IITK Alumnus is Fellow of Royal Society

It is perhaps dated, but I just got this mail from Alumni Association, which I thought I should share on this blog.

Professor Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan has been inducted as Fellow of Royal Society.

Born on 3 February 1954, Prof Raghavan, is currently the senior Professor and Director of The National Centre for Biological Sciences. He is an inspirational leader successfully promoting excellence in Indian biology. Growing under his inclusive leadership, the National Centre for Biological Sciences is recognized internationally as a world-class institution. He has been an exemplary mentor, forging partnerships to grow life sciences research. He has worked to establish new institutions, drawing the best young scientists to India. An outstanding developmental geneticist, his contributions to understanding the cellular and molecular principles of adult muscle development in Drosophila are widely recognized. He has elegantly combined these studies with those on the development of the nervous system to study the control and development of movement.

Dr K VijayRaghavan, after doing B Tech in 1975 and M Tech in 1977 in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur obtained his PhD degree in Molecular Biology from TIFR Bombay. From 1984 to 1988 he worked at California Institute of Technology, USA in the area of Molecular Biology and Genetics. After returning from USA he joined NCBS as a Reader where he is currently a Professor and the Director.

Dr K VijayRaghavan has earlier worked on the function and analysis of a blood oxygeneator and heart- lung- machine at IIT Kanpur, genetic analysis of flight muscle in Drosophila, genetics of steroid hormone regulated genes in Drosophila and the molecular analysis of brain mRNAs in flies. His current interests lie in understanding mechanisms underlying animal development, in particular the formation of muscles in the fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster. A Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science Academy, Dr K VijayRaghavan is recipient of several awards as British Council Fellowship, Proctor and Gamble Fellowship (Caltech), Lucile P Markey Fellowship (Caltech) and Biotechnology Career Development Award of Rockfeller Foundation. In 1998, Dr K VijayRaghavan was conferred with the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Biology. Author of several technical papers in refereed journals, Dr K VijayRaghavan was also a member of the editorial board of Journal of Genetics. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Jubilant Biosys. He is also a recipient of Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Kanpur.

The other two distinguished IITK alumni who have been inducted as Fellow of Royal Society in the past are Prof Mriganka Sur (BT/EE/74), and Prof Ashoke Sen (MSC2/PHY/78).