Hyderabad, Nov 14 (Agency) Dr. Drona Srinivasa Sarma, Chief Scientist at the city-based CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, has been awarded the prestigious Sitaram Rungta Memorial Award for the year 2023 by the Society of Geoscientists and Allied Technologies (SGAT), Bhubaneswar for his significant contribution in the field of Mineral exploration and gold metallogenesis. Dr Sarma obtained his Doctorate in Geochemistry and Genesis of Gold Mineralization from Osmania University in 2003. His primary research focuses on gold deposits like those at Hutti and Gadag, provided the first age constraints on the gold deposits, and studied the genetic aspects of gold mineralization in India and Madagascar, a release said on Tuesday.
Dr. Sarma was the first to provide age constraints on the Indian gold deposits. He has contributed to the development of Pb-Pb baddeleyite dating (for mafic-ultramafic rocks) protocols using TE-TIMS which can give ages as precise as ±1 Ma and helped to constrain the oldest mafic dyke emplacement events (~2.8 Ga) from the Singhbhum craton of India. These research results have been published in internationally reputed Journals. Dr. Sarma has been a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Western Australia and worked under the prestigious Raman Research Fellowship at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is also a fellow of the Telangana Academy of Sciences and received the prestigious National Geoscience Award in 2022.