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No. 58 September 2013 Newsletter of the Indian Academy of Sciences TWENTY-FOURTH MID-YEAR MEETING JULY 5 – 6, 2013 This year, the Mid-year Meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, was held between 5th and 6th July 2013 at the Indian Institute of Science. This was preceded by an interactive session held for teachers of under- Inside.... graduate courses from institutions across the country. The aim of this session was to facilitate discussions on 1. Twenty-Fourth Mid-Year Meeting how science education in the country can be further 5 – 6 July 2013.................................................... 1 improved, including the many different teaching methods adopted by teachers. 2. Seventy-Ninth Annual Meeting, Chandigarh 8 – 10 November 2013 ....................................... 4 The talks covered varied topics from public health to 3. Associates .............................................................. 6 solar cells and astrophysics to wireless communications and were delivered by the newly elected Associates 4. Special Issues of Journals .................................... 6 and Fellows of the Academy. Special lectures by 5. Academic Public Lecture ....................................... 8 S. Sivaram and Deepak Pental and a public lecture by Jacob John were also organised as a part of this meeting. 6. Inaugural Jubilee Professorship of the Indian Academy of Sciences ................................. 9 The role of plastic in 7. Summer Research Fellowship Programme ......... 10 degradation of the environment is well- 8. Refresher Courses .............................................. 12 known and researchers 9. Lecture Workshops .............................................. 16 worldwide are trying to find eco-friendly 10. Repository of Scientific Publications of solutions to this Academy Fellows ................................................ 20 problem. The meeting 11. Hindi Workshop ................................................... 20 opened with a special lecture by S. Sivaram (NCL, Pune), whose talk focussed 12. Obituaries ............................................................. 21 on the challenges encountered in developing a biodegradable form of plastic using aliphatic polymers. 1 EDITOR R. Ramaswamy This Newsletter is available on the Academy website at: www.ias.ac.in/patrika/ Published by Indian Academy of Sciences To receive a regular copy of the Bangalore 560 080, India Newsletter, please write to the Phone: (080) 2266 1200, 2361 3922 Executive Secretary of the Academy email: [email protected] ([email protected]) Forthcoming Events Seventy-Ninth Annual Meeting, Chandigarh 8 – 10 November 2013 Refresher Courses • Statistical Mechanics 6 – 19 November 2013 Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai • Experimental Physics – LIII 7 – 23 November 2013 Indian Academy of Sciences Facility, Jalahalli, Bangalore • Evolutionary Ecology of Plants and Animals 11– 26 November 2013 PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore • Quantum Mechanics 28 November – 12 December 2013 Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee • Quantum Mechanics 2 – 14 December 2013 J.S.S. Educational Institutions, Suttur • Theoretical Physics 2 – 15 December 2013 Assam University, Silchar • Experimental Physics – LIV 9 – 24 December 2013 IISER, Pune • Experimental Physics – LV 9 – 25 January 2014 University of Kota, Kota • Experimental Physics – LVI 11 – 26 February 2014 Panjab University, Chandigarh Lecture Workshops • New Vistas in Topology and Analysis 6 – 8 November 2013 St. Joseph’s College, Irinjalakuda • Advances in Molecular Spectroscopy 20 – 21 November 2013 University of Calicut, Kozhikode • Modern Trends in Chemistry 20 – 22 November 2013 Tezpur University, Tezpur • Biowaves: The Pulse of Biology 29 – 30 November 2013 St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai • Trees of Life 11 – 12 December 2013 Jai Hind College, Mumbai • Sense and Sensibility 20 – 21 December 2013 Sophia College, Mumbai • Dynamical Systems 26 – 28 December 2013 PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore • Excursions in Mathematics 27 – 28 December 2013 Jain University, Bangalore • Fluid Dynamics 7 – 9 January 2014 Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore • Fascinating Chemistry 20 – 21 January 2014 Malda College, Malda 2 USA have benefitted from switching over to IPV, and he highlighted the need for India to do the same. With the current global energy crisis, research on solar cells have gained interest worldwide. Numerous scientific groups have been looking at making low- cost, high-efficiency solar cells by harnessing solar energy. H. N. Ghosh (BARC, Mumbai) in his talk highlighted the recent research advances in the making of dye-sensitised and quantum dot solar cells, and discussed the challenges in designing an The second special lecture, by Deepak Pental energy efficient cell. S. Baskaran (IIT, Chennai) spoke (University of Delhi South Campus, New Delhi), was of the advantages of domino reactions especially in on the use of transgenic crops which had drawn the field of environment and gave us an insight of criticism and controversies globally. Pental’s talk his research on domino-based strategies towards focussed on the advantages of using transgenic hybrids the stereo-selective synthesis of biologically active to improve crop yield and combat disease outbreaks. molecules. S. Shankaranarayanan (IISER, Thiru- The speaker cited the example of mustard (Brassica vananthapuram) spoke on higher derivative juncea) which is grown on 6-7 million hectares of land theories and quantum phase transitions and its in India and is often affected by diseases like stem implications on condensed matter systems and rot, white rust and alternaria blight, for which no black-hole entropy. Prahladh Harsha (TIFR, Mumbai) treatment have been found so far, leading to loss of spoke on communication complexity and its recent yield. According to Pental, switching to transgenic plant successes. Amiya Kumar Pani’s (IIT, Mumbai) talk varieties developed using new biological tools and looked at the ways in which traditional mathematics markers, is a safe way to tackle this problem. Pental differed from the new framework followed today, its also mentioned the need to set up multiple plant objectives and the need to have a relook on breeding centres to help address problems such as mathematical research as its done today. the role of various genes and linkage drag that plant The field of wireless communication has seen rapid breeders face. growth during the past decade. Most of the devices for wireless communication, including mobile phones, at present, use one antenna to transmit and another to receive signals. Speaking on his area of research, B. Sundar Rajan (IISc, Bangalore) said using multiple antennas will enormously help increase both data rate and reliability. Amol Dighe (TIFR, Mumbai) spoke on particle astrophysics of neutrinos and how observing the nature of the neutrinos can help in studies related to supernova astrophysics. T. K. Nayak (VECC, Kolkata), in his talk on the Large Hadron Collider, discussed the discovery of quantum chromodynamics and the present understanding of its phase diagram based on data acquired from Application of the latest scientific research findings to STAR and ALICE experiments. M. Durga Prasad the field of public health is not just important but a (University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad) discussed, in necessity. T. Jacob John (Vellore) in his public lecture his talk on the electronic structure perspective of the spoke on India’s long battle in fighting polio and reaping promoter modes in proton transfer reactions, the success. However, there have been a few reported cases implications of electron donation into sigma orbitals of polio outbreak recently, which are vaccine-derived on the rest of the vibrational degrees of freedom. polio virus diseases. Studies conducted both by John K. N. Raghavan (IMSc, Chennai) delivered an and others have strongly suggested several advantages interactive talk on invariant theory and standard in using IPV over OPV. He stressed on how vaccine- monomial theory and explained the study of invariant associated paralytic polio is an effect of using oral functions and how it leads to the standard monomial vaccination. Several countries in Europe and also the theory with examples. 3 Debasis Chattopadhyay’s (NIPGR, New Delhi) talk India to be better prepared to tackle and treat avian on protein kinases in plants discussed his research influenza and other such viral epidemics. Another matter on CIPKs identified from the plant Arabidopis and of grave concern is the steep rise in the number of TB their involvement in plant development and stress cases in India. With over 2.2 million cases of TB, the signalling, highlighting their role in transporting the World Health Organization has placed India in the “high plant hormone auxin. V. K. Sharma (JNCASR, TB burden” category. Soumya Swaminathan (National Bangalore) spoke on the entrainment of fruit fly Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai) raised Drosophila melanogaster circadian clocks under natural her concern on the non-availability of biomarkers for conditions and focussed on his experimental research tuberculosis that makes follow-up of recurrence or to study the behavioural responses of the wild-type relapse cases difficult. She mentioned how failing to strains of fruit fly to changes in natural light conditions. test for tuberculosis using the DNA PCR method had Uday Bandyopadhyay (IICB, Kolkata) spoke caused delays in diagnosis and treatment in children