By Aashutosh Mule
29th September 2021
Close to a hundred students from across the country bagged awards during the National Meet 2020 for their innovative home-lab activities during the pandemic imposed lockdown. The online National meet was organized to celebrate the spirit of CUBists to continue with their project work inspite of the restrictions imposed by the lockdown. When the lockdown robbed students of their access to the college labs, these students turned their kitchens into labs. Continuing their work in these home labs meant that they had to come up with innovative ways to do experiments with resources available at home. They had to find home-based alternatives to ingredients otherwise found only in a lab. They had to innovate simple ways of investigating their model organisms. Students put to use the collaborative spirit of CUBE to engage in productive discussions that yielded solutions to these new challenges. This spirit of the students certainly deserved to be awarded. Six months into running the show, the students bagged various awards under nine separate categories for their innovative work at the National meet. We list below all the awards received:
Anil Sadgopal Award 2020 for Popularization of Science & Contribution to Science Outreach: Anil Sadgopal was one of the first persons to start Science outreach programs in the country and these awards are offered under his name for the efforts put in for outreach of CUBE-based and associative studies. The persons receiving thw awards have contributed by connevting with other people and increasing the reach of the CUBE program.
KS Krishnan Student Mentor Award 2020: The CUBE program would have never happened without students who gain experience and begin to play the role of mentors for the new recruiting students. This award is to acknowledge these mentoring efforts put in by these students at making the CUBE model work. The duration taken by to turn into a mentor may differ from one awardee to the next, being anywhere between 6 months to even just a week after joing the program.
Veronica Rodrigues Award 2020 for Perseverance in the Pursuit of Science: This award is offered under the name of the late TIFR stalwart Veronica Rodrgigues who…. It would have been difficult to bring about the level of activities that we mangaged during the lockdown period without these very crucial contributions by the awardees under this category. Their perseverance have been evident by the frequency at which they actively participate in the daily ChatShaala sessions and their enormous writing contributions on the metasudio platform and on the CUBE social networking groups.
DD Kosambi Young Scientists Awards 2020: DD Kosambi was a mathematician and a statistician in TIFR who contributed immesely to the field of biology, particularly in the domain of population genetics. This award is offered under his name to all the upcoming CUBists who hold the promise of carrying the flag forward for CUBE as well of turning into a good scientists themselves in their career ahead.
SK Mahajan Award for Popularization of Scientific Pursuit: TThe late S.K. Mahajan has contributed a lot both by his high level work at BARC in molecular biology and also by his efforts on promoting science and scientific temper. This ward is offered in his name for the for efforts put in by people in popularizing science and science education.