Dr. Neal K. Devaraj, who has roots in Mysuru, is named one of three National laureates to win Blavatnik National Awards

Mysuru: Dr. Neal Devaraj, an Indian-American Professor at University of California, San Diego, is one of the three Scientists who were honoured by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences as 2018 Laureates of the Blavatnik National Awards of $250,000 for Young Scientists, the largest unrestricted scientific prize for researchers age 42 and younger.

Devaraj is a Chemical Biologist from the University of California San Diego. He’s joined by a Microbiologist from the Salk Institute and a nano-scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The three scientists each receive $250,000, after nominations by 146 research institutions narrowed to a pool of 31 finalists. The three Laureates represent the Blavatnik Awards scientific disciplinary categories — Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry.

Neal Devaraj is a graduate of MIT and a Doctorate from Stanford University and completed Post Doctoral work at Harvard University. Neal Devaraj’s transformative work on the Synthesis of Artificial Cells has the potential to provide new insights into understanding the origins of life and gain ground on solving one of the greatest contemporary challenges of Chemistry.

Along the way, he has developed new tools for labelling Biomolecules that are widely used by Researchers and may one day be used in the clinic to treat and detect disease. Devaraj was honoured at a formal ceremony on Sept.24 at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Dr. Neal Devaraj is the elder son of Asha and Bellur Devaraj.

Asha is the daughter of late Y. Venkataramiah, a native of Mysuru and retired as Chief Engineer of All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi.

Bellur Devaraj, a Civil Engineer from Mysuru, is the son of Advocate late B.M. Krishnaswamy who is the younger brother of well-known Kannada littérateur B.M. Sri. He is also the younger brother of famous Kannada writer late Triveni. Bellur Devaraj’s, second son Rajesh Devaraj works as Senior Project Manager at Amazon, USA.