Outstanding research wins her Nehru award

C.P. Suja, Technical Officer at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in Tuticorin, has brought laurels to the institution by winning the Jawaharlal Nehru award for the Outstanding Post-Graduate Agricultural Research for 2005.

She received the award, which was instituted by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research to recognise the achievements, at a function held in New Delhi recently.

Ms Suja, a native of Thrissur in Kerala, received the award for developing tissue culture technology to produce pearls from abalone, a mollusc variety of animal like the oysters, mussels and cuttlefish, under laboratory conditions.

She said that the technology had distinct advantages over the conventional technologies adopted to produce pearls from abalone.

"Since the technology was a laboratory-based one, colour manipulation in pearls was possible to suit customers' needs," Ms. Suja added.

Moreover, pearls could be produced in large quantities.

According to her, the technology could be used for the production of round pearls through `in vitro' tissue culture on a commercial basis.

Source: The Hindu