4th Pran Nath Vohra Oration held at PU

Chandigarh September 26, 2019

            The Department of Chemistry, Panjab University organized the 4^th Pran Nath Vohra Oration & award ceremony, here today as a tribute to the distinguished alumnus of the department, late Dr. Pran Nath Vohra (1919-2004). The Oration was delivered by Padma Vibhushan Prof. Rajagopala Chidambaram, DAE-Homi Bhabha Professor at Bhabha Atomic Research Center. He is an internationally acclaimed physicist who is known for his integral role in India’s Nuclear weapons program. Prof. Chidambram has represented and led both the teams who conducted Nuclear Tests during Pokharan I (1974) and Pokharan II (1998). Besides this, Prof. Chidambaram has served on many prestigious positions in Federal Government of India as Principal Scientific Advisor and as Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission. He is the former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and has served as chairman of the board of Governors of International Atomic Energy Agency. He was also a member of the Commission of Eminent Persons appointed by the Director-General, IAEA, in 2008 to prepare a report on “The Role of the IAEA to 2020 and Beyond”.

            Well known for his contributions to National defence and Energy security to India, Prof. Chidambaram in his talk emphasised on the need to increase the utility of all the energy sources including nuclear energy in uplifting the energy production in India. He emphasised on the fact that the development of nation and upgradation of its Defence and Security go hand in hand and are meaningless if done alone. Prof. Chidambaram talked about the need of increasing the energy production by 6 to 8 times of the present energy production in India. He specifically pressed on the importance of Women literacy in achieving all-round development of the nation as this factor alone plays a key role in defining GNI per capita of the nation. He reminded all scientists, especially young chemists and researchers to adopt a path to sustainability in their future scientific endeavours and suggested to explore the scientific potential of sharp minds throughout the country and focussed on inter-institute collaborations to achieve the desired goals. Prof. G.R. Chaudhary, Convener, Pran Nath Vohra Trust Fund concluded the function with his vote of thanks.

            Prof. Chidambaram’s other prominent awards are the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Science (1991), the C.V. Raman Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress Association (1995), the Distinguished Materials Scientist of the Year Award of the Materials Research Society of India (1996), the R.D. Birla Award of the Indian Physics Association (1996), the H. K. Forodia Award for Excellence in S & T (1998), the Hari Om Prerit Senior Scientist Award (2000), the Meghnad Saha Medal of the Indian National Science Academy (2002), the INS Homi Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Nuclear Society (2006), the Life Time Contribution Award in Engineering (2009) from Indian National Academy of Engineering, the C.V. Raman Medal of the Indian National Science Academy. Prof. Chidambaram is a Fellow of all the science Academies in India and the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS), Trieste (Italy).