YIM Boston introduced the YIM-Young Scientist Award in 2012 to recognize the contributions of young scientists who successfully setup the lab in India, and shown outstanding performance in their independent career and contributed to the research community.
Sandhya P. Koushika received her PhD from Brandeis University and had a post-doctoral training at Washington University, St. Louis, USA. She is currently an assistant professor at Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. She is also the recipient of the HHMI’s prestigious International Early Career Scientist award. She pioneers in studying long-distance transport of organelles within neurons using genetically tractable models, state of art imaging technologies and mathematical models. Her research contributes in understanding the development of the nervous system and its associated neurodegenerative diseases. Particularly, her lab is keen in identifying molecules and mechanisms that regulate the transport synaptic vesicles.
Jayandharan G Rao [Jay] graduated from Christian Medical College (CMC ), Vellore and had his postdoctoral training at the University of Florida. He started his independent research career in 2010 and is currently working as an Associate Professor at CMC, Vellore, India. Jay’s team works towards understanding the basic biology of adeno- associated virus (AAV) and translates this information to develop novel gene therapy strategies. His group has developed AAV based gene transfer vectors that exhibit improved gene expression as well as reduced immunogenicity. He has also been recipient of awards such as Swarnajayanthi fellowship from Department of Science and Technology (2011), Innovative young biotechnologist award from Department of Biotechnology (IYBA, 2010) and Senior IYBA (2014), Eberhard Mammen Young Investigator award (2010) and Bayer Early career investigator award from Bayer Inc. USA (2010).
Dr. Suresh has obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam and Ph.D. from University of Pune. He obtained post doctral traning from Nagoya Uni Japan and Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. He started his independent research career in 2005 at CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology.
He has published 120 papers in the broad area of Applied Theoretical Chemistry, dealing with structure and reactivity of molecules. He has bee awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellowship 2009 and CRSI Young Scientist award 2012.
Dr Rajadurai Chandrasekar is an Associate Professor of Inorganic and Materials Chemistry, University of Hyderab (UoH).He is also heading the prestigious Max Planck Partn Group for Materials Chemistry at UoH. He graduated from MPIP-Mainz and has a postdoctoral training at the Institut of Nanotechnology, KIT, Germany.
Since 2008 his research group at UoH is working on the development and understanding of functional (photonic and magnetic) nano/micro scale solids, patterns and devices obtained from tailor-made molecular buildin blocks. His original contributions in the area of confinement with in nano-organic photonics research are know as "passive organicoptical- wave guides"
Dr. Yamuna Krishnan is an Assistant Professor at NCBS, Bangalore. She graduated from IISc and had a postdoctoral training in University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on developing intelligent DNA- based molecular devices to interrogate intracellular processes.
She started her independent group at NCBS in 2005. She developed innovative approaches to map intracellular mileu in order to understand complex trafficking events by using functional DNA nanodevices. Her path breaking contribution focuses on the creation and development of a new research field that uses DNA an intelligent sensors inside living systems that now assuming a significant role in the field of functional DNA nanotechnology.
Dr Swadhin Mandal is an Assistant Professor at IISER, Kolkata. He graduated from IISc and had a postdoctoral training Univ. of California, Riverside, then moved to Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.
His research focuses on developing next-generation organometallic catalysts for a wide range of important homogeneous transformations such as Suzuki, Sonogashira couplings and hydroaminations. His scholarly approaches in developing organic spintronics materials have been widely recognized. He aims at devising advanced materials of catalytic, industrial, and medicinal importance from green-chemical sources in a cost-effective manner.
