Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb, Gurmukh and Veena Mehta Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, and the Director of the Kanpur Genetic Algorithms Laboratory, Kanpur has won the Infosys Prize 2011 in the category of Engineering and Computer Science. On 16th November 2011, the Infosys Science Foundation announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2011, recognizing outstanding contributions to scientific research in five different categories: Engineering and Computer Science, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. Professor Kalyanmoy Deb has made fundamental contributions to the emerging field of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) where his work has led to significant advances in the areas of non-linear constraints, decision uncertainty, programming and numerical methods, computational efficiency of large-scale problems and optimization algorithms. He has demonstrated how fundamental ideas of optimization and computing principles can be combined to devise efficient algorithms that are fast, accurate and scalable. His recent studies on handling challenging practical multi-criteria optimization problems make his research pragmatic and applicable to multiple disciplines. Prof. Deb's research addresses both fundamental and applied aspects of optimization, developed synergistic and computationally efficient algorithms, and demonstrates their usefulness in industries such as logistics and refineries. The other recipients were Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in Physical Sciences; Dr. Imran Siddiqi, CSIR - Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad in Life Sciences; Prof. Raghuram G. Rajan, University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, Chicago, USA in Social Sciences-Economics; Prof. Kannan Soundararajan, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA in Mathematical Sciences and Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi in Social Sciences - Political Science and International Relations. The award ceremony for the Infosys Prize 2011 was held on 9th January 2012 in Bangalore, where Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam felicitated the winners with a 22-karat gold medallion, a citation certificate and prize money of 50 lakh.

IIT Kanpur is proud to have three faculty members and five alumni as Infosys Prize winners.

Homepage of Prof. Deb: http://www.iitk.ac.in/kangal/deb.shtml

TOP

Distinguished Lectures

Prof. C. V. Seshadri Memorial Distinguished Lecture: Dr. Rajdip Bandyopadhyaya, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay gave a lecture titled Functional Nanoparticles by the Colloidal Route: Experiments, Mechanism, Modeling on 16th November, 2011. Prior to his current assignment at IIT Bombay he was a faculty member at IIT Kanpur. In his lecture Dr. Bandyopadhyaya said that technological requirements of advanced materials can be diverse, but principles of self-assembly and surface chemistry can help us in designing materials with different geometry and functionality. For example, solid nanoparticles in general are required to be monodisperse and of controlled morphology. He said that this has been achieved through confinement of reaction and resulting particle nucleation and growth within self-assembled reverse micelle cores, whereby we are able to synthesize and mathematically model nanoparticles. In contrast, simple switching of the reaction zone from inside to the external surface of the micelles eventually leads to synthesis of nanoporous materials. The latter can be further impregnated with different dispersed constituents (like nanoparticles, enzymes), or functionalized with chemical moieties. The resulting nanocomposite is tailored for selective access of a guest species to the dispersed or functionalized component, enhancing overall performance.

Dr. Bandyopadhyaya did his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His current research is focused on using the principles of colloidal and interfacial science to link the synthesis, structure, dynamics and properties of nanomaterials, uncovering the interplay of multiple length and time scales. He is an elected Member of The National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).

About the donor

The corpus of the Professor C. V. Seshadri (CVS) Memorial Distinguished Lecture in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IITK has been set up by several students, family members and friends of CVS. This lecture is to be delivered by a promising young Chemical Engineering researcher (below 45 years) working in India.

About Prof. C. V. Seshadri

The late Prof. C. V. Seshadri was a distinguished Chemical Engineer. He did his Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. He joined IIT Kanpur in 1965. He served as the Head the Department and also as the Dean of Students’ Affairs, IITK. Prof. Seshadri left IITK in 1974 to join Kasturi Paper Food and Chemicals Ltd., Bangalore, where he set up India’s first fodder yeast plant. In 1976, he joined the Shri A. M. M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Center in Chennai as its founder Director, an institute emphasizing appropriate technology, the forte of CVS. It was here that CVS really blossomed and helped develop several appropriate technologies, including Spirulina Algae. For his efforts in this direction, CVS received the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj award for S&T for rural development (1981).

TOP

Distinguished Lecture in Chemistry: Prof. S. S. Krishnamurthy, Emeritus Professor & INSA Honorary Scientist, Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, IISC, Bangalore gave a lecture titled Journey into the calixarene LAND with the Torch of Phosphorus on 18th November, 2011. In his talk Prof. Krishnamurthy said that Calixarenes constitute an important class of synthetic macrocycles which display remarkable features such as conformational flexibility, presence of well-defined cavities, and ability to undergo modifications at both upper and lower rims. Calixarene chemistry has grown in several directions in recent years. Particularly striking are the developments in the transition metal chemistry of phosphorus(III) functionalized calix[4]arenes and the use of these “phospha-calix[4]arene” ligands in catalysis. In this lecture, he talked about how two major types of calix[4]arene phosphite ligands have been synthesized depending on whether phosphorus is attached to one or two phenolic oxygen atoms at the lower rim of the calix[4]arene framework. Significant highlights of the work are: (a) synthesis of chiral calixarene phosphites and unsymmetrically substituted bisphosphites which exhibit a large through space P...P coupling, (b) design of a new type of “phospha calixarene” ligand, in which a diphosphazane (P-N-P) unit is appended to the lower rim of the calixarene framework, (c) synthesis of calix[4]arene bisphosphite ligands bearing two distal 2,2'-biphenyldioxyphosphinoxy or 2,2'-binaphthyldioxyphosphinoxy moieties which exist in two pairs of interconvertible conformers in solution and (d) cyclometalation of palladium and platinum chloride complexes of sterically encumbered calixarene bisphosphites.

Prof. S. S. Krishnamurthy is a renowned inorganic chemist with significant contributions to main-group and organometallic chemistry. He has published over 175 research papers and has mentored over 30 PhD students. He has worked in the Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for over four decades. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the same Institute. Prof. Krishnamurthy has won many awards and fellowships. Notable ones include the fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.

About the donor

The Distinguished Lecture series in Chemistry has been made possible mainly from the Department of Chemistry funds and partially from the Sixth National Symposium in Chemistry—Chemical Research Society of India (2004), organized by the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur.

TOP

Institute Lectures

Mr. Prabuddha Ganguli (MSc-2yrs/CHM/71), CEO, VISION-IPR, Mumbai, gave a lecture titled Pole-vaulting innovations across Academic Walls on 31st October, 2011. In his talk Mr. Ganguli said that, for the sustenance of an innovative culture, academic institutions on the one hand have to be involved in the continual creation, enrichment and maintenance of contextual educational programmes and on the other hand, they must participate in the maximizing of the speedy transformation of knowledge into tangibles for commercial exploitation. The process of 'knowledge generation' and transfer demands innovative frameworks to justify 'ownership of the developed knowledge' and 'benefit sharing' between contributing partners thereby providing pathways to incubation of minds to markets. The speaker said that “IPRinternalise®” can be seamlessly introduced in academic programmes even at the undergraduate level in an institution of academic excellence such as IIT Kanpur for the creation of a new breed of human resource equipped with 21st century techniques of Knowledge Engineering for innovation management and commercialization for societal progress.

Mr. Ganguli is a leading international expert on IPR and a Consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization for IPR capacity building. After several years in academic research (TIFR, BARC), he worked in industry (Hindustan Lever) for 2 decades in diverse managerial roles including R&D, Technology Assessment, and Knowledge Management. He is an honorary scientific consultant for innovation and IPR matters to the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India. He is also a member of the advisory board of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), Washington and a member of the International Editorial Board of “World Patent Information”. He has over 50 publications in technical fields, over 60 publications in IPR and 5 books. In February 2011 he was awarded "The Chemtech Pharma-Bio World Award 2011 for outstanding contribution in the field of Intellectual Property".

TOP

Dr. Mahan Maharaj, (MSc/MTH-5yrs/1992), The School of Mathematical Sciences, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Kolkata gave a lecture titled What is hyperbolic geometry? on 14th November, 2011. In his talk he gave an introduction to hyperbolic geometry, including its genesis. He also talked about high school calculus and co-ordinate geometry.

Dr. Mahan Maharaj (formerly Mahan Mitra) is the recipient of this year's prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award in Mathematical Sciences. Mahan obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley. He received the Earl C. Anthony Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley 1992-1993 and the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for 1996-1997. His most notable work is the proof of the existence of Cannon–Thurston maps. This has led to the resolution of the conjecture that connected limit sets of finitely generated Kleinian groups are locally connected.

TOP

Dr. Annick Pouquet, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, USA gave a lecture titled Waves and turbulence in rotating flows on 5th December, 2011. In her talk Dr. Pouquet said that in the presence of waves, such as in the presence of rotation, stratification or magnetic fields, different regimes for the dynamics of a turbulent flow can emerge according to the parameter measuring the ratio of the wave period to the eddy turn-over time. When this ratio is small, it provides a parameter with which one can close the equations, together with the resonance condition of waves. However, this theory of weak turbulence is non uniform in scale and breaks down, leading to other regimes. In this talk, the speaker first reviewed how one can derive the kinetic equations for weak turbulence, comparing them with classical two-point closures. She then moved on to describe the results of large-scale direct numerical simulations of rotating turbulence up to grids of 30723 points and showed that helicity, measuring the degree of alignment between velocity and its curl, the vorticity, plays an essential role, leading to new dynamical ranges. She also presented evidence for the recovery of isotropy at the small scales.

Dr. Annick Pouquet obtained her PhD in Physics at the Observatoire de Nice (France) working on the dynamics of magnetohydrodynamics turbulence. She worked for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Nice before leaving in 2000 to join the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, where she now resides. She has worked on several aspects of turbulence, in two and three dimensions, incompressible or supersonic, with or without magnetic fields, with applications to the solar wind, the interstellar medium and to the problem of generation of magnetic fields. She is presently focusing with her team on rotating flows as they can be encountered in the atmosphere and the oceans. Dr. Pouquet is a fellow of the American Physical Society. She was the first director of the Earth and Sun Science Laboratory at NCAR, and she is the head of the Geophysical Turbulence Group.

TOP

Workshops and Conferences

3rd Asian Conference on Coordination Chemistry was held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi from 17th – 20th October, 2011. This biennial conference follows the very successful first and second meetings held in Okazaki, Japan (2007) and in Nanjing, China (2009). The conference covered modern advances and new trends in coordination chemistry including electronic structures and bonding of metal complexes, organometallic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and porous materials, rational design of functional materials, nano-sciences of metal complexes, catalysis by metal complexes, surface and solution coordination chemistry and other emerging topics in coordination chemistry.

TOP

BRiP 2011, a National Students' Conference on River Basin Planning was held from 4th – 5th November, 2011. This was organized by the consortia of seven IITs. BRiP-2011 invited the participation of students interested in the field of river basin planning and related areas. The conference particularly aimed to encourage the younger generation, especially students from diverse backgrounds such as engineering and technology, medicine, humanities, law and the social sciences to share innovative ideas, and to deliberate, debate and discuss various aspects of river basin planning in order to create next generation human resources. The conference theme included all issues of river basin planning such as environmental quality and pollution, water resources development and management, fluvial geomorphology, ecology and biodiversity, socio-economic-spiritual-cultural aspects and policy-law-governance issues.

TOP

Universal Sustainable Innovative Design For Social Change (USID) Gurukul 2011 was 2nd in the series of Gurukul which was organised in partnership with the Design Programme, IIT Kanpur from 26th November to 11th December, 2011. USID Gurukul is inspired by the traditional "Gurukul", a school concept from the ancient times in India. USID Gurukul 2011 brought together around 60 students (Shishyas) selected from India as well as other countries from the disciplines of Design, Technology, Management and Social Sciences. These Shishyas attended the Gurukul for a period of 2 weeks and studied under the mentorship of eminent academicians, researchers and experienced practitioners (Gurus) from various institutes, organizations and industry domains. The aim of USID Gurukul was to provide a platform for students to collaborate, explore, experience, learn and create design solutions for existing social problems, solutions which could facilitate social and economic development and a better quality of life. Gurukul 2011 focussed on problem statements from the following domains:

• Education
• Health and Care
• Agriculture and Food Shortage
• Transportation and Traffic
• Public policies and its impact on citizens and government

TOP

Celebrating Chemistry @ IITK: The Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur organized a conference 'Celebration of Chemistry@IITK' from 3rd – 5th December, 2011 to commemorate the 'International Year of Chemistry – 2011' (IYC 2011). The conference aimed to bring together chemists working in the frontier areas of chemical research. In addition, this conference showcased the importance of teaching, in the form of Chemical Education, and the significance of chemistry for the well-being of mankind, in the form of Popular Level Lectures. 31 leading Indian scientists from different parts of India and 5 scientists from abroad and all the faculty members, students and staff of the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur attended the event.

TOP

Blubof2011: IUTAM Symposium on Bluff Body Flows was held at IIT Kanpur from 12th - 16th December, 2011. 108 delegates participated in the conference, including 38 from outside the country. 15 countries were represented in the symposium. A total of 49 oral presentations of 20 minutes each and 6 invited talks of 40 minutes each, were made. The papers for the oral presentations were selected on the basis of a rigorous review process. A total of 106 submissions were received by the conference. Each paper was reviewed by at least two international experts. Some of the selected papers from the conference will appear in a special issue of the Journal of Fluids and Structures.

Bluff body flows are very important for engineering flows as well as for form building blocks for understanding basic fluid mechanics. In the past few decades very significant progress has been made in the understanding of bluff body flows for stationary as well as vibrating bodies. While experiments at very large Reynolds numbers have been conducted, thetheoretical and computational studies are generally restricted to low/moderate Reynolds numbers. One aim of the meeting was to bring together people working with Experimental and Theoretical/ Computational tools. The topics covered during the conference were the various aspects of bluff body flows: near and far wakes, stability of wakes, shear layer and wake modes, vortex induced vibrations, forced vibrations, vortex induced vibrations at very high Re, control of wakes, drag reduction, numerical techniques, high performance computing and experimental methods.

The symposium provided a perfect ambience for technical discussions. Apart from the technical sessions, there was enough time for the participants to engage in discussions. Poster sessions were organized as well. These provided further opportunities for delegates to carry their discussions forward.

The keynote speakers in this conference are some of the very well known researchers in Bluff Body Flows: Prof. Jaywant H. Arakeri, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Prof Kerry Hourigan, Director, Division of Biological Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Australia; Prof. Patrick Huerre, Laboratoire d' Hydrodynamique, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau Cedex; France; Prof. George Em Karniadakis, Applied Mathematics, Brown University, USA; Prof. Rajat Mittal, Mechanical Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA and Prof. CHK Williamson, Willis H. Carrier Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, USA.

TOP

Golden Jubilee Reunion, Batch-of-61

Golden Jubilee Reunion (Batch-of-61): The Golden Jubilee reunion of the 1961 batch was held from 26th – 28th November, 2011. The 40 alumni and their families who attended, immensely enjoyed their visit and captured each other in cameras to make the memories live longer. The batch of 1961 was the second batch of IIT Kanpur after its establishment. A photo album of the 1961 batch Then and Now was released on the second day of the reunion and drew wide appreciation as it had photographs of the batch as freshers and their recent pictures after fifty years . On the third day of the three day long reunion programme the alumni interacted with the students who are currently studying at the institute and gave them useful advice.

TOP

Silver Jubilee Reunion, Class-of-87

The Silver Jubliee Reunion of the Class-of-87 was held from 24th - 26th December , 2011. More than 90 alumni came for the reunion, many of them with their families. These ex-students spent most of the time with their friends amid roars of laughter and cracking of jokes, recalling the time spent at IIT Kanpur. They began their day with yoga and a meditation session followed by jogging and cycling around the campus, enjoying its lush greenery. The alumni visited hostels, canteens, gymkhana, their departments and their laboratories. They interacted with the current students and were pleased to see the many facilities that had come up for them.

TOP

40th Year Reunion, Class-of-72

40th year Reunion Class-of-72: The 40th year reunion of the class-of-72 was held from 27th – 30th December 2011. About 75 alumni from India and abroad, many with their families, participated in the reunion. After the inaugural ceremony the alumni were shown a photo exhibition named 'My Other Life' which they all enjoyed. The first day’s activities also included a campus tour and an informal session after dinner. The alumni spent the second day at Bithoor, situated on the banks of the Ganga. They also visited the nearby villages and spoke to the villagers and learnt about their problems. During the reunion the alumni also met the Director and the Deans. The administration of IIT-Kanpur apprised the ex-students about the various developmental projects being undertaken on the campus. On the last day there was a panel discussion which included issues such as the cases of suicide by IIT-K students, and the safety and security of contract workers. During the three days several cultural programmes were also held to entertain the alumni and their families.

TOP

Inter II T Students Sports Meet 2011

The Inter-IIT Sports Meet is held annually during December. The General Championship goes to the IIT which performs best in the Sports Meet and the Aquatics Meet. With the birth of several new IITs, the talent pool has increased dramatically, resulting in a very closely fought General Championship. The 47th Inter IIT Sports Meet was held at IIT Kharagpur which is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee this year. The event was split into two parts with the Aquatics Meet being held from the 2nd to the 5th of October and the Main Meet from the 13th to the 19th of December, 2011. IIT Kanpur fielded a very young contingent with most of the prolific players of previous years having passed out. The contingent showed great resolve and character with some very notable performances in some sports. The Cricket and Badminton teams were able to secure the gold medal. The Water Polo team won silver. The Athletics and Squash teams won bronze. Other teams played well but were unable to secure a podium finish. On the girls' side, we were able to win a silver medal in Volleyball and in the discus throw event, a new meet record was made by IIT Kanpur.

TOP

Prof. Rajat Ray, Department of Physics passed away on 24th November 2011 in New Delhi after a week long illness. He was suffering from infection of the lung. Professor Ray was born on 10th August, 1929. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Solid State Physics from Purdue University in the USA. After a tenure as a Research Associate in the National Research Council, Canada, he joined the Department of Physics at IIT Kanpur as a faculty member in 1962. In those eventful formative years of IIT Kanpur, Dr. Ray participated in its growth and was instrumental in setting up the low temperature Physics Laboratory, of which he was the Head for many years. His research was in the area of Low temperature magnetic phenomena. He retired from IIT Kanpur in 1990. He leaves behind his wife Amita Ray, his only daughter Ranjana and son-in-law Pratap, an IITK alumnus.

The Institute expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of Prof. Ray and prays for the peace of the departed soul.