Two University of Hyderabad professors selected for NASI fellowship for 2019

Hyderabad: Two Professors of University of Hyderabad (UoH) have been selected for the National Academy of Science, India (NASI) fellowship for the year 2019. Prof. Akhil K. Sahoo, School of Chemistry for his significant contributions in organic chemistry, by introducing the concept of reusable directing groups in the field of C-H activation and Prof. Ch. Venkata Ramana , Head, Department of Plant Sciences for his extensive work on bacterial diversity and their metabolism. He made a huge collection of bacteria and developed expertise for polyphasic taxonomy. He has also developed microbial process for mass production of secondary products and transferred technology to Industry.

Akhil K. Sahoo joined University of Hyderabad 2007. Earlier, he worked as a Scientist at Sai Advantium Pharma Limited. Mr. Akhil Sahoo did his Postdoctoral Research at Kyoto University, Japan and Ph.D. at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Mr. Akhil Sahoo's Research work includes C-H Activation, Ynamides, Energy Materials, Organometallics.

Venkata Ramana, has found a place among the top 100 researchers of India across all disciplines in an initiative to know who are India's most prolific research publishers by careers 360, a magazine published by the Outlook Group in the issue dated March 2015. He works on bacterial diversity and metabolomics. He is indexing the bacterial wealth of India and assessing the assets and liabilities of bacteria and their metabolites. He feels that India has spent enough time in indexing the macro-life (Plants and Animals) and it's time to index the micro-life (Bacteria, fungi and viruses) and closely understand their psychology in regulating all major life forms and ecosystems. The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, is the oldest of the three Science Academies of India.

It was visualized by Prof. Meghnad Saha at the Allahabad University in 1929 and was founded in the year 1930 with the objective of providing a national forum for the publication of research work carried out by Indian scientists and to provide them opportunities for exchange of ideas/concepts among themselves. The Academy has presently 1755 Members and 1777 Fellows from all parts of the country; including 16 Honorary Fellows and 97 Foreign Fellows from various disciplines of Science and Technology.