Chief minister Naveen Patnaik gives away Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence for the year 2012 to Ganapati Panda at Jayadev Bhavan in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 5: Eminent scientists of the state were today conferred with awards and some of them were felicitated for their achievement in the fields of science and technology.

The Odisha Bigyan Academy felicitated geologist and former vice-chancellor of Utkal University Satyananda Acharya, researcher in gerontology Bhabendra Kumar Patnaik and hydropower generation and engineering expert Gobinda Chandra Sahu for their contribution to research and development.

While handing over the awards for the year 2012, chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked the scientists to take up people-centric research projects in agriculture, health and education. On this occasion, he recalled the success of Phailin management with scientific tools to achieve zero casualty in Ganjam district during last October.

The Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence was presented to Ganapati Panda, dean academics and head of school of electrical sciences IIT, Bhubaneswar.

Panda is a pioneer in the digital signal processing research, digital communication, sensor networks, power system control and protection and computational finance. His findings are now used for radar signal processing, sensors, disaster management, weather forecasting and trapping of renewable energy across the globe.

He asked the engineering students to go for more careers in creative research.

The Samanta Chandra Sekhar Award was conferred on Birendra Kumar Mohapatra (geology), Sushil Kumar Dutta (zoology), Sanghamitra Mohanty (use of computer in linguistics) and Ajit Kumar Shasany (agriculture).

Dutta, a pioneer in animal taxonomy and wildlife, said: “At a time when the majority of bright students are drifting away from a career in research, there should be encouragement from both the state government and the Centre to fund research projects, so that there would be more motivation for innovation in research, especially in life science.”

Under the category of the Odisha Young Scientists Award, Dipti Prakasini Das (chemistry), Banikalyan Swain (biotechnology and aquaculture) and Punyapriya Mishra (bio-composites and nano-technology) were given away the prizes.

The Pranakrushna Parija Popular Science Award went to medical practitioner Purabi Mohanty for writing popular science articles on nutrition, diseases and health. Award winning teacher from Jagatsingpur district Jyotirmayee Mohanty was the other recipient in this category for popularising science in the community.