IEP Chandigarh
PGIMER’s 9th Annual Research Day, the big ticket medical research showcase, concluded on a highly successful note with over 500 research papers on display and 37 researchers winning awards in the surgical, medical, and basic sciences fields for ‘Research publications’ and 9 researchers in the ‘Innovations’category for their exemplary and credible research work conducted here at PGIMER in the last three years.
The Annual Research Day had the august presence of esteemed Prof M Srinivas, Director of the AIIMS,New Delhi as the Chief Guest. Ms. Tamar Ghosh, CEO of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London; and Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, Director of the IIT, Ropar graced as the Guests of Honour at an impressive function organised to mark the 9th Annual Research Day at Bhargava Auditorium here at PGIMER today.
Prof M Srinivas, Director, AIIMS,New Delhi while addressing the audience as the Chief Guest highlighted, “The fusion between medicine and technology is the way forward as we in India are focusing on ‘Make in India’ campaign. These endeavours towards research are a step forward towards collaboration, towards bringing in fusion between medical and engineering, which is commendable as we haven’t seen these initiatives much in India.”
Complimenting PGIMER for being visionary in making efforts towards collaborations, Prof. M. Srinivas stated, “The kind of research that is on display, with less resources, without scientists and despite the huge workload is appreciable. It’s a great thing that the past and present luminaries have brought this institute to this level of clinical and research experience and the quality and the standards is clearly visible in the outcome of the research.”
Speaking on Grant opportunities from Royal Society ofTropical Medicine, Ms. Tamar Ghosh, CEO of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London,who graced the occasion as Guest of Honour detailed about the initiatives of the organisation as she stated, “We help building the careers of our members by funding them, by showcasing them, by publishing their work, by giving them platforms to learn new skills by introducing them to new networks, and individuals around the world.”
Ms Tamar Ghosh encouraged the young researchers to apply for funding with her organisation,“Whether the research project be in a lab, a field-based project with communities or policy-based project, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter what disease area, it’s in the area of health. The point is we want to stimulate the new leaders and the new innovators by taking that first plunge doing their first projects.”
Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, Director IIT, Ropar, present as Guest of Honour, emphasised research as the mother of innovation as he said, “You cannot be an innovative country until your research is very strong. The most innovative countries in the world are small Nordic countries which are in the top 10 in innovation. However, in India, we are below 40. Though we have made a lot of progress, there is still a long way to go.”
Highlighting ‘collaborative efforts’ as the precursor for research, Director IIT, Roparspoke on the upcoming hub for medical innovations in IIT Ropar and the MoU signed between PGIMER, Chandigarh and IIT, Ropar.
Earlier, while welcoming the dignitaries, Prof. Vivek Lal, Director PGIMER cited India as the pioneer in research and highlighted the rich research and scientific heritage of PGIMER.Expressing gratification to see such an overwhelming response to the 9th Annual research Day, the Director PGIMER said, “Some of the series were absolutely outstanding outstandingly displayed, outstandingly discussed and presented in our interview and have been published in outstanding impact journals.”
The Director PGIMER highlighted, “Commitment to me comes before equipment. In today’s time and age, equipment is important, but commitment is still more important than it.”
The event concluded with the award ceremony wherein 37 researchers won awards in the surgical, medical, and basic sciences fields for ‘Research publications’ and 9 researchers in the ‘Innovations’ category The awards were based on the H Index which measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications.
The winners include Dr Rakesh Sehgal (Medical Parasitology), Dr Joseph L Mathew (Pediatric Pulmonology), Dr Usha Dutta (Gastroenterology), Dr Suchet Sachdev (Transfusion Medicine), Dr Tulika Gupta (Anatomy), Dr Maryada Sharma (ENT), Dr Karthigeyan M (Neurosurgery), Dr Sunil Kumar Bijarania (Anesthesia) and Ms. Gunjan Goyal (Medical Parasitology) received awards for their innovations. The three best published research papers each in category of Assistant Professor (Medicine- Rimesh Pal, Valliappan Muthu, Arka De; Surgery- Shipra Gupta, Venkata Ganesh, Aakriti Gupta; Basic sciences- Kamal Kishore, Manju Dhandapani, Rakesh Yadav), Associate Professor (Medicine- Vishal Sharma, Ashu Rastogi, Krishan Kumar; Surgery- Nitika Goel, Manjul Tripathi, Aditya Prakash Sharma; Basic sciences- Amol Patil, Ashish Kakkar, Parikshaa Gupta) Additional Professor (Jaya Shukla), and Professor (Medicine- Ritesh Agarwal, Ravindra Khaiwal, Shankar Prinja; Surgery- Vishali Gupta, Shalini Gainder, Praveen Salunke; Basic sciences- Bikash Medhi, Anup Ghosh, Shalmoli Bhattacharya) received awards in this ceremony.
Naveen M, ChandrimaNaskar received awards in the resident’s category; Shweta and Subodh Kumar in the Pool officer category/post-doctoral fellow category, Manisha Prajapat and Nishant Shekhar in PhD category, while Sinu Jose, Gunjan Goyal, and Geetanjali Kalyan received awards in the miscellaneous category.
The event was aptly wrapped by Prof. Rakesh Sehgal, Dean (Academics) &Head ,Deptt. of Medical Parasitology, PGIMERby proposing a vote of thanks.
