Leaders in the field of science should encourage young innovators and promote their efforts without any prejudice and reward them, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission P K Iyengar said on Monday.

Inaugurating the 50th symposium of Department of Atomic Energy on solid state physics, Iyengar said the science leaders and policy makers 'need to encourage such lateral thinking, which requires proper use of science, innovative spirit, and experiment with a view to taking risks'.

"Instead of just rewarding the best thesis presented in the conference, it may be worthwhile that you invite such innovative efforts and reward them so that there is a greater awareness of basic scientific principles being used to innovate modern gadgets for the use of common man," he said.

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Emphasising the fact that basic science holds the key to progress and the progress has to be based on indigenous effort, Iyengar, one of the pioneers of solid state physics in the country, said, "Since we face global competition, unless each country makes its own effort, one can not catch up with the more advanced ones."

The five-day symposium coincided wth the golden jubilee celebration of the DAE and World Year of Physics.

Some of the eminent physicists attending the symposium include A M Hermann, Vijay P Singh from Centre for Nanoscale Science And Engineering, University of Kentucky, USA, Vikram Kumar, director, National Physical Laboratory, Dr Helmut Dosch of Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Germany [Images], S Bhattachary, director, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Dr S Banerjee, director, Bhabha Atomic REsearch Centre, R S Liu and S C Chang from Taipei, Taiwan.