Prez Murmu Confers National Geoscience Award to 21 Geoscientists

President Droupadi Murmu conferred the prestigious 2023 National Geoscience Awards to the winners at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 20 August 2024. Prof. Dhiraj Mohan Banerjee, Emeritus Scientist, INSA, was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award.

National Geoscience Award 

The Union Ministry of Mines instituted the National Geoscience Award 1966 as the National Minerals Award. Its name was changed to  National Geoscience Award in 2009. 

It is considered one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in geosciences.

The annual National Award is given in three categories: 

• National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement,
• National Young Geoscientist Award and
• National Geoscience Award.

The award honours individuals and teams for achievement in mineral discovery and exploration, Mining Technology and mineral Beneficiation, and fundamental/applied geosciences.

2023 National Geoscience Award winners 

Following is the list of the winners of the 2023 awards and the category in which they have won the award 

National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement 2023

• Professor Dhiraj Mohan Banerjee, Emeritus Scientist, Indian National Science Academy (INSA).

National Young Geoscientist Award 2023

• Dr. Ashutosh Pandey, Assistant Professor, Pondicherry University.

National Geoscience Award 

Category -Mineral Discovery and Exploration 

Team Award 

Geological Survey of India team comprising of 

(i) Abhishek Kumar Shukla, Senior Geologist (ii) Smt. Danira Stephen D’silva, Senior Geologist (iii) Parsuram Behera, Director (iv) Dr. M.N. Parveen, Director

Team Award 

Geological Survey of India team comprising of 

(i)  Sanjay Singh, Director (ii) Shailendra Kumar Prajapati, Senior Geologist (iii) Shashank Shekhar Singh, Geologist (iv) Kevinguzo Chasie, Geologist

Individual Award 

• Dr Pawan Dewangan, Senior Principal Scientist, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa 

Category Mining, Mineral Beneficiation and Sustainable Mineral Development

• Dr Harsh Kumar Verma, Senior Principal Scientist, Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Bilaspur 
• Prof. Mangadoddy Narasimha, Mineral Processing & Multi-Phase Flow lab, IIT Hyderabad 

Basic Geosciences

• Dr Rahul Mohan, Scientist, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa 

Team Award

Geological Survey of India team of  (i) Krishna Kumar, Superintending Geologist (ii) Dr Pragya Pandey, Geologist (iii)Ms. Triparna Ghosh, Geologist (iv)Mr. Debasish Bhattacharya, Dy. Director General.

Applied Geoscience 

• Dr. Vikram Vishal, Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences IIT Bombay 
• Dr. Bantu Prasanta Kumar Patro, Chief Principal Scientist, CSIR, National Geophysical Research
• Prof. Srimath Tirumala Gudemella Raghu Kanth, IIT Madras

Dr Jitendra S Conferred with Distinguished Mentor of the Year" Award

The American College of Physicians has conferred its prestigious "Distinguished Mentor of the Year" award to Dr Jitendra Singh in Lucknow. 

The award was conferred during the 9th Annual Conference of the ACP India Chapter in Lucknow.

Dr Jitendra Singh is a Doctor and is also the  Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.