P V S R N Sarma, working as a post-doctoral fellow in Department of Plant Sciences at University of Hyderabad (UoH), has been conferred with the Dr RK Nigam and Meera Nigam Medal for the best Ph.D thesis in Plant Sciences at the 24th Convocation of University of Hyderabad (uoH) on Tuesday.

The medal was presented to by Dr T G Sitaram, Chairman, AICTE, who participated as the chief guest in the convocation. Sarma worked under the guidance of senior professor and former VC of UoH Appa Rao Podile. He worked on the bioprocess for production of chitooligosaccharides and tested these products in inducing immunity in plants in comparison with the polymeric chitin and chitosan. The field experiments were conducted at the experimental farms of Nuziveedu Seeds. Results obtained by Sarma were published in high impact journals and also resulted in a patent, according to a release.