The Kerala State Young Scientist Awards for 2020 were presented to scientists from different disciplines for contributions in the fields of mathematics, smart materials, electrical engineering and conservation of tree species.
The awards were presented on Saturday at the valedictory of the 33rd Kerala Science Congress organised by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment.
Deepu Sivadas, a postdoctoral fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI), Palode, won the award for his contributions to IUCN red-listing of tree species in the Western Ghats. He assessed the conservation status of 90 tree species in the Ghats with emphasis on endemics. Mr. Deepu is a trained IUCN Red List assessor and a commission member of IUCN Species Survival Commission.
Sreejith Shankar P. was awarded for his work on cost-effective smart materials which can be used as smart window components on futuristic net-positive energy buildings. These materials change their colour, transparency and light/heat throughput depending on applied voltage or temperature. Mr. Shankar is a Ramanujan Fellow and assistant professor at the Photosciences and Photonics Section of the Chemical Sciences and Technology Division at CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Pappanamcode.
A. A. Ambily, assistant professor, Department of Mathematics, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), was awarded for her contributions to the classical algebraic K-theory. She contributed to the study of the structure of orthogonal groups and their elementary subgroup, the Dickson-Siegel-Eichler-Roy (DSER) orthogonal group. To study the DSER group structure, Ms. Ambily developed the commutator calculus.
R. Sudarshan Kaarthik won the Young Scientist Award for his contributions in the field of electrical engineering.
As assistant professor at the Department of Avionics, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), he has developed a cost-effective, integrated battery charger for electric vehicles.
He has proposed innovative circuit topologies and control techniques for multi-phase drives, drives with parameter estimation and multi-level converters.
