India’s most prominent biologist and an evolutionary ecologist, Kamal Bawa, has been elected to the prestigious Royal Society. He has been chosen for his huge contributions in the area of conservation science. Mr Bawa, 76, a distinguished Biology professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, joins former and current fellows such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and about 80 Nobel laureates.

Each year, the fellowship elects about 52 fellows from England and Commonwealth nations and 10 from foreign countries, out of 700 likely candidates. Mr. Bawa will be officially inducted into the Fellowship on July 10.

Kamal Bawa

• Kamal Bawa is the founder of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE).
• In 2012, Bawa received the first Gunnerus Sustainability Award, the world’s major international award for work on sustainability.
• In September 2014, Kamal Bawa won the MIDORI Prize in Biodiversity. Bawa was honoured for his research that included climate change in the Himalayas.

Royal Society

• Royal Society is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society still in existence.
• Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as “The Royal Society”.
• The London-based Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine.
• It recognises, promotes, and supports excellence in science and encourages the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.