Archaeologist Ravi Korisettar among Rajyotsava award winners

Veteran archaeologist from Dharwad Ravindra Korisettar has been selected for the Rajyotsava Award.

Prof. Korisettar is a UGC Emeritus Fellow in the Department of History and Archaeology in Karnatak University of Dharwad.

His papers have been published in journals like Science (2007) and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of America.

He has been a researcher for over 40 years, writing several books published in India and abroad.

Among his research projects are Multidisciplinary Kashmir Palaeoclimate Project on Kashmir for the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, a Computer Application in Archaeology-Generated a Gazetteer of prehistoric sites in the Indian subcontinent for the Ford Foundation and Prehistory and Geomorphology of the Middle Krishna Basin and Geoarchaeology of the Middle Krishna Basin.

Born in 1951, he studied archaeology and quaternary archaeological studies from Poona University and INQUA in Beijing, China.

He is a Charles Wallace-AIIT Fellow of University of Cambridge and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

The 74-year-old scholar has established prehistory museums in Ballari and Dharwad. He was a member of committees for the formation of schools in Karnatak University and to prepare a proposal to the UGC to upgrade the university as a Central University and the State-level Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan committee.

He has also been associated with various bodies like Archaeological Survey of India, UGC, and professional bodies like the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, Canberra, Australia, and INQUA Commission on Tephrochronology, U.K., and INQUA Commission on Palaeoecology and Human Evolution.

The other award winners from Mumbai Karnataka region are H.M. Pujar, writer from Vijayapura, folk artists Sannaningappa Mushennagol from Belagavi and Somanna Dhanagonda from Vijayapura, Pundalika Shastri, Budabudike player from Belagavi, S.V. Hittalmani from Haveri in the field of agriculture, R.V. Nadagouda from Gadag in Science, veteran professional theatre personality L.B. Sheikhmaster from Vijayapura, Rajshree Nagaraju (Halgekar), chairperson of Maratha Mandal Society in Belagavi, Pavan Kumar Bhajantri from Bagalkot in judiciary and sculptor Nagalingappa Gangur of Bagalkot.