"I am personally happy over the achievement of students here because of my involvement in opening of Niser, Bhubaneswar," Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Board of Governors, NISER, said.
Asking the students to work for the society and the nation, Kakodkar said that the knowledge acquired from the institute should be of help to the common people. "I wish that the students of NISER serve the nation by doing good research work," he said.
Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission R K Sinha cited several instances on how the science had solved the problems of the common man. "There are a lot of challenges waiting for solutions. We must address them," he said.
Giving details of the succesful candidates, Director of NISER, Bhubaneswar, T K Chandrasekhar said that 11 students would undergo PhD programme in the universities of Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Stony Brook and others.
"Two of our graduates are joining Indian Insitute of Science, Bangalore while four others would undertake studies in the National Institute of Immunology, Dehli and four others go to different IITs for PhD," Chandrasekhar said.
Attending the graduation ceremony of NISER as chief guest, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recalled how his father Biju Patnaik had set up Kalinga 'UNESCO Prize' for popularisation of Science among the common people. "I call upon the graduate of NISER to work for the society and the poor through their research activities," Patnaik said.