Sunish Kumar Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram, has been nominated for the Swarnajayanti fellowship instituted by the Union Department of Science and Technology for the year 2014- 15. The award comprises a monthly fellowship of Rs.25,000 for five years, apart from financial assistance for equipment, computational facilities, consumables, contingencies and national and international travel. The scheme is aimed at providing young scientists with special assistance and support to enable them to pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology.
Dr. Radhakrishnan won the award in the life science category. His research group at IISER uses the bacterium, Caulobacter crescentus , to understand various processes during the cell cycle, a sequential coordination of events leading to the formation of tissues, organs, organ systems and finally the complete organism.
“The molecular mechanisms that control the transition from the quiescent to the dividing phase has remained a grey area, primarily due to the absence of effective molecular tools,” says Dr. Radhakrishnan. “My research group hopes to overcome this roadblock using a newly discovered molecular tool in the simple, but powerful bacterial model organism, Caulobacter crescentus.”
After his PhD from Pondicherry University, Dr. Radhakrishnan did his post doctoral training from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Case School of Medicine, USA. He has published 15 research articles in international journals.
“The Swarnajayanti fellowship is a prestigious award instituted by the DST for talented young scientists,” says Suresh Das, Executive Vice President, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, who had been on the selection committee of the scheme. “It is a keenly contested award, a recognition for outstanding research work, and is aimed at supporting the scientist in the next stage of research.”
Kana M. Sureshan, Assistant Professor, IISER, Thiruvananthapuram, and A. Ajayaghosh, Director, National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology , Thiruvananthapuram, had won the award earlier.
