Indian-origin Scientist Ramakrishnan Gets Knighthood

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (58 years old), India-born US citizen who won 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry, has been honored with a knighthood “for services to molecular biology” in the New Year Honors List 2012 in Britain.

Venkatraman, known to most as Venki, was awarded the Padma Vibhusan in 2010, India’s second highest civilian honor.

Venkatraman will be called ‘Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan’ after Queen Elizabeth confers knighthood on him at a special function at the Buckingham Palace later in the New Year.

Besides Venkatraman, two other foreign-born Nobel Prize winners Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of Russia have been conferred knighthood in the 2012 honors list.

Other Indian origin individuals to be honored in the 2012 list include Professor Dinesh Kumar Makhan Lai Bhugra, lately president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, for services to Psychiatry.