Sudarshan Kumar Vatsyayan, a professor with IIT Bombay has bagged the prestigious French award for his doctoral theses in aerospace and communication technology along with two of his colleagues.
The award is conferred jointly by the French Embassy and SAFRAN, a French aeronautics company. The two other IITians who were awarded with Dr Sudarshan are Dr A M Pradeep and Dr G Phanikumar.
The awards were presented by French Ambassador J Bonnafont and SAFRAN deputy director for Recearch and Technology Alain Coutrot in the presence of prominent members of the Indian and French scientific establishment and industry at a special ceremony held in the French Embassy, on 24th October.
Dr Sudarshan Kumar got the first SAFRAN prize of 5,000 euros and a one- week travel to France.
Dr Pradeep received the second SAFRAN prize of 3,000 euros and a one-week travel to France.
Both the researchers visit some of the SAFRAN research and industrial sites in France, along with their research guides.
Dr Phanikumar got the special French Embassy prize– a four-month fellowship for a post-doctoral in a research centre in France.
The three were selected by a jury of six eminent scientists, which included former HAL chief Dr C G Krishnadas Nair, former DRDO director Dr Haridwar Singh, and Dr Shiva Prasad, head of the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research.
The awards are part of the French Embassy’s endeavour to increase cooperation between Indian and French laboratories in the area of research.
Keep it up.
We take pride in your achievement.
‘Chak de Himachal’
CONGRATS! Hard work pays off! And you have proved it! Good Job and wishing you…………….ALL THE BEST!
Congrats, I know this fellow from Ghumawin GSS .He proved himself ,We all HImachali Indian proud of him ,Just keep it up.Good job.. best wishes from me
Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Sudarshan ! Whole of Himachal is proud of you and expect a constant effort for its betterment from the researchers like you.
hi Pal (Dr. Sudarshan)
This is Great Achievment and you have made Himachal Proud. Nostalgic feelings on this as I still remember our childhood days at Khaswin (your native place).
Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Sudarshan ! This is a great achievment and you have made us the Himachalis & the Indians proud. Keep it up. best wishes for the future.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071107/himplus1.htm#2
French honour for HP scientist
Jagmeet Y. Ghuman
It is a Chak De moment for Himachal — its young research scientist, Dr Sudarshan Kumar Vatsyayan, has won the prestigious first Safran and French Embassy Award 2007. The assistant professor with IIT, Powai’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, has been awarded for his research on flameless combustion of gaseous fuels along with two other IITians, Dr A.M. Pradeep and Dr G. Phanikumar.
French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont and Safran deputy director for research and technology Alain Coutrot jointly presented the awards at a recent function in New Delhi. The award is a joint endeavor of French Embassy and Safran to increase the cooperation in the field of research between Indian and French laboratories and offers fellowships every year, for young doctorates and post-doctorate scientists.
Vatsyayan bagged the first Safran prize of 5,000 euros while Pradeep received the second prize of 3,000 euros. Both researchers will also be touring France for a week and would visit Safran’s research and industrial sites in France along with their research guides. Dr Phanikumar got the special French Embassy prize – a four-month fellowship for post-doctoral research in France.
Vatsyayan, who hails from a non-decrepit village – Khaswin, 6 km from Ghumarwin in Bilaspur district — braved monetary and topographic odds to move forward. He schooled from the Government Senior Secondary School at Ghumarwin and went on to do his B.E. in mechanical engineering from Aurangabad University. Later, he did M.E. and PhD in aerospace engineering from IISC, Bangalore. Before joining IIT, he was a researcher in Tohoku University, Japan, for two years. An elated Vatsyayan hopes that his research benefits the country. “Particularly now when India is progressing at a faster pace, energy is the major requirement for sustaining the pace of development. We need to look at other avenues of energy resources such as ethyl alcohol, non-edible oils, biomass. Conversion of energy from these resources will be cheaper and would require more attention in the near future. Therefore, it would be vital to motivate more students to work in these areas†he says.
Vatsyayan elaborates, “My major contribution was on developing a small burner with high heat release rate with fuel and air mixtures supplied at ambient conditions. The heat released per unit volume was 50 times higher than the previous reported studies. Our group was the first in the world to report this achievement.†He was also awarded the Dr Bernard Lewis fellowship by the Combustion Institute, USA, in 2002, making him the second Asian to be feted.
“Awards like the Safran-French Embassy award will motivate engineering students to pursue higher studies. A smaller country like Japan produces more than 4,000 engineering PhDs every year, whereas the figure is only 600-800 for India,†he says.