DU Prof who researched on Parkinson's made Fellow of National Academy of Sciences

New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) Professor D.S. Rawat of the University of Delhi who did research on Parkinson's disease has been elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences. He is the third Professor from the Department of Chemistry, DU, to receive this honour in its 100 years of existence.

His PhD supervisor Dr D.S. Bhakuni was elected fellow of this academy in the year 1977.

One of the molecules developed in the laboratory of Prof Rawat has entered into clinical trials for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and Delhi University has transferred the technology to a Boston based industry.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neuro-degenerative disorder and over 10 million people worldwide have this with no drug available for its treatment.

However, DU has now identified a special protein which makes it possible to treat this disease. McLean Hospital, Boston is also a partner of the University in this research.

Rawat has been working in the area of drug discovery and nano-catalysis. He has supervised 26 PhD students and has published 157 research papers and nine patents with an h-index of 44. He also wrote a book on Bioactive Marine Natural Products which was foreworded by Nobel Laureate Professor D.H.R. Barton, FRS and the review of the book was published in the Journal of American Chemical Society, one of the top international chemistry journals.

Rawat has been working as a Dean, Examination and under his leadership several reforms were initiated in the examination system, such as release of record 1.78 lakh digital degrees in a single day, declaring results of all UG courses in 28 days. He has digitized the whole examination system in a short period of one year.