Srikantia Memorial Lecture Award was instituted in 1989 by the Nutrition Society of India to honour late Dr.S.G.Srikantia, one of the Founder-Members of the Society. As a Member, and later as its Treasurer (1974-1978) and Vice-President (1978-80), Dr.Srikantia was instrumental in building, expanding and consolidating the activities of the Society.
Dr. Srikantia was born in 1926 in an illustrious family in Mysore. After his brilliant undergraduate career in Mysore Medical College, he joined the National Institute of Nutrition – then known as the Nutrition Research Laboratories, Coonoor, in 1951. He served the Institute with rare distinction and dedication for more than three decades till his voluntary retirement in 1980. From 1974 to 1980, he was the Director of the Institute and contributed to the growth and development of the Institute.
Dr. Srikantia was an internationally renowned nutrition scientist and made outstanding contributions in clinical nutrition. He was a versatile, knowledgeable and well informed scientist not only in clinical nutrition but also in nutritional biochemistry and public health nutrition. Under his able stewardship, the National Institute of Nutrition diversified its research activities and had a coordinated approach, which added new dimension and depth to nutrition research.
A scientist with ideas, vision, initiative and drive, he could enthuse colleagues in an inimitable, gentle and persuasive manner. His elegant studies on the role of ferritin in the pathogenesis of nutritional oedema have attracted considerable attention. His pioneering research contributions on protein energy malnutrition, vitamin A deficiency, nutritional anaemias, pellagra and fluorosis have earned him academic recognition. He led the studies on the prevention and control of vitamin A deficiency in the country and was the man behind the National Vitamin A Prophylaxis Programme. Even after his voluntary retirement, he continued to be active in research and teaching, and was associated with the University of Mysore and served as Temporary Adviser, WHO. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the Indian Journal of Medical Research and was valued for his unbiased critical and mature views on a wide range of topics.
Dr.Srikantia has several publications to his credit including Chapters in books. He was frequently invited by national and international agencies to be on their expert committees.
He was a tower of support and strength to the Nutrition Foundation of India and played a leading role in the formulation and implementation of many of its research projects and in the preparation of its scientific reports.
A man of simple habits and sterling qualities; upright, sincere and devoted to scientific pursuits and loyal to the committed cause, Srikantia was a friend, philosopher and guide to many a junior colleagues. He was a diamond among men, transparent in his dealing with people, dazzling in intelligence, hard in getting the work done and sharp in seeing through people.
The invitee for the Award shall be an outstanding person in the field of food and nutrition, including agriculture, economics, sociology, public health administration etc., within India. The Office-Bearers will recommend the names of speakers for the Award for consideration of the Committee Members to nominate the speaker to deliver the Lecture.
RECIPIENTS
| Year | Name | Tile of the talk |
| 1989 | Dr.P.S.Shetty | Energy Metabolism in Chronic Energy Deficiency |
| 1990 | Dr.M.Gabr | Better Nutrition for the World Poor: A Challenge of the Future |
| 1991 | Dr.B.N.Tandon | Malnutrition and Gastroenterological Disorders |
| 1992 | Dr.B.S.Narasinga Rao | Current concepts in human nutrient requirements and allowances – a critique of their use in practice and a need for an alternative |
| 1993 | Dr.Rajammal P. Devadas | Empowering women towards improving family nutrition |
| 1994 | Dr.TaraGopaldas | Problems and prospects in upscaling Nutrition-Research-Action Projects or Pilots to Programmes |
| 1995 | Dr.Vinodini Reddy | Dietary approaches to combat vitamin A deficiency |
| 1996 | Dr. N. Kochupillai | Micronutrient Deficiency and Human Health and Development |
| 1997 | Dr. M. V. Rao | Population – Food – Nutrition: Challenges and Options Before India |
| 1998 | Dr. Shanti Ghosh | Nutrition, Growth and Development – The first two years are crucial |
| 1999 | Dr.Mahtab S. Bamji | Understanding and combating recognized and less recognized vitamin deficiencies |
| 2000 | Dr. S. Rajagopalan | Perspective planning for human development |
| 2001 | Dr.Prema Ramachandran | Research studies on mother child dyad – Foundation for National Programmes |
| 2002 | Dr. M.S. Swaminathan | Ensuring ecological, social and economic access to balanced diets and safe drinking water. |
| 2003 | Prof. K.N. Agarwal | Nutrition and Brain |
| 2004 | Dr.Kamala Krishnaswamy | Turmeric – the salt of the orient is the spice of life |
| 2005 | Dr. Subhadra Seshadri | The persistent problem of iron deficiency anemia and its consequences : A life cycle approach is critical for its control |
| 2006 | Dr. K. Vijayaraghavan | Community Nutrition Research in India – Contributions, Constraints and Controversies |
| 2007 | Dr. V. Prakash | Nutrition Links in the Food Chain |
| 2008 | Dr. Ramesh V. Bhat | Status of Food Safety in India: Past, Present & Future |
| 2009 | Prof. HPS. Sachdev | Improving Nutrition through Relevant Evidence: Transforming an Indian Dream into Reality |
| 2010 | Dr. B. Sivakumar | Carotene Conversion to Vitamin A is not Inefficient |
| 2011 | Dr.B.Sesikeran | Technology for Better Nutrition |
| 2012 | Dr. B. S. Ramakrishna | Gut Microbiota : Roles in Nutrition and Perturbations in Disease |
| 2013 | Dr.Sheila C Vir | Scaling Up Nutrition Interventions: Key Learnings and Challenges |
| 2014 | Dr. Anura V Kurpad | Poverty and State of Protein Nutrition in India |
| 2015 | Dr. Vinod K Paul | International Fetal Growth Standards – Should we or should we not adopt them? |
| 2016 | Dr GNV Brahmam | Dietary diversification as a means of prevention of micronutrient deficiencies in the communities: A distant dream? |
| 2017 | Maj.Gen. Raman K. Marwaha | Wonder Vitamin of Recent times -Vitamin D |
| 2018 | Dr.Biplab K. Nandi | Food and Nutrition Security as Fundamentals of Human Development: National Perspective International Agenda |
| 2019 | Dr. K. Madhavan Nair | “NUTRITION FOR ANEMIA” |
| 2020 | Dr.Siddharth Ramji | “Optimizing nutrition in Low Birth weight Infants” |
| 2021 | Dr.AvulaLaxmaiah | Time trends in triple burden of malnutrition in India – Pilot intervention models for low and middle income countries |