NRI scientist named to elite US group
This prestigious study group assists US with science and tech of defence and national security, writes Lalit K Jha.
An Indo-American woman scientist has been nominated to a prestigious study group that assists the United States with the science and technology of defence and national security.
Associate Professor of chemical and biological engineering at the Iowa State University and Associate Scientist at the US Department of Energy's prestigious Ames Laboratory, Surya Mallapragada, would join the prestigious Defence Study Science Group for about two year tenure in six months from now in 2006.
Part of the prestigious Institute for Defence Analyses, which is a non-profit corporation funded by the Bush administration, the group assists the United States with science and technology of defence and national security, officials said.
Exclaiming jubilation over being nominated to this national security group, Mallapragada, said: "It is a chance to meet other researchers scientists working in similar areas and more importantly, to see what needs are out there and come up with some exciting new ideas."
Mallapragada, who in 2002 was named by the MIT's Technology Review as one of the "Top 100 Young Innovators", said that the "Defence Study Science Group does not go strictly to only those who are doing typical defence-type projects."
Having done some pioneering research in designing polymers for various bioengineering applications, including medical applications, she also won the Global Indus Technovators Award in 2003.
The Defence Study Science Group, according to university officials, every year invites about a dozen young scientists from the various universities and research centres to take part in its two-year program focused on its defence policy, research and development.
"The study group also looks at the systems, missions and operations of the US military. Researchers are nominated to the group by academic officers in their home institutions, study group alumni or members of the US defence establishment," officials said.
Study group members annually participate in a series of four sessions at various defence installations and military contractors across the US.
Mallapragada, who teaches chemical engineering to undergraduate and graduate students and does research in the area of polymeric materials for medical applications, earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Purdue University, West Lafayette.
The general theme of her research so far has been to make new polymeric materials or to modify existing polymeric materials to make them suitable for controlled drug release or for tissue engineering applications.
These involve projects like developing patterned biodegradable polymers to help nerve regeneration and to make new environmentally sensitive smart polymers for drug release, she said.