By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Dr M A Atmanand, the director of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai has been honoured with National Award of excellence in Ocean Technology of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

Atmanand is known for being a pioneer in the area of deep sea technologies in India which include leading a team in design and development of underwater crawler for deep sea operation. He and his team also developed the in-situ soil tester which was tested at a depth of 5200 m in the Central Indian Ocean Basin for the first time in the country. 

It was under his supervision that India’s first Polar under water mooring observatory and the Polar Remotely Operable Vehicle (PROV) were developed and tested. The mooring was established at Kongsfjorden in the Arctic region.  

Similarly, Dr L Anburajan was honoured with “Certificate of Merit” of the Ministry of Earth Sciences for conducting research in the area of deep sea microbial biotechnology along with developing recombinant technology for the production of the anticancer enzyme, L-asparaginase and ectoine from marine symbiotic and deep sea bacteria. He was also instrumental in the development and technology transfer of “NIOT-Enterococcus faecalis Multiplex PCR detection kit” for rapid detection of virulent E. faecalis in water, food and environmental samples.