ISRO Awards 96 people, teams for their contributions to space projects, programs

The Indian Space Research Organisation presented 96 individuals with awards at a ceremony held at its Antariksh Bhavan headquarters in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The awards were in recognition of various contributions made by individuals and organisations towards the success of ISRO’s projects and programmes. The ‘ **ISRO Awards** ’ were distributed by former Chairman Dr K Kasturirangan and present Chairman Dr K Sivan. This was the 12th edition of the Awards, the first of which were given away in 2007. “ISRO Awards have over the years become prestigious ones among the space fraternity. (The Awards) have been executed very well over the years,” Dr Kasturirangan said, according to a press release. [caption id=“attachment_6256781” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Awardees and attendees at the ISRO Award ceremony at Antariksh Bhavan. Image courtesy: ISRO[/caption] This year, four categories of contributions were recognised by ISRO: 50 **Young Scientist Awards** , 20 Merit Awards, 10 Performance Excellence Awards and 16 Team Excellence Awards. Recipients were chosen for their outstanding contributions to ISRO’s efforts in the year 2017. The selection panel consisted of officials from various centres of ISRO across the country. In addition to the four main categories awarded this year, Outstanding Contribution and Life Time Achievement Awards are also given away biennially. Dr Sivan addressed ISRO employees at the ceremony, persuading them to take on challenges to come with single-minded devotion. “Congratulations to all the award winners,” Dr Sivan said,  I appreciate the self-driven nature of employees which is taking ISRO to greater heights," Dr Sivan said. Directors from various centres of ISRO, employees from ISRO’s headquarters and the Department of Space were present for the awards.