New Delhi, Apr 20 (IANS): Honorary professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Ajay Sood, is the new Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, it was announced on Wednesday.

Sood replaces K. Vijaya Raghavan, who retired recently.

"Warmest congratulations and all best wishes to Professor Ajay Sood of IISC Bangalore on his appointment as the Principal Scientific Adviser. He has all the support needed to steer science and technology in these times (sic)," tweeted Vijaya Raghavan.

Another of his contemporaries, former DG, CSIR, Raghunath Mashelkar too took to twitter to congratulate him: "Have admired Ajay for decades for being a scholar with great intellect, impeccable integrity & huge international reputation. (sic)"

Sood was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 for his stellar work in the field of science.

After completing MS Physics from Panjab University, Chandigarh in 1972, Sood did his PhD in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru in 1982.

After being a post-doctoral Max Planck Fellow at Max Planck Institute fur FKF, Stuttgart, Germany between 1983-85, Sood worked as a scientist at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam in India before joining IISc. He has also been an honorary professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research at Bangalore since 1993.

Currently, Sood is a member, Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council to the Prime Minister since 2018. Apart from the Bhatnagar Prize in Physics in the year 1999, the highest award of the government of India below age of 45 years, Sood has received over a dozen awards for multiple achievements from various institutions.