Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood presently Member, Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council to the Prime Minister as Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India.
Professor Ajay K. Sood was born on June 26, 1951. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Panjab University, Chandigarh in 1971 and 1972, respectively, and immediately joined the BARC training school. While posted as a scientist at the IGCAR, Kalpakkam, he was awarded Ph.D. degree by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1982. After postdoctoral research at Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart, followed by a brief period of service at IGCAR, he joined IISc, Bangalore in 1988 where he continues to serve till now. During three decades of association with IISc, he has served in various capacities including the Chairman, Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1998-2008). Professor Ajay Sood has made outstanding contributions in both hard- and soft-condensed matter that are profound in terms of experimental discovery as well as theoretical understanding. Most of his research in condensed matter has strong overlap with materials science and engineering. Some of his research interests lie at the interface between physics and biology. He has developed some of the finest experimental techniques, applied them to discover many fascinating natural phenomena, and used them to design sensitive devices for practical applications.
His publications, totalling close to four hundred so far, cover a wide range of topics. Several of his innovations have been patented. He has guided more than 30 Ph.D. theses. In 2015, Professor Sood was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) London. At present, he is the President of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi and Secretary General, TWAS (2013-18). Earlier, he served as the President of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore during 2010-12. He is an elected Fellow of all the three National Science Academies in India and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Prof. Sood has been honoured with a large number of prestigious awards which include the S.S. Bhatnagar Award (1990), TWAS prize (2000), G.D. Birla Science Award (2000), Bhabha medal of INSA (2002), Materials Research Society (India) Medal (2000), Millennium Gold Medal of Indian Science Congress (2000), M.N. Saha Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress (2003-2004), Sir C.V. Raman Award (2003), Goyal prize (2003), National Award in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, DST (2006), Bhatnagar Fellowship of CSIR (2007), G.M. Modi Award (2012), R D Birla Award for Excellence in Physics by IPA (2014), Life Time Achievement Award by Optical Society of India (2016), Distinguished Alumnus Award of IISc (2016) and MRSI Distinguished Material Scientist of the Year (2016).
At the national level, Prof. Sood has served as Member, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (2009-2014), Member, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) (2012-2014), Chairman, Council, Raman Research Institute (2016-present), Member, Nano Mission Council of DST, Chairman, Nano Science Advisory Group of DST, Member, Board of Governors of the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), and Member, Governing Body and the Society of the CSIR (2013-2016). In recognition of his scientific contributions and service to science in India, he has been honoured with “Padma Shri” by the Government of India in 2013.
Indian Bureaucracy Dot Com wishes Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood the very best.
