Ahmedabad: For Jayrajsinh Sarvaiya, a professor in the School of Pharmacy at the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), his innovations began with a basic question: Could kits be developed at a very low cost that yield the same results as high-tech labs for end users?In the years that followed, he and his team developed multiple kits ranging from detecting adulteration in milk to finding harmful substances in spices. “It not only helped the common citizens understand food adulteration but also educated them about harmful adulterants and ways to detect them at home,” said Prof Sarvaiya.He was among two faculty members from higher educational institutions and polytechnics in Gujarat who received the National Award for Best Teacher for HEIs and Polytechnics on Sep 5 from President Droupadi Murmu.Prof Sarvaiya told TOI it is a matter of great pride for him and his entire team at NFSU that the work has been recognised at such a platform. “Food forensics is a relatively new discipline in terms of educational institutes, and I hope this recognition helps in popularising it and creating awareness,” he said. The other recipient is Prof Mithun Radhakrishna, a faculty member in the Chemical Engineering department at IIT-Gn. His work spans computational soft matter science and biophysical chemistry.
