The Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award is an India-wide award to encourage and promote, technical innovation. This year, our colleague Dr S Maqbool Ahmed is part of the CHACE team that has been shortlisted for the prize.
The award commemorates the spirit and memory of IIT Kharagpur alumna Dr. Nina Saxena who passed away tragically in 2005. Conferred every year at the IIT Foundation Day, this award is made possible by contributions from IIT Kharagpur Alumni to remember Dr. Saxena’s desire and drive for technical excellence, during her short but illustrious life. (For details, see the site http://www.iitfoundation.org/?p=77)
Dr Ahmed was the the team leader of that payload on the Moon Impact Probe Mission of Chandrayaan project. Quoting from Rajesh Kochchar’s blog, “The impact probe MIP which deposited Indian national flag on the Moon also carried a scientific payload, nick-named CHACE, comprising a mass spectrometer. During the 25 minutes of fall on to the lunar surface, CHACE obtained data confirming the presence of water vapour in the Moon’s atmosphere on the sunlit side.”
There is more to the story, and that can be read elsewhere. This brief post is to give our heartiest congratulations to Dr Maqbool Ahmed!
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Life after