Grapevine 09-10 (3)

Dr. Pradeep Srivastava, Senior Scientist in the Medicinal and Process Chemistry Division at the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, gave a lecture titled "Scientoons: Enjoy Science with fun" on 19th September, 2009. Dr. Srivastava developed the field of Scientoonics while delivering a lecture in 1988 at an Asian conference at NUS, Singapore. He was awarded the International Young Person of the Year Award by the Junior Chambers Association (USA). Scientoonics is a new branch of science which deals with effective science communication using a novel class of science cartoons called Scientoons. Scienctoon not only make you smile and laugh but also provide information about new research, new subjects and concepts in a simple, understandable and interesting way.

Dr. Manoj Patairiya, President of Indian Science Writers' Association (ISWA) and Editor of the Indian Journal of Science Communication gave a lecture titled "Science Communication in India" on 19th September, 2009. Dr. Patairiya's talk covered many issues such as what is science communication, what is its present state in India, what measures have been taken to make the common people realize the significance of science, and to build a scientific temper among them, what are the challenges in this area and what is the future vision of science communication and journalism in India. Dr. Patairiya received the prestigious B. C. Deb Memorial National Award for popularisation of science by the Indian Science Congress Association in 2000.

Dr. Jerome Lave, CNRS Research Scientist at the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG), at Nancy (France), gave a lecture titled, "Life and death of mountain ranges" on 26th October, 2009. In his talk Dr. Lave explained how mountain ranges grow and decay, how long theirtopography lasts, what sets the elevation of the high peaks of the Himalayas and of the other mountains on Earth, how large orogenic plateaus like the Tibetan plateau form, and why some other ranges are much narrower. Dr. Lavé is an active researcher in erosion and active tectonics in France. He got his PhD in geophysics in 1997 from the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris. In 2007 he joined as CNRS Research Scientist at the Centrede Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG), Nancy. Over the last decade, Dr Lavé has led several projects on experimental erosion, Himalayan erosion and paleoseismology, Zagros tectonics and paleoaltimetry development.

Prof. Jayant Murthy, professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore gave a lecture titled, "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" (SETI) on 31st October, 2009. He obtained his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University in 1987. His research interests include space missions and interstellar dust. In this talk, Prof. Murthy addressed the science behind SETI. He mentioned that considerable progress has been made over the last 20 years as we have gone from no extra solar planets to more than 300 discovered. He also added that they were exploring ever greater volumes of space for alien radio signals. Yet no extraterrestrial life has been found, let alone extraterrestrial intelligence. Where is everyone? Are we the only intelligent beings in the universe? Have other civilizations killed themselves through nuclear war or perhaps climate change?

Prof. Jagadishwar Mahanty Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics: Prof. Rajaram Nityananda, former Director, National Centre of Radio Astrophysics, Pune gave a lecture under "Prof.Jagadishwar Mahanty Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics" titled "Galaxies: Today, Yesterday, and the Day Before" on 30th October, 2009. In this talk Prof. Nityananda gave an introduction to galaxies, their structure, evolution and origin. He gave an historical account of the major developments in this field, including the first identification of a galaxy beyond the Milky Way, the measure of galactic distances, the Hubble law, the evidence for dark matter in galaxies and the current attempts to study the early stages of the galaxy formation. Prof. Rajaram Nityananda is an eminent, internationally renowned theoretical physicist. He has a wide range of research interests including astrophysics, cosmology, optics, condensed matter physics and crystallography. Prof. Nityananda is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Second Indo-German Conference on Partial Differential Equations (PDE), Scientific Computing and Optimization in Applications was held from 7th - 9th October, 2009. This conference covered a wide range of physical phenomena which are modeled mathematically by Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). The nature of the governing PDEs or their boundary conditions are, in most cases, quite complicated (e.g., nonlinear, ill-posed…), and are impossible to solve analytically. Scientific Computing is a solution to this problem. Due to the advancement in computer technology and the availability of highly efficient & stable numerical algorithms, some of the most complicated PDEs (like Navier-Stokes equations) on complicated geometries can be solved in 'real time' today. This challenging subject has thus become quite interesting and is highly applicable in a wide range of problemsin science (general as well as medical) and engineering. Since the real application always involves the optimization of some quantities, studying PDEs together with optimization is one of the most recent trend in research.

Indo-Us Workshop on System of Systems Engineering was held from 26th - 28th October, 2009. System of Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary area that brings various fields from aerospace to robotics and power systems to management closer to each other. With the advancement of technology, very large scale systems involving multiple disciplines such as sensor networks, collaborative robotics, power-grid, city traffic and airport operation need to be tackled. The language of system of system provides an opportunity to become conversant with the several research areas which may be involved in these operations. This Indo-US workshop was the result of a collaboration between IIT Kanpur and the University of Texas, San Antonio, and experts from both countries participated in it.

The 45th Inter-IIT Aquatics Meet was hosted by IIT Kanpur from 1^st – 5^th October, 2009. The IIT Kanpur Aquatics team won the Water Polo Championship and the Men's Swimming Championship. It also won Gold Medals in both Free Style relay and Medley relay. Overall IIT Kanpur bagged 4 Gold Medals, 3 Silver Medals, and 7 Bronze Medals.

Antaragni (the fire within) the cultural festival of IIT Kanpur, was held from 22^nd – 25^th October, 2009. The theme this year was “I am the change”. Students from over 150 colleges across India participated in this event. The festival encompassed a whole range of events from competitions and workshops to talks and professional shows. There were several events which focused on the issue of building social responsibility amongst youth. Two Fusion Bands, Advaita and Sitar Funk performed on the Opening Night. The highlight of Synchronicity was the Irish rock sensation Jaded Sun, who have been heralded as "the new messiahs of rock n' roll". The event India Haat presented a dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues. "India Inspired: A Dream for the Nation" saw more than 400 students join the panel discussion with Raj Kamal Jha (the Allahabad editor of Times of India), Sujatha Ramdorai (Professor of mathematics at TIFR), Vinit Joshi (CBSE chairman) and Amrita Das (career counselor). The theme ‘the road not taken' explored why Indian youth sticks to only a few conventional career paths. Despite the large youth population, India excels only in a few fields and lags behind in many others. This is not due to the lack of talented youth but because the students in our country today are apprehensive of following an unconventional career line that is actually harmonious with their likes and interests. Moreover, parental and peer pressure also pushes them into conventional paths. The festival ended with Blitzkrieg (the professional night) with a live performance by Faridkot, the upcoming band, and KK (Krishnakumar Kunnath), the renowned singer.

Prof. R. Balasubramaniam (fondly known as 'Bala') died of cancer on 9th December, 2009. After doing his BTech from Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi and PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, USA, Prof. Balasubramaniam joined IIT Kanpur in 1990. His research interests included Material-Hydrogen Systems, Environmental Degradation of Materials, Structure-Property Correlation in Advanced Materials and Indian Archaeometallurgy. Prof. Balasubramaniam published more than 250 research papers and 10 books. Two of his recent books, which dealt with Indian Archaeometallurgy, are "The Saga of Indian Cannons" and 'Story of Delhi Iron Pillar". His research on the corrosion resistance of Delhi's iron pillar attracted worldwide attention. Prof. Balasubramaniam won several awards for his work, the most recent being the B. B. Lal Chair Professorship at IITK. Prof. Balasubramaniam is survived by his wife Gaitri and two daughters Gowri and Gargi. The Institute expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of Prof. Balasubramaniam and prays for the peace of the departed soul.

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