Prof. P. Rama Rao, director, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) has been awarded the Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award for the year 2003, on the 62nd Foundation Day of CSIR at Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu on 26th September, 2004 for his contributions in the area of Biochemical Pharmacology with particular reference to developing biochemical and pharmacological markers for quantitative toxicology.

This award is being presented every year for the Pharmacology and drug development in the memory of Dr. I. C. Chopra, the second head of RRL and son of (Col.) Sir R.N.Chopra for the work carried out in India.

The other reciepients of the above award are Dr. C. K. Atal (2000), Dr. Y. K. Gupta (2001) and prof. Manju Ray (2003.)