Chief minister Naveen Patnaik presents the first Kalinga Samman to Dr Chittaranjan Mishra and Dr Pramod Mohapatra jointly at a function organised by the Kalinga Foundation Trust in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 12: The first “Kalinga Samman”, introduced in 2010 by the Kalinga Foundation Trust, was awarded on Friday.

At a function held at the Institute of Physics in the city, Oriya scientist Chittaranjan Mishra and science author Pramod Mohapatra were presented the award. Unesco, Paris, president Davidson Hepburn, chief minister Navin Patnaik, space scientist Yashpal Sharma and 1991 winner of the Kalinga Prize, given by Unesco, were present on the occasion.

“It is a very noble initiative by the Kalinga Foundation Trust to give awards in the field of science to scientists and promoters of science in the state,” said Hepburn on his first visit to the state on Friday. He also added that the prize money of Rs 50,000 should be increased in the years to come. The chief minister congratulated the winners. “I wish to thank Unesco for having named an asteroid after Kalinga earlier,” he said.

Recipients of the Kalinga Samman 2010 Mishra and Mohapatra said the attitude of pursuing science as a passion is fading in the state. “The scientific temper has to be inculcated since childhood to create good scientists in the state rather than thrusting the importance of landing up with jobs in the education system,” said Mishra who was the deputy general manager of NALCO and also its research head. Mohapatra said that during his visits to high schools and colleges in the state, he found students were not aware of many scientific facts. “So I started writing science encyclopedias in Oriya,” said Mohapatra, who has written 75 books on science.