Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to receive Chemical Heritage Foundation award

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon Ltd will be conferred the 2014 Othmer Gold Medal - the top award of US-based Chemical Heritage Foundation. The Philadelphia-based Foundation is a collections-based non-profit organisation that preserves the history and heritage of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related sciences and technologies. The collections are used to create a body of original scholarship that illuminates chemistry's role in shaping society.
 
Acknowledging Mazumdar-Shaw's outstanding contribution to the Indian Biotech sector, Carsten Reinhardt, President and CEO, Chemical Heritage Foundation, said, “Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was the first woman to become a brew master in India. Then she used her knowledge of fermentation to become one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of her nation. In addition to her great success in business, she is among the world's leading philanthropists. She has devoted much of her personal fortune to providing healthcare to the poorest people in her country and to many other philanthropic projects.”
 
Mazumdar-Shaw will be the 20^th recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal and the third woman to receive CHF's most coveted award. CHF established the Othmer Gold Medal in 1997 to honour outstanding individuals who have made multifaceted contributions to chemical and scientific heritage through outstanding activity in such areas as innovation, entrepreneurship, research, education, public understanding, legislation, or philanthropy.