The Indian government has picked Ajay Kumar Sood as the next principal scientific advisor (PSA) to the government. Sood—currently a distinguished honorary professor in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru—will be charged with steering the country’s scientific temper and advising the Prime Minister as well as the Cabinet on matters of science and technology.
He succeeds Prof K VijayRaghavan, a biologist who helped the government tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. VijayRaghavan led efforts on Covid vaccine and drug development as well as pandemic management. Before him, nuclear scientist R Chidambaram was the PSA for nearly a decade and a half and prior to that, the role was held by former President A P J Abdul Kalam.
The PSA’s office coordinates with many ministries and advises the Indian government on science and technology policies and interventions that hold socio-economic importance. It also provides advice to institutions, academia and industry.
Sood, a physicist, is known for his pioneering research work on graphene and nanotechnology. Sood has published over 450 scientific papers and holds seven patents.
In his new job, Sood will have to finish a task his predecessor began: getting the government to sign off on a new Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (STIP) on which work began in 2020. The draft is in the public domain. The policy notes that the emergence of disruptive and impactful technologies poses new challenges and simultaneously greater opportunities. This period also saw the creation of the National Research Foundation (NRF) with an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore in the Union Budget 2021-22 to be spent over five years. And, it is the PSA’s job to set a direction for the fund.
Born in Gwalior in 1951, Sood got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Panjab University, Chandigarh, before joining the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam in 1971 as a scientist. He got a PhD in physics from IISc in 1982. He joined IISc as an associate professor in 1988 and has been actively involved in science for about five decades.
Sood is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize — one of the highest science awards in India — in 1990. Sood was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 by the then UPA government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
