2nd SCIENCE CONCLAVE: A CONGREGATION OF NOBEL LAUREATES

(December 8-14, 2009)

 

Manjari Sahai

 

IIIT-A organized Second Science Conclave of Nobel Laureates from December 8 to 14 after great success of First Science Conclave with the unflinching support of the Government of India, MHRD and DST. It was successfully organized with the objective to encourage, generate interest and awareness amongst students and teachers to take up studies, researches and professional research careers in Basic Sciences in order to promote the scientific developments and innovations in the country. Participants of this year’s conclave were undergraduate and postgraduate students, young faculty members, entrepreneurs, academic leaders and scientists from all over the country who got opportunity to interact with Noble Laureates, Eminent Indian Academicians, Scientists, Technologists and Industrialists.

Dr.M.D.Tiwari, Director, IIIT-A has played a pioneer role in giving new shape to fundamental sciences in the country through successfully organizing Science Conclave 2008 and 2009.

 

LIST OF SPEAKERS AND DIGNITARIES VISITED AND ADDRESSED PARTICIPANTS


Dignitaries and Nobel Laureates 

The three Nobel Laureates who shared their valuable studies were:

 Prof. Joseph Hooton Taylor (Nobel Laureate in 1993) Department of Physics, Princeton University, USA Nobel Laureate in Physics - Researches in Radio Astronomy. He is an American radio astronomer and physicist who received 1993 Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of the first binary pulsar.

Dr. Douglas D.Osheroff (Nobel Laureate in 1996) Stanford University, USA. Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Varian Physics Bldg Nobel Laureate in Physics –Research on isotope of Helium, Helium-3.

Dr. Robert C. Richardson (Nobel Laureate in 1996) Senior Vice Provost for Research, Cornell University, USA Nobel Laureate in Physics - Research on very low temperature Helium.

Lee, Richardson and Osheroff were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996 for the discovery of unexpected behaviour of 3He at temperatures within a few thousands of a degree of absolute zero which they eventually explained as phase transitions to a superfluid phase of 3He.

International Participants

  1. Professor Jean-Marc Rapp - President, European University Association (EUA), Switzerland
  2. Prof. Thomas Ming Swi Chang - Canada
  3. Dr. Satya Prakash - Canada
  4. Prof. Alexander K. Gaponenko - Russia
  5. Prof. Elena Pavlyukova - Russia
  6. Prof. Satish K. Tripathi - USA
  7. Prof. Satish Chandra - USA
  8. Prof. Devki N. Talwar - USA
  9. Dr. Hari S. Sharma - Netherlands
  10. Prof. Dr. Victor W.M. van Hinsberg - Netherlands
  11. Prof. Dharma. P. Agrawal - USA
  12. Prof. Anish Arora - USA
  13. Dr. Julie McCann - U.K.
  14. Prof. Mriganka Sur - USA
  15. Dr. Maxim Antonenko - Russia
  16. Mr. C. Mohan - IBM, USA
  17. David Harame - IBM, USA
  18. Ray Harishankar - IBM, USA
  19. Dr. Sasi K. Pillay - CIO, NASA John H. Glenn Research Center, USA

Indian Participants

  1. Prof. U.R. Rao - Chairman, PRL Council, ISRO-DOS, Bangalore
  2. Prof. H.A. Ranganath - Director, NAAC, Bangalore
  3. Dr. Sudarshan K. Arora - President (R&D), Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
  4. Prof. L.M. Patnaik - VC, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune
  5. Prof S. S. Gokhale - Director, VNIT, Nagpur
  6. Dr. S.P.S. Ahlawat - VC, Vikram University, Ujjain
  7. Prof. N. K. Gupta - Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Delhi
  8. Professor D. V. Singh - Former Director IIT-Roorkee
  9. Professor D. D. Sarma - Professor, IISC, Bangalore
  10. Professor S. S. Hasan - Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
  11. Dr. Vinod K. Gaur - Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
  12. Prof. Santanu Bhattacharya - Professor, IISC, Bangalore
  13. Dr. W. Selvamurthy - Chief Controller R&D, DRDO, Bangalore
  14. Prof. Govind Swarup - Professor, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune
  15. Dr. Kamal Kant Dwivedi - Scientist G, DST, New Delhi
  16. Justice Rajesh Tandon - Presiding Officer, Cyber Regulations Tribunal, Delhi
  17. Prof. Ramesh Chandra - Founder Director, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research University of Delhi

Students from Bangladesh (SAARC Invitees)

  1. Dr. Ishtiaque M. Syed - Asst. Prof., Dept. of Physics, University of Dhaka
  2. Mr. Zulfiqar Hasan Khan - Masters Student, Dept. of Physics, University of Dhaka
  3. Mr. Touhid Hossain - Masters Student, Dept. of Physics, University of Dhaka
  4. Mr. Fahmi Md. Shaief - Student, Dept. of Microbiology, University of Dhaka

Second Science Conclave inspired and spread knowledge from 8th December to 14th December, 2009 through talk by Nobel Laureates, Eminent Scientists and other International and Indian participants who enlightened students by their researches and told them about the scope of studies and researches in Science. There was Science Conclave Student Interaction and INSPIRE sessions with different Resource Persons in different groups.

 

On 8th December, 2009 -Science Conclave was inaugurated by IIIT-A Director, Dr. M.D.Tiwari and Nobel Laureates and then presenting of “Pattichattam” (Traditional Indian Handicraft depicting Krishna Lela on raw silk) to Nobel Laureates.

On 13th December, 2009- There was Formal Inauguration by Shri Prithviraj Chavan,Honourable Minister Science and Technology,Govt of India.

The Conclave was addressed by Nobel laureates Govind Swaroop, N K Gupta, David Harame, C Mohan, Santanu Bhattacharya, Mriganka Sur, Satish K Tripathi, Vinod K Gaur, Elena Pavlyukova, Santanu Bhattacharya, L M Patnaik, Julie McCann, U R Rao, D P Agarwal assisted by Jung Hyun Jun, Vinod Kumar Gaur to spread knowledge, research works and their experiences in the field of science and technology.

They also encouraged school and college students in INSPIRE and Student Interactive Sessions to take up Science as their career and presented before them the areas of researches. 

These were mainly categorized as:

Group -1: Engineering and allied sciences under G C Nandi and G N Pandey.

 Group -2: Physics, Mathematics under US Tiwari and Sudip Sanyal.

Group -3: Chemistry under Krishna Mishra and J D Pandey, Alka Tiwari.

Group -4: Biology under Ramesh Chandra and Siva Prasad.

 Interaction Session of INSPIRE students started on 10th December, 2009 and students were divided in three groups under different mentors and interacting with various Resource persons. The various groups were under following mentors:-

INSPIRE- 1- Mentors: Prof. C.M. Bhandari, Prof B.R.Singh

INSPIRE- 2- Mentors: O.P.Vyas, Anupam Agarwal.

INSPIRE- 3- Mentors: R.C.Tripathi and Shekhar Verma

 

Cultural Nights were organised on 9th, 10th, 12th, and 13th.

9th December, 2009 - Puppet Show by Calcutta Puppet Theatre and Sri Suresh Dutta an eminent Puppet artist of India is at the helm of this Theatre as its director. The troupes of 18 people presented play Aladdin with which they started their journey.

10th December, 2009- Ghazal Night by Penaz Masani ‘Shehzadi Tarunnam’ , Co-Singer -Vipin, Tabla- Salim, Harmonium- Fareed Ahmad, Keyboard – Imrat, Octopad- Bunty.

Some ghazals were “Dil mein rakh lo ke nigahon me basalon mujhko” and “Dil me Yaadon ki chamak baki hai”.

12th December, 2009 - Dance Drama by Ms. Shobana, an accomplished dancer of Bharatnatyam. Shobana dance troupe presented on Ramayana in which Shobana played the role of Ravana

It was extraordinary performance which delighted the audience.   

13th December, 2009 -It was melodious night when Abhijeet sang different songs of Baadshah, Yes Boss, and Anjaam for music lovers. He was supported by Babul Lahiri- Orchestra, Ashish Lahiri- Keyboard, Soman Sarkar- Keyboard, Ranjan- guitar, J.K. Chaudhary- Bazz guitar, M. Mukherji- Drum, N.Sarkar- Octopad.

 

Second Science conclave ended with Valedictory Session and Report Presentation and with the aim to continue imparting knowledge of Science to the society through their participants.