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March 2013No. 57

Newsletter of the Indian Academy of Sciences

Inside....1. Seventy-Eighth Annual Meeting, Dehra Dun

2 – 4 November 2012 .......................................... 1

2. Twenty-Fourth Mid-Year Meeting5 – 6 July 2013 ..................................................... 4

3. 2013 Elections ........................................................ 6

4. Special Issues of Journals ..................................... 7

5. Discussion Meetings ............................................... 9

6. ‘Women in Science’ Panel Programmes .............. 13

7. STI Policy – Brainstorming Session .................... 15

8. Raman Professor .................................................. 15

9. Summer Research Fellowship Programme ......... 16

10. Refresher Courses ............................................... 16

11. Lecture Workshops ............................................... 22

12. Repository of Scientific Publications ofAcademy Fellows ................................................. 32

13. Hindi Workshop .................................................... 33

14. Obituaries .............................................................. 33

Seventy-Eighth Annual Meeting, Dehra Dun2 – 4 November 2012

The 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy, hosted bythe Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehra Dunover November 2–4, 2012, saw a return to this venueafter nineteen years, the previous Annual Meeting inthis city having been in 1993. Thanks to its location inthe Himalayan foothills, and the proximity to manyplaces of historic interest, the attendance was verygood – 135 Fellows, 11 Associates and 47 invitedteachers.

The packed three dayprogramme included, apartfrom the openingPresidential address, twoSpecial Lectures, twoevening Public Lectures,two mini Symposia, andpresentations by 19 Fellowsand Associates. The

Presidential address by Professor A. K. Sood, theconcluding one for the triennium 2010-2012, carried forwardthe general themes of the two previous ones, being devotedthis time to unusual behavior patterns of ‘Driven Matter’.These come generally under the category of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, a developing disciplinelargely within classical physics. The behaviors of gelsand colloids under mechanical forces, shear, chemicalgradients and electric fields were described based onrecent experiments. We learnt that good quality chocolatetaste needs shear property in an essential way, while in

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EDITORR. Ramaswamy

Published byIndian Academy of SciencesBangalore 560 080, IndiaPhone: (080) 2266 1200, 2361 3922email: office@ias.ernet.in

This Newsletter is available on theAcademy website at: www.ias.ac.in/patrika/

To receive a regular copy of theNewsletter, please write to theExecutive Secretary of the Academy(chandra@ias.ernet.in)

Forthcoming Events

Twenty-fourth Mid-Year Meeting

Bangalore 5 – 6 July 2013

Refresher Courses

Quantum mechanics 1 – 14 May 2013

St Berchman’s College, Changanacherry

Statistical physics 8 – 21 May 2013

Nehru Arts and Science College, Kanhangad

Experimental physics – XLVIII 14 – 29 May 2013

Vidya Pratishtan’s Arts, Science & Commerce College

Baramati

Modern biotechnology: Concepts and practice 15 – 29 May 2013

Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai

Experimental physics – XLIX 6 – 21 June 2013

Jalahalli, Bangalore

Experimental physics – L 6 – 22 August 2013

Jalahalli, Bangalore

Lecture Workshops

Frontiers in life science 21 – 24 May 2013

NEHU, Shillong

Recent advances in materials science 24 – 25 June 2013

Payyanur College, Payyanur

Galois theory, finite fields and cryptography 24 – 26 June 2013

NASI and IIIT, Allahabad

Frontier areas in physics 19 – 20 July 2013

St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

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the case of margarine shear induced crystallizationcomes to the fore. Once again we saw the kinds ofsurprises that lurk beneath everyday often ignoredmaterials and phenomena!

The Special Lecture byRohini Godbole titled“We have found a newboson, what next?’ wasall about the Higgsdiscovery at the LHC atCERN in 2012 summer.Prior to this talk, thepresentation by V.

Ravindran – ‘What is the Higgs boson?’ – was a wellillustrated account of the standard model of particlephysics built up over several decades, based onconcepts of continuous symmetry, its spontaneousbreaking, and the reason for bringing in the Higgs boson.Godbole’s talk took this story further, and showed howthe detailed theoretical calculations and expectationsplayed key roles in guiding and then interpreting the‘Higgs effort’. One could not help comparing andcontrasting this discovery and situation with previouskey experimental discoveries – of the muon, of parityviolation, for instance – where the theoreticalunderpinnings of the search seem far less elaborate.One remembers also that the ‘Higgs effort’ was basedon 3000 physicists from 38 countries!

The second SpecialLecture by V. S.Chauhan on ‘Currentchallenges in research ofinfectious diseases:Malaria and tuber-culosis’ brought homethe magnitudes of these

problems and difficulties in making progress. With TB:India has 21% of the world’s patients, China has 14%.Two million patients added every year, 1000 succumbeach day. The poor are badly affected, and the publicand private sectors are yet to join hands. Add to thisthe problem of irresponsible drug use. Fortunately onesees a very slow decline in incidence, and in Indiatreatment is free. China has done very well in this field,while in India we do have several fine research centrestackling these diseases.

Of the two PublicLectures, MohanAgashe’s on ‘Cinemafor Health’ was avery well deliveredanalysis of the impacta well-made moviehas on the viewer forlong after it is seen.

The speaker combined his skills as a psychiatristand a film personality to wonderful effect. Hereminded us that we are born with vision and hearing– so they are more intuitive, while words and languagecome later, along with analysis. The talk wasembellished by two short films each with a powerfulmessage.

Shyam Saran – acareer diplomat and civilservant – spoke on ‘Thechallenge of climatechange and India’sstrategy in multilateralnegotiations’. Both pastproblems and future

policies were covered. Climate change and energysecurity are linked; and in the recent past there havebeen further complications due to economic crises.The hope expressed was that with our civilisationalvalues, and non exploitative respect for nature, we mayhave important advantages.

The Symposium on ‘Science of the Himalayas’ gave athrilling account of the emergence of this youngest andyet tallest mountain system in the world. The India-Asia collision of about 60 million years ago, the picturesof the moving land mass over the preceding 500 millionyears, covering 18 cm a year, initial collision inthe North West followed by clockwise rotation,were conveyed in gripping fashion. Plus all that can belearnt from studies of river systems, glaciers, andearthquakes.

The second Symposium was a tribute to the life andwork of Alan Turing, and was titled ‘Computing legacyof Alan Turing’. His immensely fruitful conceptualadvances in many directions, and their relevance todayalmost six decades after his passing – in biology,complexity theory, concepts of randomness andcomputability – were presented.

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From a wide spectrum of other presentations, here areselected highlights. A. K. Shukla told us that whiletoday one in seven persons has a car (this is theworld average, 7 billion people and 1 billion vehicles),this could become 1 in 4 by 2020; the world populationis expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, 11 billion by2100. Hence the need to move to electric vehicles.Abhishek Dhar addressed questions in non-equilibriumstatistical physics, departures from Fourier’s law ofheat transport, the Levy distribution, random versus

Levy walkers, and the like. Anuranjan Anand describedstudies of epileptic seizures provoked by sensory stimuli– touching hot water – and the way these patientsoccur in family clusters. Surprisingly, 80% of such casesworldwide are known to be in India, and here the numberof such individuals is about 1000. What a ‘small’ yetintriguing problem to study at the genetic level!

The meeting as a whole was intellectually stimulating,and also well organized.

TWENTY-FOURTH MID-YEAR MEETING

5 – 6 JULY 2013

Tentative Programme5 July 2013 (Friday)

0930 – 1010 Session 1A – Special LectureS Sivaram, NCL, PuneSustainable materials based onaliphatic polyesters: Teaching oldchemistry some new tricks

1010 – 1300 Session 1B – Lectures by Fellows/Associates

1010 H N Ghosh, BARC, MumbaiHarvesting solar energy through dye-sensitized and quantum dot solar cell

1030 Amol Dighe, TIFR, MumbaiParticle astrophysics of neutrinos

1120 A C Mishra, NIV, PuneInfluenza viruses and public healthin the first decade of twenty firstcentury

1140 Debasis ChattopadhyayNIPGR, New DelhiDiverse role of CBL – interacting proteinkinases in plant

1200 B Sundar Rajan, IISc, BangaloreWireless communication with multiple

antennas

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Inauguration of the 78th Annual Meeting, Dehra Dun.

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1220 V K Sharma, JNCASR, BangaloreUnderstanding circadian entrainmentof fruitfly drosophila melanogasterclocks under semi-naturalconditions

1240 Uday Bandyopadhyay, IICB, KolkataDesigning of a novel tryptamine-gallicacid hybrid to prevent non-steroidalanti-inflammatory drug-induced gastriculcer/gastropathy

1430 – 1720 Session 1C – Lectures by Fellows/Associates

1430 Bhaskar Saha, NCCS, PuneCD40 and anti-leishmanial immunity

1450 S Baskaran, IIT, ChennaiDomino reaction based approach forthe synthesis of novel molecules

1510 T K Nayak, VECC, KolkataExploring quantum chromodynamicsphase transitions at RHIC and LHC

1600 Soumya Swaminathan, NIRT, ChennaiTB/HIV: A decade of research

1620 K Ramamritham, IIT, MumbaiSmart electric grids – the vision, theopportunities, the challenges

1640 Amiya Kumar Pani, IIT, MumbaiScientific computing: A new way oflooking at mathematics

1700 Naseema Beegum, NPL, New DelhiSpace-time variability of aerosols overIndian region: Implications in radiativeforcing

1800 – 1900 Session 1D – Public Lecture T Jacob John, VelloreIndia’s success story:Polio eradication

6 July 2013 (Saturday)

0900 – 0940 Session 2A – Special Lecture

Deepak Pental, Univ., Delhi SouthCampus, New DelhiBreeding of oilseed mustard: Tales fromsome marathon runners

0940 – 1230 Session 2B – Lectures by Fellows/Associates

0940 S K Pati, JNCASR, BangaloreStructure and electronic properties ofDNA and modified – DNA systems

1000 S Shankaranarayanan,IISER, ThiruvananthapuramHigher derivative theories and quantumphase transition

1050 K N Raghavan, IMSc, ChennaiInvariant theory and standard monomialtheory

1110 B J Rao, TIFR, MumbaiSpatial movements of chromosomesthat facilitate their repairs

1130 Prahladh Harsha, TIFR, MumbaiCommunication complexity: A treasurehouse of lower bounds

1150 N V Chalapathi Rao, BHU, VaranasiKimberlites: Keys for understandingthe geodynamic evolution of ancientcratons

1210 M Durga Prasad, University ofHyderabad, HyderabadAn electronic structure perspective ofthe promoter modes in proton transferreactions

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2013 ELECTIONSNahid AliIndian Institute of Chemical Biology, KolkataArea: Biochemistry; immunology;parasitology

Uday BandyopadhyayIndian Institute of Chemical Biology,KolkataArea: Free radical biology and apoptosis;gastric pathophysiology; antimalarials

S BaskaranIndian Institute of Technology, ChennaiArea: Development of new syntheticmethods; green chemistry; synthesis ofbiologically active natural products

Debasis ChattopadhyayNational Institute of Plant GenomeResearch, New DelhiArea: Abiotic stress of plant; plantvirology; genome sequencing

Amol DigheTata Institute of Fundamental Research,MumbaiArea: Particle physics phenomenology;astroparticle physics

HN GhoshBhabha Atomic Research Centre, MumbaiArea: Radiation & photochemistry;quantum dot & nanomaterials; ultrafastspectroscopy in condense phase

B GopalIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreArea: Structural biology; molecularmicrobiology; molecular biophysics

S GopalakrishnanIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreArea: Wave propagation; structural healthmonitoring; computational mechanics

Jaya N IyerInstitute of Mathematical Sciences,ChennaiArea: Algebraic geometry

BR JagirdarIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreArea: Organometallic chemistry;materials chemistry; catalysis

Susanta MahapatraUniversity of Hyderabad, HyderabadArea: Theoretical chemical dynamics;nonadiabatic chemistry

Souvik MaitiInstitute of Genomics and IntegrativeBiology, DelhiArea: Biophysical chemistry; chemicalbiology

Debashis MitraNational Centre for Cell Science, PuneArea: Molecular virology; molecularimmunology; HIV/AIDS and anti-viral drugdiscovery

Sangita MukhopadhyayCentre for DNA Fingerprinting andDiagnostics, HyderabadArea: Immunology; cell signalling;communicable diseases

TK NayakVariable Energy Cyclotron Centre, KolkataArea: Nuclear and high energy physicsexperiment; QCD phase transition andquark gluon plasma; phases of nuclearmatter

Arun K PatiHarish Chandra Research Institute,AllahabadArea: Quantum information theory; quantumcomputing; foundations of quantum theory

B Jagadeeshwar RaoTata Institute of Fundamental Research,MumbaiArea: Genome dynamics; biology of cellularadaptations; computational biology

NV Chalapathi RaoBanaras Hindu University, VaranasiArea: Igneous petrology; mantlegeochemistry; geodynamics; mineralresources

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G Narahari SastryIndian Institute of Chemical Technology,HyderabadArea: Computational chemistry;theoretical chemistry; computer-aideddrug design

VB ShenoyIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreArea: Condensed matter theory; strongly-correlated systems; cold atom physics

Bhim SinghIndian Institute of Technology, New DelhiArea: Power electronics; renewableenergy generation

Tarun SouradeepInter-University Centre for Astronomy andAstrophysics, PuneArea: Cosmology; high energy physics;early universe

B Sundar RajanIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreArea: Wireless communication; codingtheory

Soumya SwaminathanNational Institute for Research inTuberculosis, ChennaiArea: Paediatrics; tuberculosis; HIV co-infection; TB pathogenesis

Avesh K TyagiBhabha Atomic Research Centre, MumbaiArea: Chemistry of functional materials;nanomaterials; nuclear materials

Honorary Fellows

Thomas KailathStanford University, Stanford, USA

Daniel G. NoceraMassachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, USA

SPECIAL ISSUESOF JOURNALS

Special Issue on Genomics and Biodiversity

Editors: Ramesh K Aggarwal, Rajeev K Varshneyand K Thangaraj

Journal of Biosciences, Volume 37, No. 5,November 2012, pp. 807 – 920

A three-day internationalsymposium on ‘Genomicsand Biodiversity’ was heldin Hyderabad, India, from23 to 25 February 2011.The symposium was jointlyorganized by ADNAT(Association for Promotionof DNA Fingerprinting andother DNA technologies)and CCMB (Centre forCellular and MolecularBiology), as part of the

15th Annual Convention of ADNAT at CCMB.

Justifying the theme of the symposium, the talkscovered a rich diversity of research areas, organizedinto six sessions, namely, Genomics Platforms andTechnologies, Characterization of Biodiversity, Genomicsfor Harnessing Biodiversity, Genomics for Diversity,Disease and Health, Conservation of biodiversity, andBiodiversity Studies in Challenging Scenarios. Overall,there were 23 invited talks by eminent scientists fromIndia and eight other countries (Germany, UK, Australia,Singapore, Republic of Korea, USA, Colombia andKenya); six short presentations by young researchers,and a panel discussion by scientists and socialstakeholders on ‘Genomics, Untapped Biodiversity,GMOs and Socio-Environmental Concerns’. The meetingwas attended by a large number of researchers andstudents from across the country and also by themembers of the ADNAT society.

The presentations included in this special issue providea broad glimpse of the variety of scientific enquiry intovarious facets of biodiversity exploration. The first threearticles discuss the advancement in recent genomicplatforms that aid in the discovery and developmentof molecular markers, which in turn are expected todramatically shift the efficiency of molecular breedingto a higher level in plants. These should serve as simpleprimers for young researchers venturing into the field.

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The article by Rajeev K. Varshney et al. provides thesuccess story of the development of genetic resources(thousands of SSRs and SNPs) in legume crops throughnext-generation sequencing, and their use in developingcomprehensive genetic maps and identification ofcandidate markers linked to agronomically importanttraits with the help of high-throughput genotypingmethods. The next two articles (Martin W. Ganal et al.and Robert J. Henry et al.) provide simple butcomprehensive reviews of the genomic approaches thathave greatly accelerated the pace of ‘molecular markerdiscovery’ and the development of large genome-wideSNP arrays, followed by their potential applications incharacterization of genetic resources, creation of high-density linkage maps and also in association studies.As a step forward, the next three articles inform usabout how the genomics approaches/molecular markerscan help us in understanding the origin/evolution of thevast germplasm resources, and also in their meaningfulmanagement, preservation and utilization. The articleby B. M. Prasanna traces the centre of origin of maizeand migratory routes of maize domestication usingmolecular markers on diverse germplasm, andemphatically brings out the need for high-throughoutprecision phenotyping as a prerequisite to exploit thegenetic resources for desirable variability. In their article,M.Y. Kim et al. describe how whole genome sequencingof diverse germplasm can aid in identifying QTLsgoverning complex traits by comparative genomicsapproach, exemplifying it with their identification of 118genes involved in flowering pathway in soybean. In thefollowing article, Andreas Börner et al. discuss the fateof genetic integrity of long term stored germplasmsthat differ in their modes of reproduction, and highlightthe need for integrating molecular markers in themanagement of large ex situ genebanks. In concertwith crop plants, there is an equal need for healthylivestock for sustainable agriculture. In the followingarticle, Emily L. Clark and Damer P. Blake review thegenomics based population-level approaches that haveaccelerated the pace of mapping genomes of parasiticorganisms, taking the example of coccidial protozoansthat cause diseases of severe importance in bothmedical and veterinary fields (the genomic informationof protozoans is expected to help in developing vaccinesusing reverse-genetic tools). The next two articles turnthe focus from plant/agriculture biodiversity to faunalbiodiversity. In the first of these articles, Andrea Pazand Andrew J. Crawford discuss the use of DNA-barcoding-based rapid inventories of sympatric diversityamong frogs, and highlight the importance of samplingapproach (from clade-based sampling to geographically

focused sampling) to answer questions related tomacro-ecology and community phylogenetics.Subsequently, Jan Janecka et al. throw light on theastonishing fact that the rates of molecular andmorphological evolution is highly decoupled and suggestfrom their findings that insertions and deletions in thefunctional regions (that brings about phenotypicdivergence) probably arise and fix faster than the rateof neutral substitution in the genome. In the end, thefocus shifts to the most studied animal species, Homosapiens, which diversified extensively since it originatedin Africa about 200,000 years ago. In this last article,Rakesh Tamang et al. review the complex genetic originof Indian populations and the driving forces that led tothe current high-level diversity, as revealed bymitochondrial, Y-chromosomal and autosomal DNAmarker analysis of around 20,000 individuals acrossIndia. The review highlights the fact that thecontemporary Indian populations are the descendentsof the very first modern humans who ventured thejourney of Out-of-Africa about 60,000 years ago. It ishoped that this special issue will initiate manyyoungsters in the area of applied genomics to conserve/manage our natural biological resources/wealth.

Modern Trends in Inorganic Chemistry (MTIC-XIV)

Guest Editor: K C Kumara Swamy

Journal of Chemical Sciences, Volume 124, No. 6,November 2012, pp. 1137 – 1450

This special issuecomprises contributionsfrom invited speakers ofthe Fourteenth Sym-posium on Modern Trendsin Inorganic Chemistry(MTIC-XIV) held at theUniversity of Hyderabadduring 10–13, December2011. The MTIC series ofbiennial symposia havebeen an important forum

for inorganic chemists of the country to focus on thecurrent status as well as the future developments inthe frontier areas of research in this discipline. Thetopics covered in this issue span a diverse range frombioinorganic chemistry to materials chemistry,encompassing the traditional areas of coordinationchemistry, main group chemistry and organometallicchemistry.

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Proceedings of the 25th International Symposiumon ‘Lepton–Photon Interactions at High Energies(Lepton – Photon 2011)’ Parts I and II.

Editors: Rohini Godbole and Naba K Mondal

Pramana, Vol. 79, Nos. 4 & 5, October andNovember 2012, pp. 511 – 1364

This special issue ofPramana – Journal ofPhysics comprises theProceedings of the 25thInternational Symposiumon ‘Lepton – PhotonInteractions at HighEnergies (Lepton – Photon2011)’. This conferencecovered theoretical andexperimental aspects ofelementary particlephysics with plenary talks

covering the current results, developments and provideda vista of the future. The conference dealt with thelatest results from accelerator experiments as well asspace-bound and deep underground laboratories,studying neutrinos, dark matter and cosmic rays.

This was the first international meeting in which theresults from Large Hadron Collider (LHC), obtained withthe two detectors ATLAS and CMS, designed to searchfor the Higgs boson and for new particles beyond theStandard Model such as supersymmetric particles wereannounced for the first time by representatives of thesecollaborations. In addition, results from the RelativisticHeavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the USA were presentedon the ‘quark-gluon plasma’ formed at the extremelyhigh pressures and temperatures, reached in the heavy-ion collisions, providing key insights into the behaviourof matter under conditions similar to those at the birthof the Universe. The conference gave a uniqueopportunity to compare the data from the Tevatron atFermilab, USA, with those from the LHC.

Latest results from the T2K experiment from Japan,the OPERA experiment from Europe and the MINOSexperiment from the USA, which had also detectedthe appearance of neutrinos through oscillations interrestrial neutrino beams, were announced. Thepossible observation of a nonzero neutrino mixingangle 13, reported in the ‘hot topic session’ has nowin fact been confirmed beyond any doubt.

The Planck Space Observatory had collected a largeamount of data of the ‘cosmic microwave backgroundradiation’ that pervades the Universe and is a relic

from the very beginning of time. Irregularities, or’anisotropies’, in this radiation carry important informationabout the early Universe and the subsequent formationof stars and galaxies. The participants had the benefitof learning about the latest developments from thefascinating space probe.

DISCUSSIONMEETINGS

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic MolecularMaterials: Experiments and Modelling

Orange County, Coorg25 – 28 November 2012

Convener: S Ramasesha (IISc, Bangalore)

The discussion meeting ‘Electronic, Optical andMagnetic Molecular Materials: Experiments andModelling’ was held in Orange County, Coorg from25 to 28 November, 2012. One of the speakers,Professor Alok Shukla from IIT, Bombay was unableto attend so there were, in all twenty-three participantsof which fourteen participants made oral presentationsand eight participants presented a total of nine posters.There were five scientist participants with affiliationsoutside India – two French, one Japanese, one Chineseand one American. The participants also included eightstudents/fresh post-doctoral researchers and five womenscientists.

The oral presentations were for 45 minutes and oftenbecause of lively discussions, extended to a little underan hour. The interesting poster session was on the26th and was very encouraging for young researchers.There were also many one-on-one discussions outsidethe scheduled lectures and posters.

The topics of the meeting ranged from organic molecularsystems to inorganic molecular systems; fromexperiments to theory and modeling; and from pureresearch to device fabrications. There were four lectureson theoretical aspects of modeling electronic, opticaland magnetic properties. These ranged from theoreticaldesigns of molecular multiferroics, paradigms forobtaining large third order nonlinear responses, modelingmolecules for solar energy storage and multiscalemodeling for supramolecular assemblies. There werethree talks on molecular magnetism, spanning spinstate transition systems for device applications, designof high anisotropy molecular magnets and design ofsingle chain magnets using phosphorous as linkers

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between magnetic ions. There were three talks on thesynthesis of organic molecular systems for deviceapplications and enhanced nonlinear optical response.There were two talks on organic molecular devices forsolar and display applications and two talks onnanomaterials and their optical responses in thepresence of protein aggregation and transition metaldopants.

There were cultural programmes, bird watching, villageand plantation tours organized for the participants.

Inositide signalling in health and disease

Orange County, Coorg28 November – 2 December 2012

Convener: Gaity Hasan (NCBS, Bangalore)

An international workshop on “Inositide signalling inhealth and disease” was held between 28 Novemberand 2 December 2012 at Orange County, Coorgsponsored by the Indian Academy of Sciences and

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the National Centre for Biological Sciences. Theworkshop was organized by Gaiti Hasan and RaghuPadinjat (NCBS), Phillip Hawkins (Babraham Institute,Cambridge, UK) and John York (Vanderbilt University,USA). The meeting featured a cast of around twentyinternational speakers working at the leading edgeof research in this field presenting new and mainlyunpublished findings. The meeting was also attendedby 30 PhD students and post-doctoral fellows mainlyfrom India but also from other parts of the world. Theseparticipants presented their most recent research duringinteractive poster sessions. Finally, in addition to theformal sessions, substantial time was set aside forinformal discussions and new collaborations were forgedat this meeting.

This meeting discussed multiple aspects of inositidesignalling. Several speakers presented new advancesin understanding the biochemical reactions thatunderpin inositide signaling as well as the spatialorganization of these with living cells. A notable highlightwas exciting new insights into the regulation ofphosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K) enzyme activityvia RasGTPase family members. Fundamentalmechanistic insights into the altered regulation ofPI3K enzymes through structural studies usingdeuterium exchange were presented. These newstructural insights offer a mechanistic explanation forunderstanding how mutations in PI3K enzymes resultin enhanced activity that is now clearly linked to cellproliferation and cancer.

Also presented was an exciting new study into thelocalization and regulation on phosphatidylinositol4 kinase (PI4K) in mammalian cells. Many cell signalingreactions that depend on inositides are triggered bythe activity of enzymes that use PI(4,5)P2 as a substrate.However there has been a long standing mysterysurrounding the mechanism by which the levels ofPI(4,5)P2 are maintained within cells. Spatially regulatedactivity of PI4K is critical for this process.

Speakers presented multiple new data sets on theregulation and function of the most recently discoveredand enigmatic member of the phosphinositide family,namely phosphatidylinositol 5 phosphate (PI5P). Theseincluded new insights into the function of enzymes thatproduce PI5P, novel role for PI5P in regulating Pin1function in the mammalian nucleus and new roles forthe regulation of cell growth through interactions withthe TOR kinase.

Mechanical properties of small scale systems

Orange County, Coorg24 – 28 February 2013

Convener: Vikram Jayaram (IISc, Bangalore)

This workshop, fourth in a series that began in 2004,was held at Orange County for the first time. In contrastto earlier versions, the participation was restricted tothose actively working in the area of small scaledeformation and included, in addition to 14 invited

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lectures of 45 minutes from experts, 14 shorter oraland 8 poster contributions from young scientists inIndia, spread across three and a half days. Lead lecturesfrom India, Germany, USA, and Hongkong set the tonefor every session and covered different aspects ofmechanical response including:

• the role of sample size and microstructural scale inplasticity and fracture

• fabrication and fracture of 3-d structures, such asnano-honeycombs and metamaterial architecturesthrough a combination of lithography andelectrochemistry

• void nucleation in metallic glasses

• the use of dynamic nanoindentation to obtaininformation on creep and adhesion at room andelevated temperatures

• shape memory alloys

• instrumentation used for small scale uniaxial andbend testing

• cyclic deformation effects when microstructural andsample length scales overlap

• thermal barrier coatings

• intrinsic stresses in thin films and their managementin GaN based systems

• the coupling of electric fields and mechanicalstresses in interconnects used in semiconductors

• micro mechanical systems based on superalloysfor high temperatures

• topology optimisation and fabrication of microsystems

• fundamentals of interfacial fracture toughness.

Contributed talks from scientists at IIT-B, IIT-K,IIT-M, Hysitron, ISRO, DMRL, CGCRI, Universityof Hyderabad, ARCI and IISc covered on-going researchof scientists and young faculty in the above areasas well as in polymeric thin films and moleculardynamics simulations of deformation and indentationfracture of brittle materials and coatings. Talks wereaccompanied by extensive, lively discussion whichcontinued informally into the ample free time that wasmade available.

School Mathematics

Orange County, Coorg28 February – 2 March 2013

Convener: Phoolan Prasad (IISc, Bangalore)

The meeting was organised by the RamanujanMathematical Society (RMS) and was hosted by theIndian Academy of Sciences. This meeting wasattended by Prof. M. S. Raghunathan, President ofRMS, Prof. Phoolan Prasad, Editor-in-Chief of theRMS series of Little Mathematical Treasures (LMT);Editorial Board members of LMT and Prof. P. Shankaranas a representative of the Joint Science EducationPanel of the three science academies. The other inviteesto the meeting were some school/college teachers, amember of the Azim Premji University, a ResearchOfficer of Kerala SCERT and a representative of theAssociation of Mathematics Teachers of India.

The agenda of the discussion meeting was (i) Creationof an all India cadre of school teachers (along the linesof services like IAS or IPS); (ii) Nurture programme formathematics teachers; (iii) National level programme ofquality mathematics education for bright students inschools.

Each item of the agenda was discussed in great detail.The recommendations of the meeting will be taken upwith the Government of India, State Governments,K. V. Sangathan and groups of mathematiciansinterested in mathematics education. One importantaspect of the meeting was the interest shown (andalso confirmed later after the meeting) by the AzimPremji University in working jointly with this group ofmathematicians on teachers training. It was alsointeresting to note the valuable work initiated by theKerala SCERT on nurturing mathematics in schoolsfrom the 6th standard, which may be followed by otherstates.

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1. Careers in Science (9 March 2013)

The Indian Academy of Sciences, under the auspicesof the Panel on ‘Women in Science’ organized a half-day session on ‘Careers in Science’ to commemorateInternational Women’s Day and National Science Day.This lecture programme was held on 9th March at theMount Carmel College, Bangalore.

Remembering the contributions made by womenscientists to science, Rohini Godbole (IISc), the firstspeaker gave a brief introduction of the book ‘Lilavati’sDaughters: The women scientists of India’, and recalledthe contributions made by Janaki Ammal and AnandibaiJoshi, the first lady doctor in India. She urged theyoung girls to read biographies of famous womenscientists to learn and derive their inspiration fromthem. Godbole also gave a talk explaining thecontribution of particle physics to other sciences andthe significance of the recently discovered HiggsBoson. Her description of the discovery of the proton-proton collision to yield one Higgs boson particle thatmanifests in one in a billion collisions was veryinterestingly illustrated and explained.

The second speaker, T. N. C. Vidya (JNCASR) spokeon the social organisation in female Asian elephants.This talk showed how female Asian elephants interact,how their networking is structured and organised ascompared to the African elephants. The talk revealedthe marked differences between the social behaviourof Asian and African elephants in their group strategies,defence against predators and during crises such asfood shortage.

The third speaker Attreyee Ghosh (IISc) gave anoverview of ongoing research in the area of geophysicsand enlightened the audience with various aspectsof unknown facts of our planet Earth. The structure ofthe Earth was explained in a lucid manner emphasisingthe fact that ample research is necessary to cope withcalamities such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Foraspiring earth scientists, Ghosh listed a few necessarytraits: (i) a person who loves being outdoors, (ii) iswilling to explore nature and has love for science and(iii) a flair for coding and computing to design numericalmodels.

Following these lectures, an interactive session wasalso organized. Prabha Chatterji an industrial consultantinteracted with the students. Some of the questions

‘WOMEN IN SCIENCE’PANEL PROGRAMMES

discussed were — reservations for women in researchinstitutes, post marriage social responsibilities forwomen and poor quality of science education at theschool level.

The session concluded on an optimistic note withsuggestions from the panel to the young gatheringon the advantages of doing science, like flexible andindependent working hours. Ten promising studentswere presented with a copy of the book ‘Lilavati’sDaughters – The Women Scientists of India’.

2. Women teaching and leading Sciences(16 February 2013)

As part of the programmes of the Academy Panelon ‘Women in Science’, a panel discussion on“Women teaching and leading sciences” was heldon 16 February 2013 on the last day of the two-week “Refresher Course on Advances in Plant andAnimal Biotechnology” at the Indian Women ScientistsAssociation (ISWA), Vashi, Navi Mumbai. It wasattended by nearly 90 persons consisting of the Courseparticipants, the faculty, college students, teachers,scientists and IWSA members.

‘Women in Science’, has been receiving immenseattention in India and abroad to assess why womenare not as much in the forefront as men in science. Isit just a gender bias or are there other issues whichneed attention? This topic has been the focus ofactivities of the Academy Panel and it was thereforeconsidered appropriate to discuss and see how farwe have gone in our efforts to improve the spacefor women in science. A 2004 report by a committeechaired by Rohini Godbole and others, presentedsome of the prime factors as to why women scientistsin India are where they are. These factors includeenvironmental issues such as societal pressures,lack of amenities, which part of the country you reside,lack of support from the family, gender bias, sciencevs arts as appropriate for women, the glass ceiling andso on.

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Surekha Zingde, (ACTREC, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai)moderated the proceedings of the panel of eminentwomen who had won laurels in their individual fieldsof activities. The panelists were Mythily Ramaswamy(TIFR-CAM, Bangalore), Shobhana Narasimhan(JNCASR, Bangalore) and Ranjini Bandyopadhyay(RRI, Bangalore) who represented the mathematicaland physical sciences; Kamal Hazari (ex NIRRH,Mumbai), Anjali Kulkarni (BARC, Mumbai) the medicalsciences; Rinti Banerjee (IIT-B), medical sciencesamong the engineers, and Sheela Dhonde (IISER,Pune) representing the teaching faculty from thecolleges.

Three of the Refresher Course participants, (Liji Thayil,a college professor in Mumbai), Reshma Turbekar (fromthe Koli Community in Mumbai) and SashidharaRajaratnam (from an economically backward communityin Tamilnadu) spoke on their efforts to overcomeseveral different societal pressures to reach their goalsas scientists and teachers. Tulsi Mukherjee (BARC)and Bakhtavar Mahajan (ex. HBCSE, TIFR), from theaudience, shared their experiences and views on thetopic.

All the senior scientists on the panel were from familieswherein education was of prime importance, sothe lack of support was not a factor. The discussionrevealed how each member in the panel envisaged thetopic, their personal experiences as professionals,their views and opinions of being women scientists,clinicians and educationists. The panelists expressedthe importance of self-esteem, determination, persistenceand decision on professional priorities, as the wayforward for women scientists. They shared anecdotesthat influenced their decisions and made it possiblefor them to reach their present positions. They alsoexpressed how the immediate environment and that ofsociety affects the path to development of a woman’scareer.

Key take home points were: a woman’s self-esteemis essential to ensure that she reaches her goal(Shobhana Narasimhan); make your position clear toyour male colleagues that you are scientifically atpar, besides being a woman (Mythili Ramaswamy);equal participation with domestic activities from thespouse is a must for a woman to move ahead in hercareer (Ranjini Bandyopadhyay); a woman mustunderstand her own body well to ensure that shecan regulate her activities and move ahead inundertaking what she wants to do (Kamal Hazari);environment at home plays a major role in determiningcareers and family support is essential to excel (AnjaliKulkarni); good parenting, family encouragement,

no discrimination between girl and boy child whilegrowing up and the freedom of choice in the selectionof a career and the importance given to “networking” tobe considered as a Fellow of the Academies, are factorsinvolved in the development of women as scientists(Rinti Banerjee); major attention is needed for educatingthe girl child in rural areas and small towns if they areto contribute effectively to society at large (SheelaDonde).

Zingde summarizing the proceedings mentioned theefforts made by the Academies towards identifyingissues affecting women in science such as need forequal opportunities, gender neutrality, mentoring, flexihours of work for women, opportunity to return after abreak in career, efforts to provide jobs to both spousesin the same campus or at least in the same city andprovision for child care on campus. She brought toattention the small percentage of women who getelected as Fellows of the Academies and that dueimportance should be given to their professionalachievements rather than their “networking” capabilitieswhich are most often affected by lack of family supportand the view that a woman is solely responsible forthe child and the home. She also informed that theGovernment of India has provided leave opportunitiesfor working women to ensure that children below18 years of age receive due attention from their mother.The points that now require attention and whichconstituted the recommendations of this panel werethe need for:

1. child and elder care leave for both men and womenso that they share their responsibilities for thefamily;

2. the importance for women to stand up for theirrights, but not misuse privileges offered by thegovernment;

3. concerted efforts for mentoring of men to participatein family responsibilities.

These recommendations will contribute to the efforts ofthe Academies towards ensuring that women have thesame opportunities as men in science in India so thatthey excel professionally and are recognized at parwith men.

The Indian Women Scientists’ Association thanks allthe three Science Academies for supporting IWSA toconduct the Panel Discussion. IWSA is also greatlyindebted to the panelists. Of course our thanks arealso due to the audience.

[Compiled by Surekha Zingde, Deputy Director,CRI-ACTREC and Rita Mukhopadhyaya, Secretary,IWSA].

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Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore15 March 2013

Science, Technology and Innovation Policy– 2013

The Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy2013 was unveiled by the Prime Minister, Dr. ManmohanSingh on 3 January 2013 during the centenary sessionof the Indian Science Congress in Kolkata. A policydocument on Science, Technology and InnovationPolicy was made available in the public domainthereafter.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST)initiated a national consultation with differentstakeholders to elicit inputs on implementation and

STI POLICY –BRAINSTORMING SESSION

operationalisation of specific measures and mechanismsenunciated in the policy. The DST proposed to conductten brainstorming sessions across India.

One such session was held in Bangalore under theauspices of the Indian Academy of Sciences on15 March 2013 at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.The speakers:

• Prof. Roddam Narasimha • Prof. D. Balasubramanian• Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan • Prof. T. V. Ramakrishnanand • Prof. K. N. Ganesh presented their viewsand perspectives on the policy document basedon their rich experiences, accomplishments andcontributions to science and technology activities inthe country.

Sauro Succi from the Istituto Applicazioni Calcolo“Mauro Picone”, Rome (Italy) occupied the Raman Chairin three phases — during October 2011 and February2012 (as reported in Patrika, March 2012 issue) andalso during July 23 – 31, 2012 the last phase of hisvisit. During this phase he attended the 21st editionof the conference ‘Discrete Simulation of FluidDynamics’ held in Bangalore from July 23 to 27 anddelivered a talk titled ‘Lattice Boltzmann methodsfor fluid turbulence’. The talk was based on the jointwork Succi did with Indian colleagues, particularlySantosh Ansumali and his coworkers, during hisprevious Raman visits.

RAMAN PROFESSOR

In addition, he completed three papers jointly withProf. Adhikhari in Chennai — a previous submissionwhich has been accepted for publication in J. Comp.Phys. They also completed two new papers, onlattice discretizations of differential operators andturbulence simulations which have been submittedto Phys. Rev. Letters and Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, respectively.

* * * * *

The session saw a large gathering of Fellows, seniorscientists, academicians, students, and others. Thespeakers discussed recommendations in variousareas including public health, public-private partnership,and reforms in education and innovation. The detailsof these recommendations will appear in a later issueof Patrika.

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SUMMER RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMMEFOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS – 2013

This is the seventh year of the Summer Research Fellowship Programme jointly conducted by the three NationalScience Academies of the country.

The 2013 Programme was announced in October 2012 and the last date for receiving applications was31 December 2012. Six Selection Committees consisting of about 25 experts in different areas met between18 and 20 January 2013 to scrutinize and make the selections. The following table indicates, subject-wise, thenumbers of applications received from students and teachers and the fellowships offered.

Subjects Applications received Fellowships offered

Students Teachers Students Teachers

Life Sciences 4872 287 791 45

Engineering & Technology 11053 223 501 55

Chemistry 2314 165 422 78

Physics 2269 132 445 52

Earth & Planetary Sciences 916 25 227 25

Mathematics 865 52 192 16

TOTAL 22289 884 2578 271

GRAND TOTAL 23173 2849

The next issue of Patrika will contain the number of fellowships availed and some analysis of the data.

REFRESHER COURSESJointly sponsored by IASc (Bangalore),INSA (New Delhi) and NASI (Allahabad)

Two-week Refresher Courses are aimed at helpingteachers to add value to their teaching and aredesigned to have direct relevance to the study materialscovered in the graduate and under-graduate syllabifollowed in universities and institutions in the country.The following Courses were held during the lastsix months.

A. Refresher Courses in Experimental Physics

The Refresher Courses in Experimental Physics wereheld under the direction of R. Srinivasan who was

instrumental in the conceptualization and designingof the experiments. He has so far held 46 Coursesin different parts of the country since 1999. Theseexperiments are useful for laboratory programmesat B.Sc and M.Sc levels and many universities inthe country have adopted these experiments aspart of their curricula. In order to conduct the RefresherCourses, a user-friendly kit containing severalcomponents has been developed and manufacturedunder licence by a company in Bangalore: M/s AjaySensors and Instruments. The experiments that canbe done with the kit were listed in the earlier issuesof Patrika including some of the new experiments thatwere added last year.

The following is a list of five Experimental PhysicsCourses held from October 2012 to March 2013.

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1. XLII. Tuljaram Chaturchand College,Baramati (TCC)

8 – 23 October 2012

Co-ordinator: MK Kokare (TCC)

No. of Participants: 45 participants from Akluj,Baramati, Bhopal, Bhor, Hadapsar, Kopargaon,Shrirampur, Vita.

Resource Persons: R Srinivasan, JBC Efrem D’Sa,Manohar Naik, SM Sadique, Neelam Kapoor, RT Sakpal.

Special Lectures: CH Bhosale and Ray Bagkar.

2. XLIII. Indian Academy of SciencesAnnexe, Jalahalli, Bangalore

15 – 30 November 2012

No. of Participants: 22 participants from Anantapur,Bangalore, Birbhum, Chennai, Jaipur, Kanpur,Katra, Latur, Malappuram, Patia, Santiniketan,Thiruvallur, Thrissur, Tuticorin, Vadodara, Vijayawada,Visakhapatnam.

of recoiled electrons in the Compton Effect (VinayVenugopal); Characterizations of interphases semi-conductor and conducting ceramics (N Manikandan);Telluride phase change materials and tellurite glassoptical fibres (N Punithavelan).

4. XLV. Christ Church College, Kanpur(CCC)

1 – 16 February 2013

Co-ordinator: RK Dwivedi (CCC)

No. of Participants: 33 participants from Banda,Dehat, Etawah, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Jabalpur, Kanpur,Kumaracoil, Lucknow, Mathura, Muzaffarnagar, Pauri,Sambhal, Solan, Unnao.

Resource Persons: R Srinivasan, Sarbari Bhattacharya,BN Meera, Sarmishta Sahu, TG Ramesh, AV Alex.

Special Lectures: Aveek Bid and Andal Narayan.

3. XLIV. VIT University, Chennai

4 – 19 December 2012

Co-ordinator: G Vinitha

No. of Participants: 16 participants from Amravati,Aruppukottai, Chennai, Madurai, Mysore, Nagpur,Rajkot, Tiruchirapalli, Vellore.

Resource Persons: R Srinivasan, C Krishnamoorthi,G Vinitha and Caroline Ponraj.

Special Lectures: Fabrication and characterizationof electrical micro-switch (Atanu Dutta); Wave nature

Resource Persons: R Srinivasan, S AnanthaRamakrishna, HC Verma, YN Mohapatra, RK Thareja,RK Dwivedi, T Pramila, Manish Kapoor, SP Singh,VK Srivastava.

Special Lectures: Experiments in optics for enablingphysical understanding (S Anantha Ramakrishna);importance of experiments in physics learning(HC Verma); my experiments in teaching physics(YN Mohapatra).

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5. XLVI. Indian Academy of SciencesAnnexe, Jalahalli, Bangalore

5 – 20 March 2013

No. of Participants: 17 participants from Alappuzha,Anand, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Birbhum, Chennai,Delhi, Jammu, Madurai, Malappuram, Mandya, Mysore,Udumalpet.

Ghaziabad, Hassan, Krishnagiri, Lucknow, Mumbai,Nanded, Rajouri, Ramanathapuram, Rohtak, Sangli,Shimoga, Srinagar.

Resource Persons: HY Mohan Ram, RR Rao,M Sanjappa, MD Rajanna, Ramakrishna,KN Ganeshaiah, R Uma Shaanker, V Bhaskar,MP Nayar, K Shankar Rao, SR Yadav, D Narasimhan,KG Bhat, Jagadish Chandra, YN Seetharam,K Shivanna, G Ravikanth, Senthil Kumar, Amit Agarwal,C Sathish Kumar, C Kameswara Rao.

Topics of Lectures: Problems of taxonomy teachingand research in India; endemism in Indian plants andtaxonomy at crossroads; biogeography with specialreference to India; photography and identificationof plants; species and population concept andherbaria; cladistics and phylogeny; taxonomy of plants;cytotaxonomy; plant nomenclature; pollen morphologyin relation to plant taxonomy; revision of genusImpatiens L., trends in evolution of angiospermflowers; taxonomic literature and other resources;taxonomy of Impatiens species complexes; patternsof species discovery in the Western Ghats andmolecular phylogenetics; DNA barcoding of plantsand phylogenetic analysis; role of chemistry in plantidentification; role of botanic gardens in plantconservation; vegetative characters in identificationof forest tree species; orchid taxonomy and biology;role of taxonomy and palynology in agri-biotechnologicalresearch; acts and conventions related to biodiversity;etnobotany, methods, techniques and its role insearch of newer economic plant; role of anatomy intaxonomic researches and chemotaxonomy; historyof taxonomic researches; botanical survey in Indiaand its role in documentation and conservationflora and traditional knowledge of plants; reproductivebiology and conservation and relevance of low techscience in modern days. The Course included practicalsessions.

7. Plant Sciences

PSGR Krishnammal College for Women,Coimbatore (PSGRKCW)

19 November – 3 December 2012

Course Director: TJ Pandian (MKU, Madurai)

Course Co-ordinator: S Poornima (PSGRKCW)

No. of participants: 27 participants from Anantapur,Coimbatore, Mahe, Mangalore, Parangipettai, Solan,Tiruvannamalai.

Resource Persons: R Srinivasan, TG Ramesh, SeetaBharati, N Meenakshisundaram, AV Alex.

Special Lectures: Abhisek Dhar, N Kumar andESR Gopal.

B. Other Refresher Courses

6. Traditional and Modern Approaches inPlant Taxonomy

University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore(UAS)

15 – 29 November 2012

Course Director: RR Rao (UAS)

Course Co-ordinator: M Sanjappa, MD Rajanna (UAS)

No. of participants: 26 participants from Allahabad,Anand, Bangalore, Chattisgarh, Coimbatore, Delhi,

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Resource Persons: TJ Pandian, Jebasingh, Sri Priya,KN Ganeshaiah, RR Rao, DJ Bagyaraj, Victor ArokiaDoss, K Mani, N Natarajan, KS Subramanian,D Sudhakar, SF Maleeka Begum, TS LokeswariSivaswamy, Narendar Sivaswamy, S. Paulsamy,V Narmathabai, Modhumita Dasgupta, M Ramanathan,S Poornima, NS Vasanthi, S Karuppusamy,TS Suryanarayanan.

Topics of lectures: Role of arbuscular mycorhhizalfungi in sustainable agriculture; microbial inoculantsand crop productivity; bioinformatics; status of nanoagriculture in India; engineering insect resistance inplants; safety of GM crops; an eco-friendly approachof essential oils as bio-pesticides; silencing RNAs inplants; gene regulation mechanism; bio-processing(fermentation-upstream and downstream processing);industrial enzymes (enzymes, applications andproblems); plant-insect interaction; encounter withwasp; functional genomics; basic principles ofpharmacological screening of drugs; screening foranti-inflammatory drugs; application of nanotechnologyin seed science; joy of doing science; in search ofsanjeevani; evolution of mutualism in plants; bio-informatics; cloning of biopesticide gene; antidepressantactivity of plants; drug discovery; chemical genomics;ethics in research; Amazon – a naturalist pilgrimage;isolation of plant genomic DNA; RNA extraction; orchids– genetic resources, utilization and conservation,floristic diversity in India: inventorization, conservationand bioprospection; problems in taxonomy teachingand research in Indian Universities – a plea for urgentresurrection; biodiversity – an overview; moleculartaxonomy and floristics; research opportunities inplant science; plants as source of nano particles –some vision to reality; biotechnology – a boon fordiabetes treatment: from vision to reality; role of miRNAplant gene regulation; transgenic approaches to modifyoils and fats in plants.

8. Experimental Chemistry

University of Pune, Pune

3 – 16 December 2012

Course Director: DD Dhavale (University of Pune)

Course Co-ordinator: Satish Pardeshi (University ofPune)

No. of participants: 12 participants from Amravati,Bhubaneswar, Dumka, Mumbai, Nashik, Pune, Rewa,Surat, Tirupati

Resource Persons: GS Grover, ND Singh, PD Lokhande,Vaishali Shinde, SB Waghmode, Dipalee Malkhede,Pragati Thakur, AS Kumbhar, SK Haram, AA Kumbhar,Satish Pardeshi, AK Nikumbh, Sunita Salunkhe,BG Ankamwar, Suvidya Ranade.

Course Content: Organic Chemistry: Preparation,purification and characterization of organic compounds;detection of functional groups and elements in organiccompounds; synthesis of polystyrene; PhysicalChemistry: spectrophotometric and spectrofluorometricdetermination of the ground and excited state acidityconstants of 2-naphthol; conductometric titration ofvinegar, various other acid base combinations, AgNO3

and KCl, determination of CMC; study of clock reactionat two different temperatures; Inorganic/Analytical/Environmental Chemistry: Round-trip of Cu; A pH-mediated synthesis of nitro and nitrite derivatives of acomplex; photochemical degradation of a dye usingZno/TiO2 catalyst in the presence of sunlight, tungstenlamp and mercury lamp; environmental chemistryrelated experiment; various types of titration; NanoChemistry: nanoparticle synthesis; characterizationtechniques used for nonmaterial; Biochemistry:separation; of DNA by Agarose gel electrophoresis;separation of nucleic acid bases by paperchromatography; determination of effect of increasingsubstrate concentration on enzyme.

9. Experimental Biology

Indian Institute of Science Education andResearch, Kolkata (IISER)

19 – 31 December 2012

Course Director: Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay (Universityof Calcutta, Kolkata)

Course Co-ordinator: Partho Sarothi Ray (IISER,Kolkata)

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No. of participants: 17 participants from Anand,Bangalore, Burdwan, Chikkasandra, Gajapati, Kolkata,Malkangiri, Mangalore, Manipal, Nadia, Pune, Puri,Rayagada, Sivaganga, Tiruchirapalli, Varanasi.

Resource Persons: Partho Sarothi Ray, AninditaBhadra, Rupak Dutta, Mohit Prasad, Tapas Sengupta,Malancha Ta, Rituparna Sinha Roy and Partha PratimDatta.

Course contents: Organismal biology – microscopicobservations: plant cells/Drosophila/human cheekepithelial cell/mammalian cell lines; behaviourexperiment: ant/zebrafish/Drosophila; Cellular biology– Drosophila polytene chromosome staining andobservation; blood film staining and observation;isolation of DNA and RNA from goat liver/blood; proteinextract preparation and isolation of plasmid DNA frombacteria; Molecular biology – spectrophotometricquantitation and electrophorsis of DNA/RNA/protein;enzyme assays from bacterial extract: constitutive–alkaline phosphatase inducible-b galactosidase;western blotting; PCR/restriction digestion. Severalpractical sessions were also held.

Special lectures were given by: Gene expression inprokaryotes (NC Mandal); DNA structure and function(HK Majumder); viral life cycle and regulation(Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay); utility of statistics inbiology (Partha P Majumder); memory and learning(Kausik Si); behavioural biology of ants (SumanaAnnagiri).

10. Foundation of Physics

Bengal Engineering and Science Univeristy,Shibpur (BESU)

24 – 31 December 2012

Course Director: Amitabha Ghosh (BESU)

Course Co-ordinator: BK Guha (BESU)

No. of participants: 56 from Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata,24 Parganas, Purba Midnapore, Purulia.

Resource Persons: Soumitra Sengupta, AK Mallik,Amitabha Ghosh, BK Guha, Swapan Datta, ManojHarbola, Birendranath Das, Bhupati Chakrabarti, SurajitChakraborty.

Topics covered: Newtonian mechanics and non-lineardynamics; theory of gravitation; thermodynamics andstatistical mechanics; electricity, magnetism andspecial theory of relativity; quantum theory.

Special Lecture: Solar system and stellar evolution(DP Duari).

11. Advances in Plant and Animal Bio-technology

Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil College and othervenues, Mumbai

3 – 16 February 2013

Course Director: Tarala D Nandedkar (NIRRH, Mumbai)

Course Co-ordinator: Susan Eapen (IWSA, NaviMumbai)

No. of participants: 21 participants from Anand,Aurangabad, Burdwan, Hassan, Hyderabad, Mumbai,Nizamabad, Perambalur, Secunderabad.

Resource Persons: KB Sainis, Rakesh Tuli, DeepakModi, Rajani Bhisey, SK Apte, Sulabha Pathak,Jayashree Sainis, Smita Mahale, SF D’Souza, ArchanaJoshi Saha, Sonia Chadha, Suman Bakshi, RitaMukhopadhyaya, Paramjit Khurana, ShellyBhattacharya, Robin Mukhopadhyaya, Sorab Dalal,Sanjeev Waghmare, Shubhada Chiplunkar, RitaMulherkar, Sandipto Ghosh, D Bhattahcharyya, PradnyaKowtal, Rukmini Govekar, Debjani Dasgupta, NeetinDesai, Mustansir B, Rajashri Navalakhe and manyothers.

Topics covered: Biotechnology: science, applicationsand concerns; biotechnology for designer plantsand foods; cultivation of genetically modified foodcrops: prospects and challenges; reverse genetics:RNAi in research and therapeutics; application oftissue culture to basic research; microbes for eco-friendly environmental applications; malaria vaccine:one thing leads to another; artificial photosynthesis;protein purification techniques; harnessing biomaterialsfor bioprocess development and monitoring; vectors

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for gene manipulations; genomic tools for fungalpathogens of plants and animals; microsatellite markersand their application in wheat breeding; SSR PCR;reporter gene assays; advent of genomics: implicationsin crop improvement; engineering plants for changingclimatic conditions; generation and culture of adultrat; RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis plasmid extraction;staining and loading; hepatic stem cells: an alternatemethodology for toxicological studies; silver staining;viral vectors for gene expression; generation oftransgenic animals; in vivo molecular imaging; cancerimmunotherapy; rodents in research; gene therapy;flow cytometry; mass spectrometry; advances inbiotechnology; an overview of plant tissue culture;sugarcane biotechnology; next generation designercrops for better nutrition and stress tolerance;proteomics, functional genomics and new biology;ethics in science and technology; synthetic life: mythand reality; biotechnology and molecular biology ofsilk; future potential of stem cells. Several practicaldemonstrations were also conducted during thisCourse.

A Panel Discussion on ‘Women in teaching and leadingsciences’ was also held on the last day of the Course.The panelists were Mythily Ramaswamy, RanjiniBandyopadhyay, Shobhana Narasimhan, Rinti Banerjee,Kamal Hazari, Anjali Kulkarni, Sheela Dhonde.

12. Modern Genetics: Concepts andPractice

Manipal University, Manipal

4 – 16 February 2013

Course Director: V Nagaraja (IISc, Bangalore)

Course Co-ordinator: K Satyamoorthy (ManipalUniversity)

No. of Participants: 21 participants from Arcot,Bangalore, Changa, Indore, Kasargod, Kolhapur,Kolkata, Mangalore, Puducherry, Padnekkad, Ranchi,Salem, Shankaraghatta, Shimoga, Sullia, Surat,Thiruppattur, Tiruvannamalai, Visakhapatnam.

Resource Persons: DN Rao, V Nagaraja, P Kondaiah,PN Rangarajan, KP Gopinathan, R Mukhopadhyaya,Jayaram S Kadandale, Mitesh Shetty, SP Thyagarajan,K Ramnarayan, Girisha Katta, Herman D’Souza.

Topics of lectures: At the Crossroads of chemistryand immunology: catalytic antibodies (catabs, abzymes);cancer causing viruses, viral genomes, pathobiologyand vaccines; from basic biology to drug discovery

efforts – an ongoing journey; impact of molecularcytogenetics testing in clinical genetics; bacteriophagesas models for molecular genetics; heavy metal toxicity;making sense out of expression profiling data: analysisand interpretation of breast cancer-micro arrays; re-combinant protein production in pichipastoris; Agarosegel electrophoresis and SDS-PAGE; theory behind HPLCand mass spectrometry; genetics in clinical practice;prenatal diagnostics for genetic diseases; advances invaccinology.

Isolation of genomic DNA, primary culture; plasmid DNAisolation, lymphocyte culture; methods of DNA damageand repair assessment; techniques in genetictoxicology; absolute cell count by flow cytometry; cellviability assay; cell cycle analysis; atomic absorptionspectrophotometer theory and practice; introductionto various aspects of PCR technique; polymerasechain reaction; bacterial cell count; DNA sequencing;real time PCR; principle procedure and guidance forperforming microarray experiments; flagellar stainingprinciple. The Course also consisted of over 6 hours ofpracticals/demonstrations/hands-on training.

13. Vision and Challenges of PervasiveComputing and Cloud Computing

GR Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore(GRDCS)

25 February – 9 March 2013

Course Director: BL Deekshatulu, GR Gangadaran(Hyderabad)

Course Co-ordinator: Vanitha Sidambaranathan(GRDCS)

No. of Participants: 35 participants from Coimbatore,Duragapur, Pollachi, Puducherry, Rourkela, Surat.

Resource Persons: Ramalatha Marimuthu,GR Gangadharan, Thiagarasu, AS Syed Nazir Ahmed,R Kalpana, GR Karpagam, L Ashok Kumar, T Devi,Pavan Yara, Johny Kannan, BL Deekshatulu, RajivWankar, Renuga, L Jagadeeshwaran, Mahesh U Patil,

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Vannirajan Chellapan, Raveendhran, KrishnenduMukhopadhyay.

Course Contents: Why research in cloud computingand pervasive computing? cloud computing – anintroduction, applications, industry views; servicesdiscovery: composition; current landscape in cloud;services in computing; social computing; types ofclouds; deployment types; cloud environment roles;CloudSim; pervasive computing – definitions: termsand standards; human computer interaction introductionto robotic science; robotics lab; pervasive middleware;wireless sensor networks; Castalia; mathematicalchallenges in pervasive computing research.

1. Ergodic theory and dynamical systems forpost-graduates

School of Physical Sciences, JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi (JNU)

1 October 2012

Convener: Ajit Iqbal Singh (ISI, New Delhi)

Co-ordinator: Amala Bhave/Riddhi Shah (JNU)

Participants: 138 participants (95 students and43 teachers) from Delhi.

Topics Covered: Hyperbolic geometry and numbertheory; ergodic transformations; subadditiveergodic theorem and percolation theory; Kleiniangroups: a tribute to Bill Thurston; dynamics of distalactions.

2. Photophysics of Molecular Materials forElectronic and Energy Applications

M. S. University, Baroda

3 – 5 October 2012

Convener: S Ramasesha (IISc, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: Praveen Ghalsasi (MS University, Baroda)

Participants: 102 participants from different institutionsin Baroda.

LECTURE WORKSHOPSJointly sponsored by IASc (Bangalore), INSA

(New Delhi) and NASI (Allahabad)

Topics Covered: Molecular materials; probingelectron states; molecular devices; electron states inconjugated molecules; laser spectroscopy; electronicprocesses in organic devices; nonlinear optics ofmolecules.

3. History, Aspects and Prospects ofElectronics in India

University of Delhi, New Delhi

12 – 13 October 2012

Convener: Manoj Saxena (Deen Dayal UpadhyayaCollege, New Delhi)

Co-ordinator: Poonam Kasturi (Deen Dayal UpadhyayaCollege, New Delhi)

Participants: 262 participants from institutions inAlwar, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida.

Topics Covered: From transistors to teraflop computingand beyond; teaching and research: which way togo? revolutionary ideas in microelectronics and theirsocial impact; quantum dots based biosensors forcancer detection; steep subthreshold green transistorsfor low power CMOS integrated circuits; Indian

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5. Mapping, Utilization and Conservation ofBioresources

VIT University, Vellore

29 – 31 October 2012

Convener: R Uma Shaanker (UAS, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: R Siva (VIT)

Participants: 150 participants from in and around Velloredistrict.

rockets and missiles; nanotechnology in semiconductorindustry; the silent enables of electronics industry –silicon technology; system design opportunities inIndia; agilent, academia and the pursuit foremployability.

A panel discussion on ‘Need and role of industry incurriculum development and career opportunities forgraduates’ was held.

4. Mathematics

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi (JMI)

18 October 2012

Convener: Ajit Iqbal Singh (ISI, New Delhi)

Co-ordinator: KK Dewan/Naseem Ahmad (JMI)

Participants: 150 participants from JMI and otherinstitutions in Delhi.

Topics Covered: Mapping, utilization and conservationof bioresources.

6. Tectonic Geomorphology

HNB Garhwal Univeristy, Srinagar Garhwal(HNBGU)

30 October – 2 November 2012

Convener: Nibir Mandal (Jadavpur University, Kolkata)

Co-ordinator: YP Sundriyal (HNBGU)

Participants: 100 participants

Topics Covered: Geomorphic processes and evolutionof landforms; tectonic geomorphology; geomorphicmarkers; ascertain timing in landscape; methods ofdating with special reference of OSL dating; fold,fault and stress; paleoseismology; rate of uplift anderosion.

7. Theoretical Physics Lectures

University of Mysore, Mysore

8 – 10 November, 2012

Convener: MVN Murthy (IMSc, Chennai)

Co-ordinator: C Ranganathiah (University of Mysore)

Participants: 140 participants from various colleges inMysore.

Topics Covered: Point groups; time dilation; uncertaintyrelations in the classical realm; throwing polarizedlight on mathematics; three is company: the Efimoveffect.

Topics Covered: On the lifted temperature minimum;Ramanujan and pi; the Kobayashi metric on convexdomains; how applied mathematics should bedone?

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8. Conservation and use of naturalresources for sustainable development

Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra (DEI)

17 – 18 November 2012

Convener: Anand Mohan (DEI)

Co-ordinator: Sahab Das Kaura (DEI)

10. Modern Trends in Chemistry andChemistry Education

University of North Bengal, Darjeeling (UNB)

22 – 23 November 2012

Convener: Uday Maitra (IISc, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: Amiya Kumar Panda (UNB)

Participants: 150 participants from 10 colleges in andaround Agra.

Topics Covered: Natural resources, sustainabledevelopment and geopolitics; quest for water wisdom;hydrogen energy: the green future fuel; ocean circulation,marine biosphere, global change and Indian monsoon;soil as vital natural resource for sustainabledevelopment; overview of the oil and gas industry.

9. Emerging Paradigms in Life Sciences

Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan

19 – 20 November 2012

Convener: Shelly Bhattacharya (Visva-Bharati,Santiniketan)

Co-ordinator: Sudipta Maitra (Visva-Bharati,Santiniketan)

Participants: 77 participants including two teachersfrom Bolpur College and others were students of Visva-Bharati.

Topics Covered: Definition of normal science and itsfoundation in posterity; the mysteries behind the DNAtopological structures in Leishmania donovani, aprotozoan parasite, causing Kala Azar; Melatonin: ahormone that acts in harmony with environmental signalof darkness; molecular mechanism of invasion andmetastasis in ovarian cancer; genetic basis of diseases:new knowledge we gained and the challenges we mustconfront; identification of biomarkers of heart diseases;cellular signaling defects: an ill understood area.

Participants: 200 participants from Assam,Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and institutionsaround Darjeeling.

Topics Covered: Green chemistry in teaching andresearch; molecular spectroscopy; chromatography;molecules that break the rules; medicinal chemistry;click chemistry; nanoscience and nanotechnology.

11. Neuroscience Research: Translation tocare and cure

Sophia College for Women, Mumbai

23 – 24 November 2012

Convener: Tarala D Nandedkar (NIRRH, Mumbai)

Co-ordinator: Medha Rajadhyaksha (Sophia College,Mumbai)

Participants: 150 students from various colleges inMumbai.

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Topics Covered: Toxicology; neurological disorders –integrating research in imaging into clinical practice;behavioral, neural and cognitive studies of auditory,speech and phonological processing in developmentdyslexia; animal models for human diseases;glioblastoma and meduclloblastoma, malignant braintumours with different strokes; neural stem cells: abattle of nerves.

12. Need of understanding the neglectedtropical diseases

Chennai Medical College Hospital andResearch Centre, Tiruchirapalli (CMCH&RC)

26 – 27 November 2012

Convener: Utpal S Tatu (IISc, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: N Prabhu (CMCH&RC)

Participants: 147 participants (23 teachers and 124students).

Topics Covered: Malaria; leprosy; filariasis; dengue;parasitic eye infections; leptospirosis.

Panel discussions on “Malaria – Issues andchallenges”; “Is leprosy still in India”; “Issues onDengue” were also held.

13. Recent Developments in Chemistry

Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan

29 November – 1 December 2012

Convener: BC Ranu (IACS, Kolkata)

Co-ordinator: Adinath Majee (Visva-Bharati,Santiniketan)

Participants: 133 participants from colleges andUniversities in Kolkata.

Topics Covered: Green chemistry on education andresearch; green chemicals for UG and PG labs; basicthermodynamics; prediction of possible (molecule)materials for H2 storage from DFT calculation; hydrogen-bonding in supramolecular assembly of pi-conjugatedchromophores; stimuli-responsive amphiphilic polymerassembly: implications in drug delivery; cyclometallatedcomplexes of the platinum metals; co-ordinationchemistry of the thiosemicarbazone ligands; symmetry,orbitals and geometry.

14. Uses of Recombinant DNA Technology inModern Health Care

Kakatiya University, Warangal (KU)

30 November – 1 December 2012

Convener: Shekhar C Mande (NCCS, Pune)

Co-ordinator: G Shamitha (KU)

Participants: 479 participants from Kakatiya University,Narsampet, Waddepally and other colleges aroundWarangal.

Topics Covered: Uses of recombinant DNA technologyin modern health care; epigenetics; virulence strategiesof a human opportunisitic fungal pathogen Candidaglabrata; recombinant DNA technology in the healthcare of tuberculosis and HIV infections; functionalcompartmentalization of the nucleus; drosophila: amodel organism to study development and disease;development of body axis in animals and evolution ofcomplexity.

15. Mathematics

St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore

17 – 21 December 2012

Convener: Mythily Ramaswamy (TIFR-CAM,Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: Renee D’Souza (St. Joseph’s College,Bangalore)

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Participants: 51 participants from seven colleges inBangalore.

Topics Covered: Group theory; logic and set theory;calculus; linear algebra; differential equations andapplications.

16. Introductory Astronomy

SDM College, Ujire

20 – 22 December 2012

Convener: CR Subrahmanya (RRI, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: SG Bhargavi (PPISR, Bangalore) andShiv Rao (SDM College, Ujire)

Co-ordinator: RA Angiras (St. Joseph’s College,Bangalore)

Participants: 75 participants from different colleges inBangalore.

Topics Covered: Energy bands in solids; magnetism;liquid crystals; photonics.

18. Recent Trends in Synthetic OrganicChemistry

SNGS College, Pattambi

17 – 18 January 2013

Convener: D Ramaiah (NIIST, Thirvananthapuram)

Co-ordinator: P Venugopalan (SNGS College,Pattambi)

Participants: 133 participants from various institutionsin and around Ujire.

Topics Covered: Galaxies; radio astronomy; physicsof astronomy; physics of Sun; cosmology; astronomicalfacilities in India across the electromagnetic spectrum.

17. Condensed Matter Physics

St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore

10 – 12 January 2013

Convener: G Srinivasan (Bangalore)

Participants: 118 participants from Calicut, Coimbatore,Irinjalakuda, Malappuram, Mannarkkad, Palakkad,Pattambi, Shoranur, Thrissur, Valanchery.

Topics Covered: Design of sensitizers for photo-dynamic therapeutical applications; palladium-catalysedcross-couplings in organic synthesis; diversity-orientedsynthesis of pharmaceutically important heterocyclesand cyclopentanoids through palladium catalysedtransformations; small molecules in drug discovery;therapeutically important quinolones and benzo-thiophenes through tandem reaction; synthesis ofb-peptides with specific folding preferences for targetingprotein-protein interactions.

19. Nanotechnology and its applications

MMM Engineering College, Gorakhpur(MMMEC)

18 – 20 January 2013

Convener: AK Ganguli (IIT, Delhi)

Co-ordinator: SP Singh (MMMEC)

Participants: 140 participants from various collegesin Gorakhpur.

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22. Microbes, Minerals and Environment

VIT, Vellore

24 – 25 January 2013

Convener: KA Natarajan (IISc, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: A Prem Rajan (VIT, Vellore)

Topics Covered: Nanomaterials by colloidal synthesis;quantum dots; nanotechnology and drug delivery;metal nanoparticles-doped dielectric films and theirapplications; magnetism at the nanoscale; micro-emulsions as nanoreactors; functional nanocompositematerials and coatings; magnetic materials for noveldevice applications; molecular simulations.

20. Emerging Trends in Development ofDrugs and Devices

University of Delhi, Delhi

21 – 22 January 2013

Convener: K Misra (NASI, Allahabad)

Co-ordinator: SK Awasthi/Vibha Tandon (Univ. of Delhi)

Topics Covered: Medicinal chemistry and humanwelfare; nutraceuticals and their bio-comprehensiveeffects; targeted drug delivery; nucleic acids, peptideand protein chemistry.

21. Recent Advances in Chemistry

Manonmaniam Sundarnar University,Tirunelveli

23 – 24 January 2013

Convener: S Natarajan (IISc, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: V Kumaresen (MSU, Tirunelveli)

Participants: 100 participants from different institutionsin Vellore.

Topics Covered: Microbial aspects of environmentalpollution and control with respect to mining; bacteriafrom cold habitats: biodiversity, survival and usefulness;impact of zoonotic diseases in environment; microbialdiversity and its applications; bioleaching: mechanismsand processes; bioremediation of chromiumcontaminated soils and aquifers; adhesion ofacidithiobacillus ferrooxidans to mineral surfaces;biomineralization: nature’s footsteps.

23. Traditional, Modern and FuturisticTaxonomy

Jain University, Bangalore

29 – 31 January 2013

Convener: KN Ganeshaiah (UAS, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: Ashwini N (Jain University, Bangalore)

Participants: 80 participants from various colleges inBangalore.

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Topics Covered: Floristic diversity of India; speciesconcept in taxonomy, evolution, ecology and conservation;an island called India; phylogenetic patterns acrossmultiple taxonomic groups reveal endemic radiations;DNA barcoding; hands-on training on molecularsystematics; plant taxonomy; insect taxonomy;microbial taxonomy; do we need a new taxonomicspecies concept. Practical sessions were also heldduring this Workshop.

24. Recent Developments in Physics

Government Arts and Science College, Melur

30 – 31 January 2013

Convener: G Baskaran (IMSc, Chennai)

Co-ordinator: John Peter A (Government Arts andScience College, Melur)

Participants: 141 participants from several colleges inand around Melur.

Topics Covered: Understanding evolution; evolution andhuman health; prey capture and detection by the Indianfalse vampire bat; biological clocks: connecting genesto behaviour; evolution of viviparity in vertebrates;understanding circadian entrainment in fruit fliesDrosophila melangaster; biology and behaviour ofbats; research begins with observation – FrancisGalton; sex changing fish; microbial evolution; techniquefor conservation of fish genome; genetic switches;phytotherapy of fish diseases.

26. Frontiers in Astronomy

NITK, Surathkal

1 – 3 February 2013

Convener: G Srinivasan (Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: HS Nagaraja (NITK, Surathkal)

Participants: 125 participants from Mangalore andSurathkal.

Topics Covered: What are stars?; X-ray astronomy;quantum stars; gamma ray astronomy; black holes;radio universe.

27. Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques

HPT Arts and RYK Science College, Nashik(HPTRYKSC)

2 – 3 February 2013

Convener: Dilip D Dhavale (University of Pune)

Co-ordinator: VD Bobade (HPTRYKSC)

Topics Covered: Richness of materials science;challenges and opportunities in computational materialsscience.

25. Thrust Areas in Life Science

Cauvery College, Tiruchirapalli

31 January – 2 February 2013

Convener: G Marimuthu (MKU, Madurai)

Co-ordinator: H Abirami (Cauvery College,Tiruchirapalli)

Participants: 150 participants from various colleges inTiruchirapalli.

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Participants: 170 participants from eight colleges inNashik.

Topics Covered: 13C NMR spectroscopy, 2D-NMRspectroscopy; mass spectrometry; IR and UVspectroscopy; 1H NMR spectroscopy; XRDspectroscopy.

28. Basic and Interdisciplinary Topics inPhysics

Midnapore College, Midnapore

4 – 6 February 2013

Joint Conveners: Indrani Bose (Bose Institute,Kolkata)/Bhupati Chakrabarti (City College, Kolkata)

Co-ordinator: BN Goswami (Midnapore College)

29. Current Developments in Atomic andNuclear Physics

Christ University, Bangalore

6 – 7 February 2013

Convener: S Kailas (BARC, Mumbai)

Co-ordinators: Syed Azeez and SG Bubbly (ChristUniversity, Bangalore)

Participants: 135 students from different colleges inBangalore.

Topics Covered: Expanding nuclear landscape;applications of nuclear accelerators in basic andapplied sciences; radiation effects and nuclear energy;current challenges in particle physics; physics of ionatom mixtures; laser spectroscopic applications fromphysics to medicine; nuclear magnetic resonancespectroscopy.

30. Recent Developments in Physics

Sri G. V. G. Visalakshi College for Women,Udumalpet (SGVGVCW)

6 – 7 February 2013

Convener: M Lakshmanan (Bharathidasan University,Tiruchirapalli)

Participants: 128 participants from different collegesin and around Midnapore.

Topics Covered: Relaxation in disorder materials andnanocomposites; new particle at the large hadroncollider; turbulent flow characteristics; the joy ofsmall things; econophysics of income and wealthdistributions in societies; self-organization in naturalsciences; tipping point transitions in complex dynamicalsystems.

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Co-ordinator: TV Banumathi (SGVGVCW)

Participants: 245 students from various colleges inand around Udumalpet.

Topics Covered: Nonlinear dynamics: a science ofcomplexity; understanding of the ultimate structureof matter; basics of quantum computation andquantum information; some exciting developments incondensed matter physics; nanotechnology; physicsof living systems – biophysics, the novel subject forfuture.

31. Frontiers in Cell and Molecular Biology

Vidya Bhavan Rural Institute, Udaipur (VBRI)

14 – 15 February 2013

Convener: LS Shashidhara (IISER, Pune)

Co-ordinator: TP Sharma (VBRI)

Participants: 349 students from various colleges inUdaipur.

Topics Covered: Science and career opportunities in21st century; evolution of human cognition; cells onthe move: what is happening inside; science andresearches in the field of genomics; are we moremicrobial than human; conventional and unconventionaltypes of permeability; virosphere; green fluorescentproteins (GSP); how living organisms move: inter andintracellular movements within the body.

32. Progress and challenges in medicalbiotechnology

Christ University, Bangalore

15 – 16 February 2013

Convener: V Nagaraja (IISc, Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: S Suma (Christ University)

Topics Covered: Traditional, modern and futuristicvaccines; strategies to counter resurgent tuberculosis;gut bacteria and health; infection: lack of immunity or

escape mechanism; multi-layered capsules as drugdelivery systems; virus infection mechanisms; stem celltherapy.

33. Modern Trends in Chemistry

Vivekananda College, Tiruvekadam West

22 – 23 February 2013

Convener: R Ramaraj

Co-ordinators: VK Sivasubramanian/R Sevvel

Participants: 200 participants from various collegesin and around Madurai.

Topics Covered: Ionic liquids and organic synthesis;creating tissue phantoms: chemistry assistingultrasound imaging; thiosulfate networks – synthesis,structure and properties; white light excitationfluorescence: novel concepts in analytical fluorimetry;inorganic-organic hybrid structure; principle andapplications of molecular dynamics; molecular dynamicsof collagen-like peptides; nanoparticles as sensors andcatalysts.

34. Viral Vaccines and Diagnostics

Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati

25 – 26 February 2013

Convener: HS Savithri (IISc, Bangalore)

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Co-ordinator: M Hema (SVU, Tirupati)

Topics Covered: Virus structure, biology andpurification; virus characterization; viral diagnostics; viralvector interactions; virus replication and virus cellularinteractions; viral vaccines/therapeutics; control ofemerging and re-emerging viruses.

35. Modern Chemistry and Biology

Aurora’s Degree and PG College, Hyderabad

27 – 28 February 2013

Convener: Ahmed Kamal (IICT, Hyderabad)

Co-ordinator: KMR Nambiar (Aurora’s College,Hyderabad)

Participants: 200 participants from various colleges inHyderabad.

Topics Covered: Luminescence and applications;role of chemistry in the development of sensitizers indesensitized solar cells and biologically activecompounds; revolution in evolutionary thoughts: Darwinand after; pathogenic bacteria and their survivalmechanisms; coupling reactions and green chemistry;role of organic chemistry in drug discovery; transcriptionand formation of R-loops.

36. Chemistry and Physics of AdvancedMaterials

N.S.S. College of Engineering, Palakkad

1 – 2 March 2013

Convener: T Pradeep (IIT, Mumbai)

Co-ordinator: S Mayadevi (NSSCE, Palakkad)

Participants: 150 participants from different collegesin Palakkad.

Topics Covered: Hybrid materials; functionalizednanostructures; polymeric drug delivery systems; Greenrevolution in chemistry; nanochemistry; chemistry ofultra-thin molecular films; nanopore; biological motor –synthetic molecular motor.

37. Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

1 – 2 March 2013

Convener: AK Ganguli (IIT, Delhi)

Co-ordinator: Tokeer Ahmad (JMI, New Delhi)

Participants: 151 participants from various universitiesand colleges in and around Delhi.

Topics Covered: Nanostructures for applications in energy and environment; nano and nanoporousmaterials; thin film to organic nanowire and highperformance organic field effect transistor; functionalnano coatings by the wet chemical process; structuraland magnetic phase transition in Pt based Nano-structured alloys; magnetic nanomaterials for GHz-frequency applications.

38. Recent Advances in Chemistry

AS College, Deoghar

16 – 17 March 2013

Convener: Anunay Samanta (University of Hyderabad,Hyderabad)

Co-ordinator: Bijoy K Choudhary (AS College,Deoghar)

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The initiative to maintain and make available aRepository of the publications of Fellows of theIndian Academy of Sciences has been a resoundingsuccess. Since the repository went online in late2010, the total number of page views (lists, abstractviews, full text file views) is over nine million (unfilteredfor search engine crawlers and other robots, and repeataccesses; up from around six million in August 2012).The number of full text views/downloads by February2013 exceeded 635,000 (filtered) and over two thirds ofthis number was from outside India.

The last update on repository information was publishedin the September 2012 issue of Patrika. Sincethen, the total number of records in the repository hascrossed 90,000. However, the number of recordswith full text PDF files is only 20,000; the largedifference being due to the fact that we are ableto upload full text files only when publisher policyexplicitly permits it.

The team constructing the repository at the Academyhas essentially completed processing the lists ofpublications received from Fellows. Many journals inwhich Fellows’ publications have appeared are notavailable online, and we have exhausted all avenuesof finding online sources for many of the olderpublications. We therefore now are dependent onpaper or soft copies of publications from Fellowsin order to add publications to the Repository. Thenumbers clearly suggest that there is considerablevalue to the repository and this is when only a quarterof the records have full text files!

Collecting publications of past Fellows has beendifficult. The Academy office is handicapped by nothaving access to a large library where one might

REPOSITORY OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS OFACADEMY FELLOWS

find all the journals in which Fellows’ publicationshave appeared, and this is one reason why some ofthe Repository lists are incomplete. Please let usknow of sources for publications of past Fellows – weneed your help in this regard.

For new publications, it would help us greatly if Fellowscould send full publication metadata and full text filesby email to the Repository team (eprints@ias.ernet.in)to enable them to upload the new data. When the teamrequests for paper or soft copies of the articles it doesnot mean that the full text file can be uploaded; this isprimarily to get publication metadata (including theabstract where there is one) when an online sourcecannot be found.

In order to make the work itself openly available inthe repository, we request Fellows to send us theessentially final versions of their papers, namely thepublisher-accepted (and when allowed, copyedited)‘final author version’ of their publications. If publisherpolicy allows hosting of the ‘publisher version’ of fulltext files, Fellows should send us those. Publisherpolicy for most major publishers and journals isavailable at SHERPA RoMEO (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo). This workaround may be applied to earlierpublications also. In every case, the fulltext fileshould be correctly and clearly identified as ‘publisherversion’ or ‘author version’ (and for author version, whether‘preprint’ or ‘postprint’; definitions at SHERPA RoMEO).Note that there may be publisher restrictions on hostingauthor versions also.

Do take a look, at http://repository.ias.ac.in, and let usknow of additions and corrections. If you havesuggestions, comments on Repository policy, or onthe Repository itself, or have noticed inconsistencies,please send an email to the Repository team ateprints@ias.ernet.in.

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HINDI WORKSHOP

Two Hindi workshops were held in the last six months, one on 18 December 2012 and theother on 26 February 2013. These workshops were jointly organized by the Indian Academy ofSciences and the Raman Research Institute. The workshop sessions covered:

a) Official work in Hindi through computers: various methods to make routine correspondenceeasier through the computer were demonstrated by Shri A K Billure.

b) Official Noting and Drafting: some learning tips on noting and drafting were taught byShri M G Savadatti.

Increased efforts were put on the implementation of the guidelines and targets fixed by theOfficial Language Implementation Committee and we are happy to report that the Academy hasbeen able to meet most of these targets.

OBITUARIES

Bala Krishnan Nayar(elected 1975)

After a distinguished and vibrant career, Bala KrishnanNayar, one of the foremost pteridologists of the countrypassed away on 12 May 2012. Born on 19 September1927 in the village Aymanam of Kottayam District,Kerala, he started his career as a lecturer in theUniversity of Guwahati, Assam (1950 – 55). Between1955 and 1970, he worked as a scientist at theNational Botanical Research Institute (NBRI),Lucknow. He then became the first Professor ofBotany in 1970 at the new University of Calicut whenhe was 43. He served as a faculty in the University

* * * * *

until his formal retirement in 1987, but continued hisresearch activities till the end.

It was during his field trips in Assam that Nayardeveloped a life-long attachment with ferns and fernallies. Shifting to Lucknow in 1955 as a researchassistant, he served as a scientist in differentcapacities at NBRI, investigating diverse aspectsof ferns such as anatomy, morphology, palynologyand gametophyte development. A comparativestudy of the vascular organization in pteridophytes,clarifying the probable trends of evolution of stelein lower vascular plants was his special interest.An extensive study of the gametophytes of pterido-phytes undertaken by him showed that the gameto-phyte morphology can be a significant tool in thestudy of phylogeny and classification of this group ofplants.

The taxonomy and classification of ferns of tropicalSouth India did not receive the attention they deservedtill Nayar began studying the subject. Researchesby him and his colleagues on the taxonomy of Indianferns resulted in the discovery of several new speciesand new records for India. In appreciation of his efforts,a number of new species described such as Pyrrosianayariana (Ching, P. and Chandra, S., Am. Fern J.)were named in his honour.

The only comprehensive work on the ferns ofSouth India was by R. H. Beddome (1864), whereinhe included 271 species recorded by him from South

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India and Sri Lanka. As a supplement to Beddome’sclassic work of 1864, a book entitled Companionto RH Beddome’s Handbook to the Ferns of BritishIndia, Ceylon and Malay Peninsula was published in1974 by Nayar, updating the current situation ofthe fern flora of the region and their classification.

Nayar guided several research students in manyuniversities in India. Over 150 research papers andbooks have been published by him on this subject.He was the founder of the pteridology laboratoryat NBRI. In his honour, a collection of research paperson pteridology compiled in the form of a book entitledPteridology in the New Millennium (edited by S. Chandraand M. Srivastava), was released on the eve of theGolden Jubilee Year of NBRI in October 2003.

Nayar was elected as a Fellow of the Indian Academyof Sciences, Bangalore (1975), the Linnaean Societyof London and was a Distinguished Fellow of the IndianFern Society (1992). He was honoured with the 2008Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nayar leaves behind his wife Sharada Devi, two sonsand a daughter.

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as Assistant Professor of Engineering Mechanics(1958–59). He returned to India to join the AeronauticalDevelopment Establishment in Bangalore as SeniorScientific Officer (1959–60) before joining the IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, where he workedas a Professor between 1963 and 1971. In 1971, hejoined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangaloreas Senior Professor of Mechanical Science (1971–84)and continued after superannuation as EmeritusProfessor until 1995. He was Director of IIT Madrasfrom 1984 to 1989.

Srinath was elected Fellow of the Indian NationalAcademy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Sciences,Society of Experimental Mechanics, AeronauticalSociety of India and Fluid Power Society of India. Hehas made major fundamental research contributionsin the areas of experimental mechanics photo-elasticity, photothermoelasticity, and stress wavepropagation in solids and has over 160 publicationsto his credit.

He took keen interest in writing books in diverseareas and wrote 10 books in all ranging from linearprogramming, operations research and experimentalstress analysis. His books PERT and CPM–Principlesand Applications and Advanced Mechanics of Solidshave become classics each running into 4 editions andmore than 30 reprints!

Methods developed by Srinath in the areas ofphotoelasticity, holographic stress analysis andscattered light photoelasticity are standard referencebooks among practising engineers and have todayformed the basis for many nondestructive analysesof stresses in solids. Several equations that areused are named after him. He was the first todemonstrate the potentialities of scattered light inthe non-destructive analysis of stresses in solids. Hewas invited to deliver special lectures on his methodsin photoelasticity, to practising engineers andprofessionals in India and abroad.

Srinath took keen interest in continuing educationactivities that span the domain of college teachersas well as serving professionals. Full credit should begiven to him for his efforts to make the QIP schemesan effective instrument of change in transformingsignificantly the quality and standard of technicaleducation in our country. He was the first to implementthe scheme at IIT-Kanpur with the support of the thenMinistry of Education.

Srinath was the first to set up a Centre for ContinuingEducation in India at IIT, Kanpur in 1969. One of

Laxmipuram Srinivasachar Srinath(elected 1974)

Laxmipuram Srinivasachar Srinath, born on 15 March1927, passed away in Bangalore on 13 September2012. He was a celebrated teacher and an educationistpar excellence.

Srinath started his career as a Fellow at theConfederation of British Industries in UK (1953–55),then moved to the Illinois Institute of Technology

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the major activities he initiated was curriculumdevelopment. A majority of curricula in technicalinstitutions were of cut-and-paste type, comprisingmostly outdated material. His three-pronged attack,namely (a) modernize the curricula reflecting newerdevelopments; (b) train teachers to upgrade theirsubject competence through short-term summerprogrammes and (c) encourage Indian authors towrite suitable textbooks in the newer areas, helped inraising the quality and standards of our teachers,and we also have a large number of good qualitytext/reference books written by Indian authors. Theabove activities of the Curriculum Development Centreat IIT Kanpur became a model for other institutions,and today a majority of activities of QIP Centres in IITsand NITs are in the above three areas.

At IISc, in addition to starting the Centre for ContinuingEducation, Srinath initiated the highly successfuland reputed PROFISCIENCE programme incollaboration with 12 professional societies for workingprofessionals in industries and R&D establishments.The evening courses which are offered under thisprogramme are of the same standard and level asthose given to regular students at IISc at thepostgraduate level.

Since there was no forum available for teachersof technical institutions to mutually exchange andexpress their views on teaching methods, curricularcontents, laboratory developments, etc., Srinath foundedthe Indian Journal of Technical Education in 1971and was its editor for 13 long years. This was a muchneeded avenue and a channel of communicationamong the teaching community. Even today, thisis the only journal in India dealing with technicaleducation and is run by the Indian Society for TechnicalEducation as an international journal under the Indo-Canadian programme.

Though design is the essence of engineering, thecurricula of all our technical institutions were mostlyanalysis oriented without much design content. As aJawaharlal Nehru Fellow, Srinath organized a seriesof seminars, workshops and national conferences incollaboration with COSTED to promote and inculcatedesign culture among the student and teachingcommunity. Today, as a result of these efforts, a courseon engineering design has become a common subjectof study for all disciplines of engineering. To promotethe teaching of design-oriented courses, Srinathauthored several relevant books such as PERT andCPM, Reliability Engineering, Mechanical Reliability,

Design Essentials of Engineering Systems, etc.These textbooks have greatly assisted the teachersto gain confidence in teaching design oriented courses.Srinath was the editor of Engineering Design,Journal of the Institution of Engineers from 1973 to1977.

Srinath will be fondly remembered by his studentsfor his clarity in presentation, and impeccable boardwork. He was considered a model teacher and one ofthe best in the profession. His teaching methodshave also been unique. Many of his students todayoccupy important academic and administrativepositions.

Srinath is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

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Edayathumangalam Venkatarama Krishnamurthy(elected in 1972)

Edayathumangalam Venkatarama Krishnamurthywas born on 18 June 1934 in Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu.He obtained his B.Sc and M.Sc degrees from theUniversity of Madras. He started his Ph.D underG. N. Ramachandran (then at the University ofMadras) as a part-time doctoral student while hewas working as an instrumentation technologist. Aspart of the thesis completed in 1959, he built ananalogue computer for solving linear simultaneousequations and eigen value problems. The machinewas named ‘Lilavati’ and was capable of solving6 × 6 matrix equations. The work not only contributedto solving iterative matrix analysis problems, but alsocontributed towards novel circuit design using optimal(minimal) electronic components.

In 1960, Krishnamurthy took the position of Reader inIndian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata and startedworking with the group that was designing and

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developing a third-generation digital computer ISIJU(one of the two early efforts on building digitalcomputers after ENIAC/EDVAC in India). One of hisprincipal contributions was in the development offast division algorithms that finds references inthe monumental works of Donald E. Knuth (The Artof Programming, Vol. I–II). On lien from ISI, he workedfor two years at the Institute of Computer Research,University of Chicago with N. Metropolis and contributedto the fast arithmetic unit design for Maniac III.

From computer arithmetic, Krishnamurthy moved onto numerical and statistical computational techniquesat ISI and developed a curriculum for computerscience. During 1969, he worked at the WeizmannInstitute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, where he workedagain on the design of the fourth-generation ComputerGolem B. During 1970, he worked at the Departmentof Computer Science at Technion, Israel, duringwhich period he contributed significantly towardsthe development of hardware – software algorithmsand microprograming.

Krishnamurthy then moved to the Department ofApplied Mathematics at the Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore in 1970. He worked on diverseareas such as numerical analysis, image processing,image reconstruction, chemical information systemdesign, etc. Using finite field and p-adic arithmetic,he contributed to the development of error-freearithmetic using number theoretic transformations.Several papers as well as two books have beenpublished on these topics. Methods and Applicationsof Error-Free Computations jointly with R. T. Gregoryand Error-Free Polynomial Matrix Computations(both from Springer-Verlag) are widely referred booksin numerical analysis. He was invited to work atASTRA, Bangalore on sabbatical from IISc, where hecontributed towards the design of chemical informationsystem design.

In all his studies, one can see novelty, originalityand depth with a common hallmark of algorithmicaspects of computing. His Introduction to TheoreticalComputer Science was one of the earliest booksthat has been widely used in colleges and universitiesfor teaching Computer Science. During his stay atIISc between 1970 and 1984, he guided 12 Ph.Dand 18 MS students and served in various capacitieslike Chairman of the Department of AppliedMathematics, Dean of Faculty of Science, etc.

Krishnamurthy has contributed immensely to researchand education worldwide. Under UNESCO programme,he was instrumental in setting up the Computer Science

Department at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. FromIISc, he moved to University of Waikato, New Zealandwhere he worked as Head of the Computer ScienceDepartment between 1984 and 1991. During thisperiod, he wrote a book, Parallel Processing: Principlesand Practice (Addison Wesley) and another onTransaction Processing Systems jointly with V. K.Murthy (Prentice-Hall). After his sojourn in New Zealand,he worked at the Australian National University,Canberra, Australia as a Professorial Fellow from 1991to 1999 and thereafter as an Emeritus Fellow.

Krishnamurthy had won several awards and recognitions.He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy ofSciences in 1972 and was the recipient of the ShantiSwarup Bhatnagar Award in Mathematics in 1978.

Krishnamurthy was one of the most enthusiastic andpassionate researchers who excited people on thealgorithm aspects of computing in India. In his passingaway the country has lost a doyen who was anacknowledged expert in computer science and whocontributed immensely to areas such as computerarithmetic/organization, numerical analysis, imageprocessing, chemical information system design andparallel computing.

He passed away in Canberra on 26 October 2012 andis survived by two sons.

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Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar(elected 1988)

Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar passed away peacefullyin his sleep at his home in USA on 2 November 2012.Just before he went to sleep that day, he was doingwhat had always given him the greatest happiness:mathematics.

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Abhyankar was born in Ujjain on 22 July 1930. Hisfather, Shankar Keshav Abhyankar, was a teacherof mathematics in Ujjain and Gwalior. Inspired by hisfather, Abhyankar developed a love for mathematicsvery early in his life. By the time he obtained his B.Scat the Institute of Science (Mumbai) in 1951, hisknowledge of mathematics, acquired on his own,was way ahead of what would normally be requiredfor an M.Sc degree. He obtained his formal Master’sdegree in 1952 and a Ph.D in 1954, both at Harvard,working with the great mathematician Oscar Zariski.After brief stints at Columbia, Cornell and JohnHopkins, Abhyankar joined Purdue University in 1963to become the first Marshall Distinguished Professor ofMathematics there in 1967. This remained his regularposition till the end, but he spent a fair amount of timeas a visiting professor in eminent institutes all over theworld, a major part of it in India.

His professional visits to India for brief periods, usuallya month or two, were quite regular. But, apart fromthese short visits, he also spent long years in India inthe decade starting 1976. This was when he set upBhaskaracharya Prathishthana, a Research Institutefor Mathematics in Pune and served as Head ofthe Department of Mathematics at the University ofPune.

Among the several international awards won byAbhyankar were the Alfred Sloan Research Fellowship,Herbert Newby McCoy Award, Lester Ford Prize,Chauvenet Prize and Vidnyan Sanstha Ratna. Hewas elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciencesin 1988 and of the Indian National Science Academy in1987. Abhyankar wrote about 200 research papers andauthored several books. He guided 28 students, including11 from India, for Ph.D.

Abhyankar worked in several areas of mathematics,principal among them being algebraic geometry. Themodern language of algebraic geometry has acquired acertain abstraction and most of the literature onthe subject appears in this language. However, hepreferred to use a classical and more concreteversion in his work. His treatment was thereforemore amenable to the derivation of constructiveand algorithmic methods which engineers andcomputer scientists require and desire. As a result, heacquired a large following among this class ofprofessionals and ended up writing a book AlgebraicGeometry for Scientists and Engineers, which becamephenomenally popular. These developments also ledto his appointment as a Professor in the Department of

Engineering as well as in the Department of ComputerScience at Purdue, in addition to his position in theDepartment of Mathematics.

Some specific areas encompassed in his vast researchwork are resolution of singularities, tame coveringsand algebraic fundamental groups, affine geometry,enumerative combinatorics of Young tableaux andGalois groups of equations. We discuss two of theseareas, namely resolution of singularities and affinegeometry in some detail.

In the 1940s, Zariski had obtained a rigorous proofof resolution of singularities of surfaces and three-folds in characteristic zero. The case of positivecharacteristic for surfaces was done by Abhyankarin his Ph.D thesis. An extension of the result tothree-folds required, as a first step, the resolutionof singularities of an embedded surface. This hestudied over several years, developing in the processhighly intricate and powerful algorithms in positivecharacteristic. Apart from positive characteristic, healso solved the equally difficult problem for thearithmetic case, i.e. for surfaces over the ring of integers.For a long time the only significant contributions inpositive characteristic or in the arithmetic case werethose due to Abhyankar.

In affine geometry, the themes of Abhyankar’s workwere embeddings and automorphisms. Two well-known terms here are the epimorphism theoremand the Jacobian conjecture. In fact, Abhyankar’s focuswas on the Jacobian conjecture and epimorphismtheorem was just an outcome of his first attempt atsolving the Jacobian conjecture. This was in the early1970s. Soon after, he moved to other areas butthen returned to the Jacobian conjecture in about2002. Then this remained the area of his work in thelast decade of his life. Abhyankar was very fondof ‘algebraicising’ results from other areas, notablyanalysis and topology, if he thought they wererelevant to his current interest. He often succeededin doing so and this was also one of his strengths. Itis in this spirit that he developed the algebraic theoryof diacritical divisors in the last few years, keeping inview their possible application to a solution of theJacobian conjecture.

There was a notable contrast between the style ofAbhyankar in writing mathematics and his style inspeaking it. He wanted his writings to be perfect,logically and notationally, to the extent that perhapseven a computer could read it. This ensured elimination

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of any errors but also made the reader’s task quitehard. However, a few of his writings were exceptionsto this rule, notably the book for scientists and engineersmentioned above.

On the other hand, listening to his lecture onmathematics was not only a relaxing experienceand a pleasure, but the listener often came awaywith some rare insights into the subject which wouldalmost never come from reading a book.

Two other passions of Abhyankar were Marathi andSanskrit languages and Indian mythology. His long stayin India in the 1970s was partly influenced byhis desire to have his children learn Marathi languageand culture in a genuinely desi environment. Hisknowledge of Indian mythology was immense and itwas not hard to detect his passion for it even duringhis conversations in mathematics. During a talkby him at Purdue on ‘Relationships in Mahabharata’the audience was awestruck by his unmistakable andfirm grasp on the intricate web of interrelationshipsamong numerous characters in the epic.

Abhyankar is survived by his wife, son, daughter andfour grandchildren. His absence will be deeply felt inthe world of mathematics.

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Sri Niwas was closely associated with the BanarasHindu University (BHU), having earned all hispost-secondary degrees (B.Sc Hons. 1966, M.ScGeophysics 1968 and Ph.D 1974) from the University.His Ph.D thesis was entitled ‘Theoretical treatmentof some problems on electrical behaviour of layeredearth system’. After earning his doctorate fromBHU, Sri Niwas joined the Indian Institute of TechnologyRoorkee (then, University of Roorkee) as a post-doctoral fellow in 1974. He worked at the institutein various capacities: a Pool Officer (1976–1977),Lecturer (1977–1979), Reader (1980–1991) and asProfessor (1991–2011). He is credited with founding theDepartment of Geophysics at the University ofKurukshetra in 1989. Though he superannuatedfrom IIT Roorkee in 2011, he continued his associationwith the institute as a Professor-Emeritus untilhis demise. He served as a Visiting Professor atthe Federal University, Bahia, Brazil during 2000–01.He was an excellent teacher and always championedthe cause of students which reflected in his continuedand longlasting relationship with them.

Sri Niwas, along with Vinod K. Gaur (who was thenat IIT Roorkee) and several other faculty members,designed a course curriculum in geophysics with anideal blend of both theory and practice. This servedas a model for a long time and motivated othergeophysics departments in the country to modernizetheir course structures. Apart from his contributionto the growth of geophysics education in the country,Sri Niwas also profoundly impacted research ingeophysical exploration that included inversion ofgeophysical data, geo-electromagnetism and geo-hydrology (exploration, development and managementof groundwater). He was a strong advocate ofhypothesis-driven research and argued for examining aphysics-based relationship between input andobservation.

Sri Niwas authored more than 100 research papers, inaddition to editing and contributing chapters to severalacademic books. He mentored 12 Ph.D and 110M.Tech students. For his pioneering research work,he was awarded the prestigious S. S. BhatnagarPrize in 1991. He was elected to the fellowship of theIndian National Science Academy (Delhi), the IndianAcademy of Sciences (Bangalore), the NationalAcademy of Sciences, India (Allahabad), the IndianGeophysical Union (Hyderabad) and the Associationof Exploration Geophysicists (Hyderabad). Sri Niwasserved on several scientific committees of DST andCSIR.

Sri Niwas(elected in 1995)

An abrupt end to the illustrious career of Sri Niwas,as teacher and researcher, came on 15 November2012. He was born on 4 July 1946 in the villageof Rakahat in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) toSmt Indrasana and Sri Ram Adhar Pandey.

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Sri Niwas was a very valuable colleague and avery helpful, understanding and wise advisor to hisstudents. He will be missed by several people, whomourn his sudden demise. He is survived by hiswife (Shashi Kala) and two children, one of whomrecently obtained a Ph.D in seismology from GFZ,Potsdam (Germany).

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the torch of an inventive mind. His inherent strength ofovercoming an apparent limitation by an imaginativesolution, manifest in his boyhood strategies to earnsome pocket money by making and selling ordinaryobjects of everyday use such as fountain pen ink andtoiletries, would appear again and again in variouscontexts of his later scientific career. An iconic exampleis his use of iron hydroxide impregnated sponges andfibres for in-situ concentration of key trace elementsand isotopes from tonnes of sea water, to track thelarge scale circulation in the oceans. Lal’s keensensibility to scientific possibilities in solving societalproblems such as availability of clean water, oftenurged the trial of such promising approaches toconcentrate out unwanted contaminants such as arsenicfrom our water sources, by designing appropriatematerials.

Lal, an amateur researcher since childhood, plungedinto a serious study of the composition and energyspectrum of primary cosmic rays at balloon altitudes,using specially designed nuclear emulsion stacks,under the guidance of Homi Bhabha, at the Tata Instituteof Fundamental Research which he joined in 1949.Here he and his colleagues also began studyingthe characteristics of nuclear interactions of highenergy cosmic rays and were soon joined byBernard Peters, the co-discoverer of the heavy nucleicomponent in primary cosmic rays. They followedthe recent discovery of K-mesons, the rare insigniaof the strange particle physics, by the Bristol Emulsiongroup under Powell, by studying their productioncharacteristics. This resulted in the widely acclaimeddiscovery by the TIFR trio, Lal, Pal and Peters, ofthe associated production of K-mesons with thecapture of negative K-mesons.

After 1959 when Lal spent a few months at the ScrippsInstitute in San Diego as a visiting researcher, hebecame a regular visitor and later a professor atScripps, dividing his time between India and the US.Thus he continued even when persuaded to moveto Ahmedabad as Director of the Physical ResearchLaboratory (PRL), uncompromisingly preserving asubstantial research space in the midst of hisadministrative chores, whilst simultaneously seedingnew dimensions to the science-scape of PRL.

Lal’s enduring contributions to scientific knowledgehave been widely recognized by world academieswhose fellowship he adorned with rare distinction.

Devendra Lal(elected 1965)

‘For a physicist, the best chemist there is’, thus did,J. R. Arnold introduce the quintessential Lal to theFellowship of the US National Academy of Sciences,on his election to that body, adding, how his deepinsights into the interactions between high energyparticles and the tenuous footprints etched in theirpassage through naturally occurring chemical systemsled to a trail blazing approach to study planet Earth’sevolutionary dynamic as well as that of early solarsystem processes. Devendra Lal’s insatiable curiosity,imaginative mind and indefatigable zeal which healthissues could never defeat, resulted in a rich repertoireof enduring science chronicled in over 200 scientificpublications that he continued to contribute to humanknowledge right up to his highly private extinctionon the first day of the closing month of 2012, 10 weeksshort of his 84th birthday.

Lal was the fifth child born to middle class parents inthe ancient city of Varanasi. Here, he received all hiseducation, cleaving his way through the variousconstraints of means and circumstance to a Universitydegree in physics by dint of an urgent curiosity and

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Many honours and awards too were showered onhim, which he wore with characteristic humility anddisinterestedness. A long time collaborator, P. B. Price,recounts how an undying curiosity and an adventureof ideas constantly possessed Lal. A letter that hereceived many years ago, whilst Lal was still inthe throes of a delirious fever, expresses it eloquently,‘I have been thinking of all sorts of experimentsand many in fact were a great success in my dreams.So, I thought I should write to you about several ofthese….’

No written account of Lal’s work can capture thefull range of his impassioned life and none wouldadequately describe the essence of its romancewithout the picture of his soulful companion andwife Aruna Lal who became an indistinguishablecomponent of the colourful fabric of their life andwork. Aruna’s passing away in 1993 made Lalincreasingly more remote even as he bore her absencestoically and plunged deeper in his work, whichcontinued undiminished except for brief periods inand out of nursing homes. The Aruna Lal foundationthat he established in her memory at PRL, Ahmedabadto support bright young students through collegeand to distinguish creative young minds engaged inresearches of Earth and space environments, aswell as endowments at TIFR and the University ofCalifornia to support bright young scientists, exposeanother of Lal’s understated passions for catalysingcreativity and excellence. Many of his former studentsrecall his persistent questioning about the noveltyand originality of their work, constantly urging themby his own example to strain their scientific worktowards the rigorous and the imaginative. They warmlyrecount how his expansive mind expresseditself in opening new vistas at every turn, explorationswhose outcomes have shaped the lives of hisstudents and colleagues, many of them carrying thetorch forward to make notable scientific contributionsthemselves.

Devendra Lal finally departed this life in splendidisolation – his characteristic ethic winning to the end,leaving behind a host of friends and admirers whomthe memory of a charismatic scientist, at once warmand remote, will forever haunt.

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Javaregowda Nagaraju(elected 2003)

J. Nagaraju, staff scientist and chief of the MolecularGenetics Laboratory at the Centre for DNA Fingerprintingand Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, passed away on31 December 2012. Death came rather unexpectedlyand untimely while he was recuperating from a briefsurgical procedure.

Born on 6 November 1954 in a small village (Agraharabachahalli) in Mandya District near Mysore inKarnataka, Nagaraju had most of his education inand around Mysore. His Master’s and Doctoratedegrees were in zoology with genetics from MysoreUniversity. He also underwent a three-year researchtraining programme at the Centre for Geneticsand Molecular Biology at the University of Lyon inFrance.

Nagaraju started his career in research at the CentralSericulture Research and Training Institute (CSB),Mysore. Later, he was instrumental in setting upthe Seribiotech Research Laboratory under CSBin Bangalore, where he initiated several researchprojects on silkworm molecular genetics whileserving as the Deputy Director. Subsequently hemoved to CDFD to establish a vibrant research groupworking on the molecular genetics and genomics ofsilkworm. His intense efforts led to the establishmentof a Centre of Excellence on Genomics and Geneticsof Silkworms at CDFD.

Nagaraju embarked upon the analysis and mappingof differences in DNA between two geographicallydifferentiated populations of tropical and temperatesilkworm strains, which differ significantly in quantitative,qualitative, biochemical and physiological traits.

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A number of DNA marker technologies such assingle-locus and multi-locus RFLPs, RAPDs and SSRwere extensively exploited for strain-specific DNAprofiling and construction of molecular maps for usein marker-assisted selection in silkworm breeding.He extended these studies later to other insects suchas wild silk moths and agricultural pest insects.

Nagaraju also developed and improved upon anchored-SSR PCR to generate robust markers to map thesilkworm genome. He then extrapolated this techniqueto distinguish closely related but disputed chillivarieties, and in the detection of adulteration in Basmatirice. He has successfully developed SilkSat DB,a silkworm microsatellite database and InSat DB,an interactive interface applicable to all insect genomes.In 2007, Nagaraju received the Tata InnovationFellowship of the Government of India in recognitionof his scientific contributions and development ofcommercial technology.

Nagaraju’s group, in collaboration with French andJapanese researchers, developed methods to deliverexogenous DNA into silkworm eggs. The generationof virus-resistant transgenic silkworms usingtransposable elements coupled with RNA interferenceapproach was a successful outcome of theseefforts. Baculovirus infection is a major cause of croploss in sericulture and Nagaraju could transgress the desirable trait of virus resistance into commercialraces of silkworm to combine with high silk productivity.Earlier his research team also worked on the defencemechanisms operative in silkworms to resist bacterialinfections.

Nagaraju was a dynamic individual and establishedan extensive collaborative scientific network with manyleading scientists from Japan, France, USA andelsewhere. He was a fellow of all the three nationalacademies of science in India. He was also a Fellowof the Genetic Society of America and the JapaneseSociety of Sericultural Science. He was honouredwith the Biotech Product and Process Developmentand Commercialization Award of the Departmentof Biotechnology, New Delhi and the Best ScientistAward of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambersof Commerce.

Nagaraju is survived by his wife, daughter and sonas well as a large group of researchers whom hehad been mentoring. He had successfully inculcatedleadership skills among his lab members. His researchcolleagues and peers remember him fondly. His

sudden and untimely demise has left a big vacuum inthe scientific community of India.

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Baruch Samuel Blumberg(elected 1987)

Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician andmedical researcher born on 28 July 1925 in New York,passed away on 5 April 2011. Blumberg receivedthe Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976 for discovery ofthe hepatitis B virus (HBV) and for studies of variationin host response to the virus.

He attended Union College in Schenectady, New Yorkwhere he received a Bachelor of Science degree inPhysics in 1946. After a year of graduate trainingin mathematics at Columbia University, Blumbergentered Columbia University’s College of Physiciansand Surgeons and received a Medical Degree in1951. Blumberg then became an intern and assistantresident at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. He workedfor two years in the Arthritis Division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where he researched thechemistry of hyaluronic acid, a major component ofconnective tissue, which holds together and supportsstructures in the body. From 1955 to 1957, Blumbergcontinued his study of hyaluronic acid, as a graduatestudent in biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford. Whilethere, he also began investigating human proteinvariation.

After receiving a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Oxford,Blumberg moved to the United States National Institutesof Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. There, as chiefof the Section on Geographic Medicine and Genetics,

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he studied protein polymorphisms in human populationsfrom all over the world.

Blumberg shared the 1976 Nobel Prize for Physiologyor Medicine with D. Carleton Gajdusek “for theirdiscoveries concerning new mechanisms for theorigin and dissemination of infectious diseases.” Inaddition to his research on hepatitis carriers, Blumberghas gathered evidence that hepatitis B infectionmay lead to liver cancer. Blumberg’s work drewon many disciplines, and he typified an era ofbiomedical science in which the fields of immunology,virology, genetics, biochemistry, and molecularbiology overlapped to provide answers to researchproblems.

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1948 and 1949 he spent a postdoctoral year at theEidgenössiche Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Hereturned to India briefly in 1949 and then cameback to England, where he was awarded a fellowshipto work at the University of Cambridge from 1950until 1952. At Cambridge his great interest in proteinsand nucleic acids flourished. In 1952 he accepted apost in Vancouver, British Columbia, working with agroup conducting research on nucleic acids.

In 1960 he moved to the Institute for Enzyme Researchat the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he servedas its co-director and conducted the research that ledto his Nobel Prize. He became a naturalized US citizenin 1966. Four years later he was appointed Alfred SloanProfessor Biology and Chemistry at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, where he worked until he retiredin 2007.

Khorana received a number of honours and awards,among them the prestigious Lasker Award forbasic medical research in 1968 and the USNational Medal of Science in 1987 for “innovativecontributions that significantly contributed to ourunderstanding of gene structure, membrane functionand vision”.

A modest man who shunned publicity, Har GobindKhorana was a world-class molecular biologist andbiochemist best known for research that helped todemonstrate how the nucleotides in nucleic acids,which carry the genetic code of the cell, control thesynthesis of proteins by the cell. For this workhe shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology ofMedicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and RobertW. Holley; the three scientists worked independently.They won the prize “for their interpretation of the geneticcode and its function in protein synthesis.”

In another ground-breaking technical achievement,Khorana constructed the first completely artificial gene,an artificial copy of a yeast gene, using laboratorychemicals. He observed that an artificial gene couldfunction in the cell of a bacterium. The synthesis ofDNA led to key advances in genetic engineering andto the foundation of the biotechnology industry.

His later research investigated the cellular mechanismsinvolved in some aspects of vision in vertebrates.He was mainly interested in the structure andfunction of rhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein found in the retina of the vertebrate eye. He also investigated

Har Gobind Khorana(elected 1976)

Har Gobind Khorana, who died on 9 November2011 was born on 9 January 1922 into a Hindu familyin the village of Raipur in Punjab, the youngest of fivesiblings. His father was the village’s agricultural taxationofficial. In Khorana’s own words: “Although poor, myfather was dedicated to educating his children and wewere practically the only literate family in the villageinhabited by about 100 people.” He attended theD. A. V. High School in Multan, then studied at theUniversity of the Punjab in Lahore.

He received his bachelor’s degree in 1943 and hismaster’s degree in 1945; the same year he wasawarded a Government of India fellowship whichenabled him to go to England to undertake researchfor a PhD at the University of Liverpool. Between

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the mutations in rhodopsin that are associatedwith retinitis pigmentosa, the cause of nightblindness.

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Kadavil Poulose Abraham(elected 1975)

Kadavil Poulose Abraham was born on 28 August1920 in Trichur, Kerala. He passed away on23 December 2011. He completed his MSc. inChemistry in 1944 from the Lucknow University. Hestarted his service as a Lecturer in the Maharaja’sCollege, Ernakulam in 1945 and later on worked asa Lecturer in Jaffna College, Sri Lanka from 1947to 1956. He then moved to the Imperial College,London in 1956. He received his PhD. in Extractive

Metallurgy from the London University (Imperial College)in 1959. In 1969 he returned to India and startedworking in the Department of Metallurgy, Indian Instituteof Science, Bangalore. He was also a visiting scientistin the Royal College of Technology, Stockholm, Swedenand University of Toronto, Canada.

His field of specialization was Extractive Metallurgyand his research interests were in thermodynamicsof high temperature systems, kinetic aspects of hightemperature metallurgical processes and electroslagrefining of steels and nonferrous metals. Abrahamwas Principal Investigator of a research project onelectroslag refining of aerospace alloys sanctionedand funded by the Aeronautical Research andDevelopment Board. He was also an Investigator inthe National Thermophysical Property MeasurementProject in the Department of Metallurgy.

Abraham authored a chapter titled “ThermodynamicProperties of Oxide Systems” in the book entitled“Solid Electrolytes and their Applications” edited byProfessor E. C. Subbarao and published by PlenumPress.

He was elected a Fellow of Indian Academy ofSciences in 1975. He was a member of the IndianInstitute of Metals and the Metallurgical Society andalso a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society ofIndia. He has made important contributions to ourknowledge of high temperature thermodynamicproperties of metal oxide systems, and the kineticsof gas solid reactions of metallurgical interest. He hasalso contributed in the area of upgradation of low gradechromite and manganese ores of Karnataka.

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