Merck announces 2025 Merck Young Scientist Award winners
December 02, 2025 | Tuesday | News
Winners in the Emerging Talent category receive Rs 2,50,000, while winners in the Scientific Excellence category receive Rs 3,50,000
Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced the winners of the Merck Young Scientist Award 2025, honouring and recognising India’s brightest researchers driving groundbreaking innovations in Life Sciences.
The fourth edition of the award ceremony, held in Bengaluru, was attended by prominent academicians, researchers, and industry experts, reflecting Merck’s commitment to empowering India’s next generation of scientists.
This year’s award programme was structured around two main categories — Emerging Talent (early-career scientists, within five years of Post-PhD) and Scientific Excellence (mid-career researchers, five to ten years post-PhD). Within each category, winners were recognised across two disciplines: Biological Sciences and Chemical Sciences.
A total of 16 finalists were selected after a comprehensive review process, four winners and four runners-up each in Biological Sciences and Chemical Sciences across the two categories.
The winners of the Merck Young Scientist Award 2025 are as follows:
|
Category 1: Chemical Sciences
|
|
Scientific Excellence Winners
|
Dr. Janakiram Vaitla, IIT Delhi
|
Dr. Bishnu Prasad Biswal, NISER- Bhubaneswar
|
|
Scientific Excellence Runners-up
|
Dr. Basudev Sahoo, IISER Thiruvananthapuram
|
Dr. Ritika Gautam, IIT Kanpur
|
|
Emerging Talent Winners
|
Dr. Susanta Hazra, IISc
|
Dr. Vignesh Palani, IISC
|
|
Emerging Talent Runners-up
|
Dr. Sanjib Panda, IIT Madras
|
Dr. Indu Bala, IIT Mandi
|
|
Category 2: Biological Sciences
|
|
Scientific Excellence Winners
|
Dr. Gaurav Ahuja, IIIT-D
|
Dr. Tapomoy Bhattacharjee, NCBS
|
|
Scientific Excellence Runners-up
|
Dr. Jogender Singh, IISER Mohali
|
Dr. Amitesh Anand, TIFR Mumbai
|
|
Emerging Talent Winners
|
Dr. Swati Sudhakar, IIT Madras
|
Dr. Amit Nain, IIT Delhi
|
|
Emerging Talent Runners-up
|
Dr. Jyoti Tanwar, RCB
|
Dr. Naziya Chaudhary, ACTREC
|
Winners in the Emerging Talent category received Rs 2,50,000, while runners-up were awarded Rs 1,00,000 each. Each winner in the Scientific Excellence category received Rs 3,50,000 (including a travel grant of Rs 1,00,000), while runners-up were awarded Rs 1,25,000.
