DW BUREAU / PATIALA Dr Mamta Sharma, Head of the Department of Psychology and Coordinator, NSS, Punjabi University, has been conferred the Prof. S. Sultan Akhtar Memorial Award 2020 for the best community extension work in the area of Sports Psychology/Guidance and Counseling Psychology/Health Psychology/Organizational Psychology or any other applied field of Psychology. This prestigious yearly award is instituted in the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology (IAAP), one of the very few professional bodies in India dedicated to the field of psychology. Every year, IAAP invites nominations from the Psychology Faculty across the country for this award. The IAAP jury goes through a very rigorous selection process on the merits and achievements of each nominee before arriving at a final decision. Prof. Mamta Sharma has an extensive range of research expertise in counselling and Health Psychology. She has been working selflessly and diligently to safeguard the youth from the deadly clutches of drugs by implementation of the highly successful Punjab government's 'BUDDY' and 'DAPO' programmes. She reached out to the masses to make them realize the value of their inner strength in dealing with this problem and invest their energy in more constructive options. Being member of District Mission Team, Patiala under Punjab Narcotics Prevention Campaign Committee, she is rendering her services as Red Sky Officer for the Rehabilitation of Drug Dependents. Dr Mamta was also nominated as Subject expert to provide tele-counselling to deal with Mental Health Issues as part of Punjab Govt's initiative during COVID-19 Pandemic. Due to her commendable and relentless contribution in the State's fight against drug abuse, she was honored with Punjab Government State award 2021 under Social Service Category given to the selected eminent personalities who have done exceptional work in various fields of their expertise and those who have done commendable work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Acknowledging her contribution in fight against drug menace, The Ministry Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India nominated her State resource person to train the master trainers under Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan 2020. (editor@dailyworld.in)