IIT Mandi Faculty Honored With ‘Young Scientist Award’ by URSI for His Contribution to Radio Science

Mandi: Indian Institute of Technology Mandi faculty Dr. G. Shrikanth Reddy has been awarded ‘The International Union of Radio Science (URSI) – Young Scientist Award 2019’ for his substantial contribution to the field of radio science.

An Assistant Professor in School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi, Dr. G. Shrikanth Reddy was presented with the award by the URSI Society during the 2019 URSI Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference (APRASC-2019), held on 13th March 2019 at New Delhi. The Young Scientist Award (YSA) is awarded to scientists/ researchers who are less than 35 years of age and have contributed substantially in the area of Electromagnetic Waves and Propagation.

Speaking about this recognition, Dr. G. Shrikanth Reddy, said, “I am honored to receive this prestigious award. Such awards will motivate young researchers to work in the area of Radio Science and Electromagnetism. This award is a recognition towards contribution made by young researchers in the field of Radio Science. Since these are the days where high speed communication and robust connectivity are in great demand, I believe conferences like URSI AP-RASC will bridge the connectivity between cutting edge technology and the society”.

The YSA recognizes Dr. Reddy’s past and current academic and research work in field of Radio Frequency (RF), Microwave Antennas and Passive Component Design. In the year 2012, while pursuing his PhD at IIT Bombay, Dr. G. Shrikanth started his research on, ‘MIMO (Multi Input, Multi Output) Antennas and Integrated Filters’ which has an end application in all communication networks. Further, in 2014, Dr. G. Shrikanth visited the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC) in France for a period of six months as a Raman-Charpak Fellow where he largely studied about, ‘How microwave propagates within human tissues’. In the future, this study may help in Body Area Network (BAN) communication where doctors can seek information about patient’s medical condition without being physically present with the patient. In 2016, under a Postdoctoral Fellowship at State University New York (Oswego campus), Dr. G. Shrikanth worked on ‘Covert Vehicular Antenna’, i.e. designing hidden antennas for vehicular applications.

In 2017, Dr. G. Shrikanth Reddy started working on ‘Design of Broadband Frequency Selective Structures (FSS) for Radio Frequency (RF) and Microwave Applications’. This research has a potential application in communication and stealth technology. This project is awarded to Dr. G. Shrikanth as an Early Career Research Grant Award (ECRA) with a funding of Rs. 51.97 lakh from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, for a period of 3 years.

For research in the area of civilian application of FSS, Dr. G. Shrikanth Reddy is collaborating with Dr. Shiv Narayan from Center for Electromagnetics (CEM) at National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), Bengaluru. They are also jointly supervising one Ph.D. student at IIT Mandi.

Along with Dr. Reddy, 20 other researchers, across the Asia Pacific Region and beyond were awarded the YSA at APRASC-2019. This year’s event in New Delhi, India attracted many international speakers and technical experts from the area of Radio Science and Wave Propagation.