been adjudged the best entry for 7th Visitor’s (President of India) Awards 2021 under the category Visitor’s Award for Technology Development and Visitor’s Award for Research (Physical Sciences) respectively.
This is the first time two UoH professors have been selected for this award in the same year. Earlier, one faculty each were awarded in 2018 and 2020. Vice-chancellor of the university B.J. Rao said that it was a historic moment when two Visitor’s Awards have been given to UoH faculty in the same year and that too, from the School of Physics.
Prof. Raju did his Ph.D from IIT Madras and won the Best Thesis Award in the process. As part of his Ph.D, he developed Microwave Dielectric Resonators for DRDO. He joined the university in 1996, becoming the first faculty of the Electronics Programme of the School of Physics. The programme was later developed into CASEST in 2014 under the School of Physics. He also received the prestigious Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship from the Indian Academy of Engineering for the year 2021-22.
Dr. Dhara obtained his PhD from Raman Research Institute in Bangalore. He has carried out inventive research and made outstanding contributions in emerging and diverse areas of Liquid Crystal science and technology. He was selected for the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) prize for Science and Technology in 2020.
The President of India, who is the visitor of Central Universities, annually confers Visitor’s Awards to promote healthy competition among universities and motivate them to adopt best practices from around the world in pursuit of excellence.
Gloss