Bihar’s boy, first Indian to be selected for prestigious research course in France

PARIS — Alok Arun, a PhD student at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, has earned the distinction of becoming the first Indian to be selected for a research course organised by the prestigious Marine Genomics Europe (MGE) to be held in Roscoff, France this year.

Alok was selected among applicants who applied from all over the world. A total of sixteen students have been selected for the course on Marine Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics.

MGE is devoted to the development, utilisation and spreading of high-throughput approaches for the investigation of the biology of marine organisms. The organisation is funded under the framework programme FP6 by the European Commission and unites 44 institutions from 16 countries.

Alok, who hails from Darbhanga district of Bihar, finished his schooling from Rose Publich School, Darbhanga. He later joined Hindu College (Delhi University) to pursue B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Botany. Whilie doing his M.Phil., he was selected for Erasmus Mundus Scholarship of Europe and hence came to France in September 2009.

Alok’s father Dr Parmanand Jha, who is head of English department at CM Science College (Darbhanga) and mother Renu Jha expressed happiness over their son’s achievement.

Speaking to Jai Bihar, Alok said, “I am happy for the fact that I am carrying the flag of Bihar to international academic circuits. I am thankful to my parents for their support and my teachers at Hindu College and DU who helped me to achieve this.”