Material science expert appointed new Department of Science and Technology Secretary

1 min readJul 3, 2026 05:13 AM IST

He will take the place of Abhay Karandikar, the former Secretary, who was appointed as a Member in NITI Aayog in April this year. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary in the Department of Biotechnology, had been looking after DST as an additional charge since then.

A professor in the Theoretical Sciences department at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, has been appointed Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Umesh Waghmare, 58, is known for his work in material sciences. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and Yale University in the United States where he completed his PhD. He has been honoured with the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award and the Infosys Prize among others.

He will take the place of Abhay Karandikar, the former Secretary, who was appointed as a Member in NITI Aayog in April this year. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary in the Department of Biotechnology, had been looking after DST as an additional charge since then.

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