Scientists demand award named after researcher Prof Har Swarup

Bhopal: Eminent scientist late Prof Har Swarup, who did pioneering research in the field of nuclear transplantation and cloning, has not been given due recognition, several researchers have expressed.

"At least now the Madhya Pradesh government should have instituted an award, as promised, in his honour after acclaimed British scientist Prof John Gurdon got the Nobel Prize for 2012 on the same subject," noted scientists Dr P D P Rao, former Vice Chancellor Prof Santosh Kumar and Prof P Shrivastava told PTI today. Rao is the head of Zoology department at Nagpur University while Shrivastava is the head of Limnology department at Barkatullah University in Bhopal. Prof Har Swarup and Prof John Gurdon had researched together in late 1950s at Oxford and induced successfully nuclear transplantation. "While Prof Har Swarup worked on the Stickleback fish, Prof John Gurdon used the same technique on frog Xenopus with Michael Fischberg at Oxford University," they said. In recognition of his pioneering research and his valuable contribution in the field of higher education, the then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had announced on July 29, 2000, to institute an award to be given every year to a young scientist. However, nothing had happened after that, they said. Prof Swarup was born on December 9, 1922 in Biora town of Rajgarh district and passed away in 1981 when he was serving as Vice Chancellor of the Jiwaji University at Gwalior. He had contributed immensely for the development of science and technology in the country as the sectional president of Indian Science Congress in 1971. Madhya Pradesh government officials could not be contacted for comments on the issue. PTI