Recognition received by an Officer of the Department

Dr. Bijul Lakshman, working as an Agricultural Officer with the Department of Agriculture, Government of Kerala has been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to undertake research in Chemoinformatics: Computational Chemistry and QSAR. This is a technique by which lead molecules and drugs (pharmaceuticals, Pesticides, Hormones etc. can be optimized for better and effective target oriented and safe chemical development. He is working on designing new drugs for Tuberculosis. Dr. Bijul graduated with a B.Sc. degree in the year 1999 from the Kerala Agriculture University and an M.Sc. degree in 2001 from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He has a P.hd. in Agricultural Chemicals where he worked on the “Synthesis and QSAR Aided Fungicidal Activity Optimization of some new 1,2,3-Triazoles” which led to the development of new potent molecules on the basis of QSAR analysis which are in the process of being patented. He has also worked extensively on the effects of organophosphorus compounds against some fungi like Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium rolfsii aimed at developing potential fungicidal compounds belonging to the class of Organophosphorus compounds. He has several publications to his credit.

The Fulbright Program, found in 1946 under the leadership of the US Senator J. William Fulbright, supports academic and professional visits to promote mutual understanding among the people of the United States and those over 150 other countries. The foundation is now called the “United States-India Educational Foundation” (USIEF) awarding “Fulbright-Nehru Scholarships and Grants.