Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forests & Climate Change Dr. Harshvardhan inaugurated the 11th Foundation Day of Ministry of Earth Sciences in New Delhi today.Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Harshvardhan said that the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is mandated to provide the nation with the best possible services in forecasting the monsoons and other weather/climate parameters, ocean state, earthquakes, tsunamis and other phenomena related to earth systems, for the Public Safety and socio-economic benefits. The Ministry also deals with science and technology for exploration and exploitation of ocean resources (living and non-living), and play nodal role for Antarctic/Arctic/Himalayas and Southern Ocean research. On this occasion, the Minister also launched two Mobile Apps (i) ‘India Quake’ for dissemination of earthquake parameters and (ii) ‘Sagar Vani’ to disseminate ocean information and alerts to the user community in timely manner. The foundation day lecture was given by Dr. Michael McPhaden, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, is president of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
In order to provide due recognition and platform to major scientific contributions made by eminent scientists/engineers in various fields of Earth System Science and also considering the need to encourage young researchers for coming into the mainstream of Earth System Science, the ESSO has instituted the Life Time Excellence Award and National Earth System Sciences Awards. The Life Time Excellence Award was presented to Professor K. Gopalan for his significant contribution in the field of isotope geoscience. The National Awards for Ocean Science & technology, Atmospheric Science & technology and Geoscience & technology were given to Prof. P. N. Vinayachandran, Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy and Professsor K. S. Krishna respectively. The Young Researcher Awards were presented to Dr. Dhanya C. T. and Dr. Vikram Vishal for their outstanding work in Earth Science & Technology. In addition, certificates of merit were also presented to the scientists from MoES. School children were awarded Drawing Competition Prizes.