Satish Chandra Maheshwari | |
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| Born | (1933-10-04)4 October 1933 (age 92) |
| Died | 12 June 2019 |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Plant molecular biology |
| Awards | 1972 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize J. C. Bose Gold Medal IBS Birbal Sahni Gold Medal Goyal Award |
| Scientific career | |
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| Doctoral advisor | B. M. Johri |
Satish Chandra Maheshwari (4 October 1933 – 12 June 2019) was an Indian botanist and a former professor at theUniversity of Delhi.[1] He is known for his contributions to the fields of plant physiology and plant molecular biology. Maheshwari is an elected fellow of theIndian Academy of Sciences,[2] theIndian National Science Academy[3] and theNational Academy of Sciences, India.[4] TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1972, for his contributions to biological sciences.[5] He died from lung cancer on June 12, 2019.[citation needed]
S. C. Maheshwari, born on 4 October 1933 inJaipur in the Indian state ofRajasthan, did his schooling in Jaipur and, later, inDacca (in the present day Bangladesh).[6] He moved to India along with his family after the Indian independence in 1947 and graduated in botany (hons) fromSt. Stephen's College of theUniversity of Delhi after which he secured his master's (MSc) and doctoral (PhD) degrees from the same university.[3] Maheshwari's post-doctoral research was on theembryology ofduckweeds under B. M. Johri and he started his career at his alma mater as a member of the faculty of science in 1954. After 4 years of service, Maheshwari obtained aFulbright Smith Mundt Fellowship in 1959 and traveled to the US to where he continued his research atYale University andCalifornia Institute of Technology. Returning to India, he resumed his career at Delhi University and served as a professor there as well as atJaipur National University till his superannuation from service. In between, Maheshwari worked as a visiting scientist atOxford University, as aHomi Bhabha Fellow atHarvard Biological Laboratories, USA during 1973–74,[7] as a visiting professor atYale University during 1981–82[3] and as a guest scientist at theInternational Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.[6]
One of the first significant contributions of Maheswari was the discovery ofRNA polymerase activity inchloroplasts which he accomplished during his early stint at California Institute of Technology while working with Robert S. Bandurski and their researches revealed the presence ofDNA inorganelle.[3] In 1966, he, along with Sipra Guha Mukherjee, developed a new high-speed culture technique for producinghomozygous pure lines ofhaploid plants which is now in practice for crop improvement and for commercial production of horticultural and ornamental plants.[6][8] Maheshwari's researches on plantgrowth hormones returned new protocols for the isolation ofcytokinins andgibberellins and elucidated the function ofsalicylic acid during the flowering period. His work assisted in genetic engineering of plants and in thephytochrome control ofplant metabolism.
Maheswari is the founder of the Department of Plant Molecular Biology atDelhi University, the first such department in India, where he established a unit for Plant Cell and Molecular Biology, another first in the country.[6] Here, he is known to have led a group of scientists in the field ofphotobiology and in researches on rice chromosomes and theirDNA sequencing.[3] Maheshwari's researches have been detailed in over 200 articles and in a book,Signal Transduction in Plants: Current Advances, co-edited with Sudhir Kumar Sopory and Ralf Oelmüller.[9] He has mentored 30 scholars in their MPhil, doctoral and post-doctoral researches and Sipra Guha Mukherjee (1938–2007), noted biologist, was one among them.[10][note 1]
Maheswari was awarded theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, by theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1972.[1] He also received several other honors including the Goyal Prize, J. C. Bose Gold Medal and Birbal Sahni Gold Medal of theIndian Botanical Society.[3] A Homi Bhaba Fellow,[11] Maheshwari was elected as a fellow by theIndian Academy of Sciences in 1975 and three years later,Indian National Science Academy also elected him as their fellow.[2] He is also an elected fellow of theNational Academy of Sciences, India (1979).[4] Maheshwari's project,Survey and Synthesis the information in the area of molecular Biology of Plant Development and Differentiation, was selected for theJawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1981[12] and theUniversity of Hyderabad awarded him the Doctor of Science degree (honoris causa) in 2013.[13]
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