Bohra Academician Prof Juzer Vasi Awarded Padma Shri 2026

Jan 28, 2026 – Professor Juzer Vasi of the Bohra community has been honoured with the Padma Shri Award 2026 in recognition for his contributions to the field of microelectronics and photovoltaic research over a career spanning more than 40 years. The announcement of the names of the Padma Awards recipients, honouring 131 individuals across various fields, was made on the eve of the Republic Day 2026.

Prof Vasi is a respected name in the field of semiconductors and microelectronics because of his extraordinary lifetime contribution to Science and Engineering. The Padma Shri acknowledges his continued efforts to build research infrastructure and academic capacity, particularly in nanoelectronics and solar energy.

Prof Vasi did his Bachelors in Technology (BTech) from IIT Bombay in 1969 and then went on to do his PhD in Electrical Engineering from The John Hopkins University in 1973. He was a former director and Professor Emeritus at IIT Bombay and the Principal Investigator of the “National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education” (NCPRE) at IIT Bombay.

Currently Associate Editor of the Frontiers in Solar Energy, Prof Vasi is also a Fellow of IEEE and Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 1997-2003.

In 2023, IIT Bombay dedicated its Lecture Hall 21 to the memory of Mohsin and Zulekha Vasi, parents of Prof Juzer Vasi.

Other members of the Bohra community who have been honoured with the Padma Awards are:

•  Asaf Ali Asghar Fyzee, Indian educator, jurist, author, diplomat and Islamic scholar - conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1962
• Zainulabedin Gulamhusain Rangoonwala – conferred the Padma Shri in 1984 in recognition of his services to the Cooperative Banking Movement.

There have been instances of refusal to accept the Award, too. Notable names among them include Baba Ramdev, Romila Thapar (who refused twice), S Janaki, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Sri Sri Ravishankar and Salim Khan. The list also includes the family of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the Da’I al-Mutlaq of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Ismaili Shia Muslims, who passed away in 2014. The influential Shia leader was conferred the Padma Shri posthumously in 2015 but his family refused to accept it.

Apart from Prof Juzer Vasi, the following persons in the Science and Engineering field have been honoured with the Padma Shri 2026:

• A E Muthunayagam
• Ashok Kumar Singh
• Chandramouli Gaddamanugu
• Gopal Ji Trivedi
• K Ramasamy
• Krishnamurty Balasubramanian
• Kumarasamy Thangaraj
• Prem Lal Gautam
• Shubha Venkatesha Iyengar
• Veezhinathan Kamakoti

With Media Inputs

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