KU will confer the Goyal Peace Prize on ISRO Chairman S. Somanath

Chandigarh, 6th September. Kurukshetra University’s Goyal Prize award committee, headed by Vice-Chancellor Prof Som Nath Sachdeva, has decided to confer the 2021-22 Goyal Peace Prize on ISRO Chairman S. Somanath for his contributions in the field of Space technology. S. Somanath has consented to receive the Goyal Award in a ceremony to be organized at KU in near future. The Governor of Haryana and Chancellor of KU, Bandaru Dattareya and Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal have appreciated the decision of the Goyal Prize Award committee to confer the Goyal Peace prize on S. Somanath.

In an official press release of KU, Prof Som Nath said that S. Somanath has worked tirelessly during his tenure as a scientist and then as Chairman ISRO to use space technology for the benefit of humanity. He further said that PM Modi had also lauded the work of ISRO in his speech at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru recently where he appreciated ISRO’s space missions for the “ease of living and ease of governance” and also in “providing education, communication and health services to the remote areas of the country.”

Prof Som Nath further said that 110 eminent scientists belonging to different disciplines have been honoured with Goyal Awards. Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International was the first recipient of Goyal Peace Prize in 2015. Some of the eminent past awardees of Goyal Prizes include Prof CNR Rao, former Director IISC Bangalore, Dr Goverdhan Mehta, former CSIR Bhatnagar fellow at IISC, Dr RA Mashelkar, former DG CSIR, Dr Obaid Siddiqui, former Director of TIFR’s National center for Biological Sciences and Dr AK Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt. of India. Former ISRO Chairman, Dr K Kasturirangan was also a recipient of the Goyal Prize in 1998.