Prof. Uma Shankar of the Department of Botany, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) has received the prestigious INSA Teacher Award for the year 2021.
The award was conferred at the 88th Annual General Meeting of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) held in December 14-16 at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Visakhapatnam.
The award was conferred by Professor Chandrima Shaha, the President of INSA, New Delhi.
This is the first time a NEHU faculty has received this honour in its history. This is also the first for Meghalaya.
Prof. Uma Shankar is a well-known field ecologist and biodiversity scientist who has been teaching in NEHU for more than two decades. Several of his M Sc and PhD students are holding reputed positions in research institutions, universities and colleges across the country.
He received his Masters degree in Science from Agra University in 1987 and PhD degree in Botany from NEHU in 1991-92.
Prior to joining NEHU as a faculty, Prof. Uma Shankar has worked in northern West Bengal, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in North East India and in Western Ghats in Karnataka besides visiting several countries including the USA, UK and China.
Earlier, has also received the Young Scientist Medal from INSA in 1999 for his doctoral thesis work, which was the first ever in North East India.