India’s highest science journalism award conferred on Pallava Bagla,
LEAD India Fellow, Cohort 9

Dear Friends,

I am delighted and also incredibly humbled to inform you that I have just been awarded the `National Award for Outstanding Effort in Science & Technology Communication in Print Medium'. The new award is the highest of its kind in India and is given by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi.

This coveted award is given for a body of work, and has just been instituted, making me the first winner. An eminent jury consisting of scientists, writers, and science communicators selected the winner.

A) On this link you can read a news story that appeared in India's leading daily The Indian Express on February 28, 2006 on the award function
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=171727

B) Through this link you can read press release done by AAAS titled: `Science Journalist Pallava Bagla Wins India’s Top S&T Communications Prize'.
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2006/0301bagla.shtml

Brief biography:

Pallava Bagla has been a globally acclaimed award winning photojournalist for 20 years, and during this time he has come to be respected for his breaking news stories and for having showcased Indian science and technology to the world in a decade of writing for Science, the prestigious weekly magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington D. C. He is also a frequent contributor to the leading national daily, The Indian Express. Bagla is also a still photographer working for Corbis, the world’s largest photo agency owned by Microsoft chief, Mr. Bill Gates. His pictures have found place in respected magazines like National Geographic, Time, Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American, Newsweek, Elle and The Economist. He has published over 700 news and features stories in leading national and international publications; published five books; edited five books and over 1700 photographs taken by him have been published over the years.

Most recently, Bagla’s exclusive and extensive interview with Dr. Anil Kakodkar, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Mumbai (The Indian Express, dated February 6, 2006), where in Kakodkar expressed his anguish about how the US was `changing the goalpost’ in the implementation of the landmark civilian nuclear deal created an unparalleled stir in India.

In 2003, he became the first Indian to win the `Outstanding Journalism’ award from the United Nations sponsored Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) the world’s apex body looking after agricultural research and headquartered at The World Bank, Washington DC. Previously, he was awarded the prestigious science writing fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA in 1994. In 2004, he became a Fellow of the Leadership in Environment and Development (LEAD), London, UK.

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Pallava Bagla
Chief Correspondent (South Asia)
SCIENCE
www.sciencemag.org

Email: pbagla@vsnl.com
Tel: (011) 2271 2896 (Work)
Mobile: (+91) 98103 01400
Fax: (+91 11) 2271 5964
Address: 72, Samachar Apartments, Mayur Vihar I, Delhi 110 091, India.