Prof Mittal of IIT Kanpur awarded 25th G D Birla 2015
23 June, New Delhi
The 25th G D Birla award for Scientific Research for 2015 has been conferred upon Professor Sanjay Mittal, Department of Aerospace Engineering , Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for his pioneering work in the area of Mechanics.
The award carries a cash prize of Rs 2.50 lakh. It is given in recognition to high end scientific research undertaken by Indian scientists living and working in India. The peculiarity of the award is that it is bestowed upon eminent Indian scientists below the age of 50 for their valuable contributions to any branch of science or technology.
The selection for the award is made by a Board headed by the president of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi who presently is Professor Raghavendra Gadagkar. Earlier, three awardees Dr R A Mashelkar, Prof Ashoke Sen and Dr Goverdhan Mehta were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, London indicating the rigorous process of selection made for this award. Others too have earned laurels in their respective fields.
The board includes a team of distinguished scientists like Dr Suresh Rituparna , Director of the Foundation, New Delhi , Prof T Padmanabhan, Dean, Core Academic programmes, IUCCA, Pune among others.Prof Mittal, born on February 27, 1968 is professor in the department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. His most significant contribution has been in the area of Bluff Body flows (Flows past blunt bodies associated with large unsteady separation and leading to large fluid forces).
Prof Mittal’s main research interest lies in unsteady flows. He was instrumental in establishing the HPC facility, at IIT, Kanpur and heads the National Wind Tunnel facility. He is one of the very few people in India who develop and use Finite Element Analysis for fluid flows. Also, he is one of the very few researchers who practice, both, numerics and laboratory experiments.His work on vortex induced vibration on bodies is also very significant.
Prof Mittal has made several contributions to developments of finite element algorithms for high performance computing. He also works in the area of sports aerodynamics. He is one of the very few experts in the world to design Ram-air parachute systems which are very popular with the sports community.
Prof Mittal has won several other awards and fellowships like INSA Medal for Young scientist (1999), INAE young engineer award (2000), A K Bose Memorial award (2002), Swarnajayanti fellowship (2003), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in engineering services (2006), Scopus Young scientist in engineering, Elsevier, (2007), and JC Bose Fellowship (2013). He is a fellow of all the four major national academies.