Professor Raghavendra Gadagkar has been conferred with highest civilian award of Germany -"Cross of Order of the Merit"

Indian Socio biologist Raghavendra Gadagkar was awarded Germany's highest civilian honour - the Cross of Order of the Merit. He was bestowed with the honour for contribution in the field of behavioural ecology and sociobiology. And also for works in strengthening research corporation between India and Germany.

A resident of Bengaluru and professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was awarded at the German Consulate in Bengaluru.Prof Gadagkar, is one of the leading experts in the field of insect sociobiology. He is also the president of the Indian National Science Academy and has published more than 270 research papers and two books. His first book, Survival Strategies, has been translated into Chinese and Korean.
It was this which made him founder chair of the Centre for Contemporary Studies, established at IISc in 2004. At this institute he brings together people from the IISc campus especially graduate students from different disciplines in humanities, including literature, art and music."The ignorance that humanities and sciences had towards each other has now become a mutual disrespect. But the fact is science and humanities can't operate in isolation. So at this institute, science students are exposed to idea like how poets communicate, how to bring out a newspaper, how history can solve current problems etc. The idea is to have scientists who can communicate like poets," he said.