Prime Minister’s fellowship for Doctoral Research awarded to Delhi Girl

New Delhi, January 19, 2017: Nitya Sharma, a PhD (Immunology) scholar at Amity Institute of Virology and Immunology (AIVI) of AUUP is the recipient of the prestigious PM Fellowship Scheme for Doctoral Research for her project on the development of immunodiagnostic assays for meningococcal antigens, under the supervision of Dr Manoj Kumar Chhikara as her industry mentor from Hilleman Labs and Dr. M. Martha Premlatha as her University mentor.

Ms. Sharma went through a rigorous selection procedure before being presented with the Prime Minister’s Fellowship Award. After initial selection, her project was presented to the Apex Council, the highest decision-making body of this Scheme, which is chaired by former secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, Dr M K Bhan and has representation from both industry and academia. After being awarded by the Council, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Hilleman Laboratories, Amity University and the student.

On being awarded the Fellowship, Nitya Sharma commented, “Being selected for the Fellowship has been very encouraging and I am humbled to receive this honour. I feel indebted to Prof. (Dr.) W. Selvamurthy (President – Amity Science, Technology & Innovation Foundation, and Director General – Amity Directorate of Science & Innovation),Prof. Narayan Rishi (Advisor, AIVI) and Dr. Premlatha for associating with me. I owe my gratitude to Dr. Chhikara in particular, for providing me a stimulating and highly motivating environment at the Hilleman Laboratories to enhance my knowledge and expertise through advanced research.”

Elaborating further, Dr. Manoj Kumar Chhikara, Director, Research & Development, Hilleman Laboratories, said, “Nitya has been selected out of several meritorious students from various disciplines at national level because of her truly outstanding academic achievements. She is a bright scientist and is working very diligently on the Project. I am sure that she will make a substantial contribution to the project and also gain relevant industry experience. This Scheme not only promotes young scientific talent but it also changes industry’s mind-set in investing in R&D. It further enhances the Academia-Industry collaboration.”

Hilleman Laboratories, in first-of-its-kind joint-venture partnership between MSD and the Wellcome Trust, has partnered with Amity University, which is a research and innovation driven university having more than 725 patents, to foster academia – industry partnership,

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)