Tiruppattur V. Ramakrishnan, DAE Homi Bhabha Professor of Physics, Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, and Sergio Henrique Ferreira, Professor of Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of So Paulo in Ribeiro Preto, Brazil, will each receive a cash prize of US$50,000. Ramakrishan won in the category of physics and astronomy and Ferreira in the category of biological sciences.
The Trieste Science Prize, administered by the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and funded by illycaff s.p.a., is designed to give international recognition and visibility to outstanding scientific achievements made by scientists living and working in the developing world.
Ramakrishnan, with his colleague Mohamed Yussouff, has provided the theoretical underpinnings for studying solids as atomically 'frozen' versions of dense liquids characterized by strong correlations of subatomic particles that have become even stronger. This insight, which has enabled scientists to better understand how classical dense systems are altered, has had a profound impact on scientific investigations into quantum transport, nanoscopic systems, and metal-insulator transitions.
Ferreira, who began his career analysing the analgesic effects associated with the venom of the Brazilian snake Bothrops jararaca, has shown how enzymes produce chemical inhibitors that can ease high blood pressure and block sensitivity towards pain. His findings, which have captured the attention of such international pharmaceutical firms as Squibb, have helped lay the scientific foundation for the treatment of hypertension an
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Contact: Daniel Schaffer
schaffer@twas.org
+39-040-2240-538
Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
25-May-2005