1. About the award
The aim of this award, instituted by the Astronomical Society of India, is to motivate non-professional astronomers to make astronomy and astrophysics related discoveries. The award need not be given each year.
The award consists of a cash prize of Rs.10,000/- and a citation of honour.
2. Nomination Criteria
The nominees shall be non-professional astronomers such as amateur astronomers, students or citizen scientists. The discovery could include any aspect of Astronomy and Astrophysics - observational, theoretical, modelling, etc.
Students pursuing PhD in Astronomy/Astrophysics and related areas are not eligible for nomination. In addition, the work of students carrying out research projects or theses with professional astronomers that leads to, or comprises part of, the project/thesis will not be eligible for nomination.
3. Application
All nominations for the award must be received by the ASI, by the deadline as indicated on the website of the ASI. Nominations must be submitted via the online interface on the ASI website. Nominations can be made by professional astronomers or other eminent members of the ASI.
For the award year 2024, the nominations for the award must be received by 18th Nov 2024.
Nominations must include the following material:
- Name of Nominee
- Details of Nominee
- Affiliation
- Address
- email id
- Mobile phone number
- Nomination letter with signature and date
- A statement clearly outlining the merits of the work of the nominee
- A short biography and CV of the nominee
- Details of Proposer
- Name
- Designation and Affiliation
- Address for correspondence,
- Email id
- Phone number
Online form is closed.
4. Selection Process
A three/five member Award Selection Committee (ASC) is constituted by the ASI ensuring technical and gender representation. Each member of the ASC receives all nominations along with the supporting material. The ASC will communicate the result of its deliberations to the ASI council within three month following the submission deadline.
5.Announcement of the Award
The successful nominee will be informed of the decision of the ASI council and be asked to receive the award during the following ASI meeting.
The list of past awardees is as follows -
Year | Awardee | Discovery |
---|---|---|
2023 | Mr. Kshitij Chavan | A giant radio galaxy with three cycles of episodic jet activity" using the LOFAR Radio Survey data |
2023 | Mr. Salil Mulye (Special mention) | Discoveries of the Sun grazing comets using the SOHO data |
2020 | Dr. Kanak Saha (IUCAA) and Team | the detection of Lyman continuum emission from a z = 1.42 galaxy using AstroSat |
2020 (Special mention) | Kunal Deshmukh, Harsh Kumar and Kritti Sharma, a team of students from IIT Bombay | Discovering multiple Near Earth Objects |
2019 | Not Awarded | - |
2018 | Prof. Joydeep Bagchi and team | Saraswati Supercluster |
2011 | Mr. Shishir Deshmukh | comets using SOHO data |
1996 | R. Rajamohan (Leader), J. C. Bhattacharyya, K. Kuppuswamy, A. Paranjpye, V. Moorthy, R. Vasundhara | Discovery related to asteroids |