Amalendu B. Bhattacharyya, professor, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University, Noida, has won the highest accolade of the TechnoVisionary award, the highest accolade given out by the India Semiconductor Association under its Technovation program.

Bhattacharyya has 47 years of teaching and research experience and his area of specialization has been microelectronics technology, solid state designs and VLSI analog design.

This award is given to an academician/researcher for his outstanding contribution in the field semiconductors and last year, was bagged by Juzer M.Vasi, deputy director, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, (IITB).

As one of the most prestigious research awards in the semiconductor industry in India, this initiative is aimed at recognizing individuals and exemplary semiconductor research in industry and academia. The awards are meant to honor research in semiconductors and recognize and motivate role models.

The jury for the Technovation Awards, 2009 comprised of well-known personalities from industry and academia across the globe. A long and rigorous process of evaluation is held before the awardees are named.

V. Ramgopal Rao, a professor in the department of electrical engineering at IITB is the recipient of the TechnoMentor award " given to an academician/researcher for outstanding contribution to the field of semiconductors, while the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Semiconductors Group, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, won the TechnoShield award " given to a laboratory or a department for excellence in the areas of interest for the ISA.

Rao has over 200 publications in the area of Electron Devices & Nanoelectronics in refereed international journals and conference proceedings and holds three patents, with eight US patents currently pending.

The TechnoInventor Awards were given to research scholars from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc.), IITB and IIT-Madras. These are meant for individuals with the most innovative, cutting-edge for relevant research at the masters/doctoral level.

Venkatanarayana Hariharan from IITB, Biswajit Ray and S.A. Kannan from IISc and Reddy Karthikeyan from IITM bagged awards under this category while C.R. Venugopal from SJCE, Mysore was given the TechnoVation Karnataka award. The Technovation Karnataka Awards are special awards in the area of semiconductors and embedded systems for excellence in academic activities by faculty in Karnataka and innovative post-graduate project work by students.

Dr. Sunit Tyagi, convener, Technovation Awards core committee 2009 and Founder CEO, InSolare, said, "In today's knowledge-intensive world, a nation's strength lies in its capability to innovate in its core technology areas. Therefore it is imperative for us to have a strategy and put in sustained effort to promote and propagate semiconductor driven research in our R&D institutions."

ISA chairman B.V. Naidu, who is also chairman of Sagitaur Ventures, said: "Semiconductors drive today's technological innovation stream. The Technovation Awards are aimed at promoting semiconductor research by recognizing the contributions of our research scholars and academics. A committee comprising of industry leaders and leading educationists have gone through a rigorous process of selection to finalize the winners and this makes it well worth it."

"This is an innovative approach to encourage participation in the semiconductor world from education and research perspectives. As an industry body, the ISA wants to promote and encourage the academic fraternity and reward role models," Poornima Shenoy, President, ISA.