ACHIEVEMENTS: Indian Nuclear Society award

Published : Oct 19, 2012 00:00 IST

N. SRIDHARAN

N. SRIDHARAN

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN, Associate Editor, Frontline, Chennai, has been selected to receive the Indian Nuclear Society's "INS Outstanding Service Award" for 2011 for Science Communication. R.K. Singh, Head, Media Relations and Public Awareness Section, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, is the other winner of the award.

The recognition-a cash award of Rs.1 lakh each and a citation- is for their work in popularising science and technology, particularly in nuclear-related areas, among teachers, students and the public.

Director, Uranium Corporation of India Limited, for the INS Homi Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award for 2011. They will receive a cash award of Rs.2,50,000 each and a citation.

The awards will be given on November 7 during the inaugural function at Anushakti Nagar, Mumbai, of the 23rd annual conference of the INS, a professional organisation of the country's nuclear scientists and technologists.

VARIED INTERESTS

Subramanian has a Master's in English literature from Madras Christian College and 33 years' experience as a journalist, beginning with Indian Express, Chennai, in 1979. He joined The Hindu and Frontline in 1985 and has been a prolific contributor to both on a wide range of subjects: nuclear power, space, missiles, archaeology, oil and natural gas, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Tamil Nadu politics and the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. He is the only journalist in the country to have covered every rocket launch (36 launches)from Sriharikota, from 1980 to date.

On nuclear power, Subramanian was the first reporter to write in 1983 about how the first unit of the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam was all set to achieve criticality. He has done scores of interviews with former Atomic Energy Commission Chairmen, including the late H.N. Sethna, M.R. Srinivasan, the late P.K. Iyengar, R. Chidambaram, Anil Kakodkar and Srikumar Banerjee. He has reported consistently on the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor project coming up at Kalpakkam, the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, and India's 220 MWe, 540 MWe and 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs).

He is no stranger to BARC, having visited its facilities several times and reported on its activities in waste anagement, reprocessing, agriculture, desalination, health care, supercomputers, tissue culture, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and in developing the dish antenna for the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

Subramanian has written extensively on India's signing the 123 agreement with the United States and the subsequent exemption India received from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which led to the end of India's isolation from the nuclear mainstream.

Archaeology is another area that Subramanian has a deep interest in.

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