Kumaun University VC honoured with FNA by Indian National Science Academy

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) The Indian National Science Academy has selected Professor Diwan S Rawat of Delhi University as a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA). It is considered to be the topmost honour of Indian Science.  

Rawat is a Senior Professor of Chemistry at the University of Delhi and is currently serving as Vice Chancellor of Kumaun University. The Professor has published over 175 research papers and has nine patents to his credit.

According to the Indian National Science Academy, Professor Rawat has been selected for his work in Medicinal Chemistry, in particular, his path-breaking research on drug development for Parkinson treatment. He did postdoctoral work at Indiana University and Purdue University, USA, at the beginning of his career.

Rawat told IANS that the molecule his laboratory developed has cleared phase I human clinical trials for Parkinson treatment. This was the first molecule that got US FDA approval from any Indian academic institute. He was an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, before joining the University of Delhi in 2003.

From Uttarakhand, he is the second Chemistry Professor till now to get this honour, the first being Dr DS Bhakuni (Prof Rawat PhD supervisor) got FNA in 1979. Rawat informed IANS that two more molecules developed by his lab are in the preclinical stage of development, one for autoimmune disease treatment and the other for dementia.

Prof Rawat has published over 175 research papers; his work has been cited over 7750 times with an impressive h-index of 52 and an i10 index of 139. He supervised 28 doctoral students. He said that as a Vice Chancellor, he has taken up many reformative steps at Kumaun University, got Rs 100 crore under MERU, DST Pair grant and 26.4 acres of land at Patwadangar to establish the MERU campus. He said that, despite being the vice chancellor, he has been regularly taking classes.

At the University of Delhi, Rawat joined the Department as a Reader in July 2003 and was promoted to Professor in March 2010. He obtained his master’s degree from Kumaun University, Nainital, in 1993 and was honoured with the merit certificate for securing first position in the University. He did his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow.

--IANS

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