A Punjab University alumnus, Dr AK Singh, has been appointed Director General (DG) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence.

Dr Ajay did his MSc from the Department of Biophysics of the PU during the 1985-86 academic session. Thereafter, he joined his first CSIR scientific assignment at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research in Lucknow in 1986. After one year, he joined as DRDO scientist in the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), Delhi, under the Ministry of Defence.

Dr Ajay has done pioneering research in nuclear medicine and brought many radio tracers from bench to bed. He has many patents to his credit and received prestigious awards, including the DRDO best scientist award of the year.

Prof Baljinder Singh, a PU fellow and Nuclear Medicine, PGI, said Dr Ajay was his classmate at the PU. Being in the same discipline, they had worked on many collaborative research projects under funding from the DRDO, he added.