Newsletter of the Indian Academy of Sciences

Inside....1. Platinum Jubilee

Celebrations – 2009 .................................. 1

2. Twenty-First Mid-Year MeetingJuly 2010 .................................................. 5

3. 2010 Elections .......................................... 6

4. Special Issues of Journals ......................... 10

5. Discussion Meeting ................................... 13

6. Raman Professor .......................................14

7. Academy Public Lectures ..........................14

8. Summer Research .....................................14Fellowships Programme

9. Refresher Courses .....................................15

10. Lecture Workshops ................................... 18

11. Platinum Jubilee Programmes ................... 25

12. Academy – SpringerCo-Publication Agreement ......................... 28

13. Building – Academy Guest Houseat Jalahalli ............................................... 28

14. Obituaries ................................................ 28

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations2009

Founded in 1934, the Academy celebrated its Platinum Jubileeyear in 2009. A short inaugural function was held on1st January, 2009 at the IISc during which the traditionallamp was lit by the President and six former Presidents.The activities and initiatives for the Platinum year includedmonthly lectures, platinum jubilee professorships, specialpublications, and three meetings and symposia which wereheld in July, November and December 2009.

PLATINUM JUBILEE MEETING – I

The first Meeting was held at Hyderabad during July 2 – 4,2009 and was co-hosted by IICT and CCMB. The WelcomeAddress by the President focused on efforts to mitigateproblems of impaired vision. Special lectures were by LaljiSingh and Surendra Prasad. The public lectures were byNarender Luther and W. Selvamurthy. Details of these lecturescan be found in 'Patrika' dated September 2009.

PLATINUM JUBILEE MEETING – II

The highlight of the celebrations was the Platinum JubileeMeeting held at Bangalore during 12 – 14 November 2009, allsessions being arranged at the spacious National ScienceSeminar Complex of the IISc (J N Tata Auditorium). Theinaugural session was a dignified and ceremonialaffair. Past Presidents who were able to come for the meetingspoke briefly and were specially honoured.

Two Platinum Jubilee publications – a two-volume Directoryof Fellows and a 600 page volume Current Trends inScience consisting of specially commissioned reviews ofvarious areas in science – were released. Messages fromseveral science academies across the globe, and fromAcademy Presidents unable to be present, were read out.

March 2010No. 51

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EDITORN Mukunda

Published byIndian Academy of SciencesBangalore 560 080, IndiaPhone: (080) 2361 2546, 2361 4592email: office@ias.ernet.in

FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2010Refresher Courses

• Foundations of physicsBengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur : 17 – 27 May 2010

• Experimental physics, Manipal University, Manipal : 24 May – 9 June 2010

• MBC Bridge course in mathematical methods in physicsDayanand Science College, Latur : 1 – 25 June 2010

• Frontiers in atmospheric sciencesIndian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune : 14 – 25 June 2010

• Experimental physicsSree Siddaganga College for Women, Tumkur University, Tumkur : 28 June – 12 July, 2010

• Experimental physics, Bangalore University, Bangalore : 15 – 30 July 2010

• Condensed matter physics, St. Thomas College, Pala : August 2010

• Experimental physics, Shivaji University, Kolhapur : 5 – 20 October 2010

• Experimental physics : 18 November –Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 3 December 2010

Lecture Workshops• Current trends in organic synthesis, Bangalore University, Bangalore : 9 – 10 April 2010

• Protein function and dynamicsMaharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women, Bangalore : 9 – 10 April 2010

• Nanoscience and technologyDon Bosco Institute of Technology, Bangalore : 28 – 30 April 2010

• Genomics and proteomics, Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati : 17 – 18 August 2010• Advances in chemistry

PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore : October 2010

Discussion Meeting• Hydrogen bonding and other molecular interactions, Orange County, Coorg : 28 November 2010

– 1 December 2010

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)

Academy Platinum Jubilee Meeting, November 2009, Bangalore

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The Presidential address titled 'Stem cell biology andan example of its use in vision science' was the thirdin a set of such addresses devoted to vision – itsscientific aspects, treatment strategies for varioustypes of impairments, and models for effective andaffordable eye care for our population. The focus wason increasing prevalence of presbyopia among theolder generations, and myopia among school children.

The President's address was followed by a PlatinumJubilee Special Lecture by C N R Rao on 'EmergingIndia as a great centre of science'. The enormouscontributions of C V Raman, Founder of the Academy,

and S Ramaseshan, a past President, both to theAcademy and to publication of scientific journals wererecalled. The general impression that despite betterfinancial support, the quality as well as quantity ofscience in India have not improved significantly wasmentioned. The speaker urged the Academy to doall it could to improve the health of science in India.

The meeting included two public lectures – the firstby Nandan Nilekani on India's ambitious 'UniqueIdentification Project', and the second by Mark Tullyon 'The need for balance in an unbalanced world'.Nilekani emphasized that the main aims of thisproject of unprecedented magnitude are – enabling large

numbers of people to easily prove their identitiesand thereby obtain various social services and benefitsthat are legitimately due to them. The many importantfeatures of the whole project, ideas under discussion,decisions yet to be made, were presented withremarkable clarity and precision. As the speakersaid, “we will be the first country to implement abiometric-based unique ID system for its residents onsuch a large scale”.

Mark Tully brought out some central features ofIndic religions which contrast with others in importantways. The former accept the 'uncertainty of certainty' –as against enlightenment rationalism, the certainties

Possible new approaches for correcting refractiveproblems in the lens, and the much more challengingdemands of repairing retinal damage, were described.

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set up at the venue of the meeting. These exhibitsare reproduced in this issue of Patrika.

PLATINUM JUBILEE MEETING – III

The third meeting scheduled for the Platinum Jubileeyear was held during December 3 – 5 2009 at theTata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR),Mumbai.

The Academy was a co-sponsor – along with INSA,NASI, DAE and the Royal Society, London – of the'Bhabha Centenary Symposium: Science andTechnology at the Frontiers'. The event as a wholewas most tastefully organized, one highlight beinga slide show titled 'Homi Bhabha: In memoriam'created with artistic elegance and using the archivesof the TIFR. Among the many excellent talks givenin memory of and to honour Homi Bhabha, someshould be particularly mentioned. Those with ahistorical flavour were by C. N. Yang on ‘From the vectorpotential to connections on a fiber bundle’; M. S.Narasimhan on ‘Mathematics in TIFR’; M. G. K. Menonon ‘Turning points in Homi's life’; Obaid Siddiqi on‘The beginnings of biology at TIFR – Dr. Bhabha'sstyle of growing science’; and Arnold Wolfendaleon ‘Cosmic rays and evolution’. Among the technicaltalks, both W. M. Rainforth and Knut Urban spokeabout microscopy and the aftermath of Feynman's1959 lecture ‘There's plenty of room at the bottom’;R. S. Raghavan covered recent developments inneutrino physics; C. N. R. Rao on ‘Graphene andbeyond’; and Carlo Rubbia on the non-baryonic darkmatter problem.

The Symposium as a whole was a magnificenttribute to the amazing vision and talents of HomiBhabha. These were particularly well captured bythe remarks of the Academy President, Prof. D.Balasubramanian in the Academy Session on thesecond day when he placed Bhabha within thepantheon of supremely gifted individuals the country

of the semitic faiths, and the more contemporary beliefin the existence of science-based answers to allquestions. He concluded with an appeal for balance inall discussions and debates on matters of technology,science and individual faiths.

The three Symposia covered 'Climate change: An Indianperspective', 'Navigation and communication – What we

can learn from insects', and 'Raman spectroscopy'. Eachof these included many presentations of uniformly high

quality, and presented all the important facets of eachtopic in complementary ways.

In addition to these special components of theprogramme, a number of lectures by recently electedFellows and Associates – 14 in all – were given. Theattendance was also very encouraging, as some 200Fellows and Associates and about 50 teacher inviteeswere present.

On this historic occasion in the life of the Academy, aseries of artistically designed panels displaying textsand photographs from the Archives were created and

produced in the late 19thand early-to-mid 20thcenturies, in many areasof creative endeavour.

The Academy togetherwith TIFR brought outa special publication titledHomi Jehangir Bhabha:Collected Scientific Paperswhich was released atthe Bhabha CentenarySymposium.

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TWENTY-FIRSTMID-YEAR MEETING

2 – 3 July 2010

Programme

2 July 2010 (Friday)

0930 – 1010 Session 1A – Special Lecture

T Padmanabhan, Inter-UniversityCentre for Astronomy and Astrophysics,Pune

Gravity: A new perspective

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

1010 G Rangarajan, Indian Institute ofScience, Bangalore

Synchronized extinction of speciesunder external forcing

1030 A K Kembhavi, Inter-University Centrefor Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune

Big Data – Is the end of observationalastronomy in sight?

1050 – 1120 Tea break

1120 Nitin Chattopadhyay, JadavpurUniversity, Kolkata

A facile strategy for the detection andestimation of cyanide ion in water

1140 T Karthikeyan, Indira Gandhi Centrefor Atomic Research, Kalpakkam

Grain boundary engineering of ferriticsteels

1200 Amit K Patra, National AtmosphericResearch Laboratory, Chittoor

High power radar probing of ionosphericplasma irregularities

1220 Shally Awasthi, CSM MedicalUniversity, Lucknow

Six – monthly vitamin A from 1 to 6years of age – DEVTA trial: Cluster-

randomized trial in one million childrenin North India

1240 Pradip K Chakraborti, Institute ofMicrobial Technology, Chandigarh

Understanding mycobacterial N-terminalmethionine excision pathway

1300 – 1430 Lunch break

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

1430 S K Khanduja, Panjab University,Chandigarh

Some extensions and applications ofEisenstein irreducibility criterion

1450 R Gopakumar, Harish-ChandraResearch Institute, Allahabad

The journey from Maxwell to Faraday

1510 B S Murty, Indian Institute ofTechnology, Chennai

Excitements and challenges in advancedmaterials research by non-equilibriumprocessing

1530 – 1600 Tea break

1600 P K Ghosh, Central Salt and MarineChemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar

Case studies of recent innovations inthe area of salt & marine chemicals

1620 S R Kotha, Indian Institute ofTechnology, Mumbai

Development of new synthetic methods

1640 Gautam Biswas, Central MechanicalEngineering Research Institute,Durgapur

Understanding drops

1700 Narendra Tuteja, International Centrefor Genetic Engineering & Bio-technology, New Delhi

A single subunit MCM from peafunctions as DNA helicase

1800 – 1900 Session 1D – Public Lecture

Shyam Benegal, Mumbai

Communications and culture. Tradition,modernity and post modernity in Indiancinema

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2010 ELECTIONS

FellowsVidya A ArankalleNational Institute of Virology, PuneArea: Virology, molecular biology andvaccine; hepatitis viruses; emerging-re-emerging viruses

Shally AwasthiChhatrapati Shahuji MaharajMedical University, LucknowArea: Paediatric pulmonology;infectious and parasitic diseases;clinical trials

A K BagIndian Journal of History of Science,Indian National Science Academy,New DelhiArea: History of mathematics,astronomy and technology in India

Purnima BhargavaCentre for Cellular and MolecularBiology, HyderabadArea: Biochemistry and molecularbiology; eukaryotic transcription;epigenetics and chromatin

S J BhattSardar Patel University, VallabhVidyanagarArea: Banach and topological algebra;operator algebras and application;harmonic analysis

Gautam BiswasIndian Institute of Technology, KanpurArea: Enhancement of heat transfer;computational fluid dynamics;bubble growth in film boiling;free surface flows; turbomachineryand turbulence

P K ChakrabortiInstitute of Microbial Technology,ChandigarhArea: Biochemistry and molecularbiology; molecular microbiology;prokaryotic signal transduction

3 July 2010 (Saturday)

0900 – 0940 Session 2A – Special Lecture

K N Ganesh, Indian Institute of ScienceEducation and Research, Pune

Bioinspired chemistry: from PNA ("Pune"Nucleic Acids) to DNA nanotechnology

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

0940 K S Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru Centrefor Advanced Scientific Research,Bangalore

Noise features in the bacteriorhodopsinphotocycle

1000 S Chattopadhyay, National Institute ofTechnology, Durgapur

Z-box binding factor in light signal-controlled plant growth and development

1020 – 1050 Tea break

1050 Apurva Sarin, National Centre forBiological Sciences, Bangalore

Surviving the crash: Mechanismsregulating cell number in the immune(T-cell) repertoire

1110 R Madhubala, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi

Identification of potential biomarkers forantimony susceptibility / resistance inclinical isolates of L. donovani

1130 Ashish K Lele, National ChemicalLaboratory, Pune

Linking macromolecular dynamics topolymer processing: Some case studies

1150 Tanusri Saha-Dasgupta, SN BoseNational Centre for Basic Sciences,Kolkata

Understanding physics and chemistryof complex materials: From first-principles calculations to materialsmodeling

1210 D Ramaiah, National Institute forInterdisciplinary Science & Technology,Thiruvananthapuram

Design of functional molecules forbiological applications

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B B ChattooM.S. University of Baroda, BarodaArea: Biotechnology, microbial andmolecular genetics; genomeanalysis; bioprocess development

Nitin ChattopadhyayJadavpur University, KolkataArea: Photophysics and photo-chemistry; time-resolvedspectroscopy; fluorosensing;photoacoustic spectroscopy

Debajyoti ChoudhuryUniversity of Delhi, DelhiArea: High energy physics

Amitava DasCentral Salt & Marine ChemicalsResearch Institute, BhavnagarArea: Supramolecular chemistryand assembly; molecular recognition;interfacial electron transfer

S K DasUniversity of Hyderabad, HyderabadArea: Coordination chemistry; metal-oxide based cluster chemistry; inorganicsupramolecular chemistry

Indranil DasguptaUniversity of Delhi South Campus,New DelhiArea: Molecular plant-virus interactions;transgenic viral resistance in plants;genome organization in plant viruses

R R DigheIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreArea: Molecular endocrinology;reproductive biology; biochemistry

Aparna Dutta-GuptaUniversity of Hyderabad, HyderabadArea: Insect physiology andbiochemistry; invertebrate endocrinologyand physiology; comparativephysiology and endocrinology

Sanjeev GalandeNational Centre for Cell Science,PuneArea: Chromatin biology; generegulation; genomics and proteomics

A K GanguliIndian Institute of Technology,New DelhiArea: Solid state andmaterials chemistry; nanomaterials;superconducting materials

Balaram GhoshInstitute of Genomics & IntegrativeBiology, DelhiArea: Immunology; genomics;gene regulation

Pushpito K GhoshCentral Salt and Marine ChemicalsResearch Institute, BhavnagarArea: Redox processes; colloid andemulsion science; process research

Rama GovindarajanJawaharlal Nehru Centre forAdvanced Scientific Research, BangaloreArea: Fluid mechanics

S A HaiderPhysical Research Laboratory,AhmedabadArea: Planetary atmospheres;ionosphere of Mars; magnetosphereof Mars

Abhaya IndrayanUniversity College of Medical Sciences,DelhiArea: Biostatistics; medical statistics;medical research methodology

S K KhandujaPunjab University, ChandigarhArea: Algebra; valuation theory;algebraic number theory

Paramjit KhuranaUniversity of Delhi South Campus,New DelhiArea: Plant biotechnology; comparativeplant genomics; molecular basis ofplant differentiation and morphogenesis

Ravinder Kumar KohliPanjab University, ChandigarhArea: Experimental ecology;weed science; plantation forestryand urban forestry

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Sambasivarao KothaIndian Institute of Technology, MumbaiArea: New synthetic methods;unnatural amino acids; transitionmetals in organic synthesis

Anurag KumarIndian Institute of Science,BangaloreArea: Communication networks;stochastic modelling; analysisand optimization of distributed systems

Lalit KumarAll India Institute of Medical Sciences,New DelhiArea: Stem cell transplantation;multiple myeloma (haemato-oncology);gynaecologic oncology

Ashish K LeleNational Chemical Laboratory,PuneArea: Polymer dynamics,rheology and processing;rheology of complex fluids;hydrogels and gelation processes

Kalobaran MaitiTata Institute of FundamentalResearch, MumbaiArea: Correlated electron systems;magnetism and superconductivity;electron spectroscopy

Birendra Nath MallickJawaharlal Nehru University,New DelhiArea: Neurobiology; physiology;sleep-wakefulness

Naba Kumar MondalTata Institute of FundamentalResearch, MumbaiArea: Experimental particle physics;accelerator based andnon-accelerator based particlephysics and neutrino physics

J Narasimha MoorthyIndian Institute of Technology, KanpurArea: Organic photochemistry;supramolecular chemistry;organic synthesis

Amitabha A MukhopadhyayNational Institute of Immunology,New DelhiArea: Cell biology; host-pathogeninteractions; drug delivery

D S NagarajThe Institute of MathematicalSciences, ChennaiArea: Mathematics; algebraicgeometry; vector bundles

K S NarayanJawaharlal Nehru Centre forAdvanced Scientific Research,BangaloreArea: Organic/polymer electronics;device physics; soft matter physics

R R NavalgundSpace Applications Centre,AhmedabadArea: Remote sensing; spaceapplications; magnetic resonance

A J PalIndian Association for theCultivation of Science, KolkataArea: Organic electronics; devicephysics; nanomaterials

S K PatiJawaharlal Nehru Centre forAdvanced Scientific Research,BangaloreArea: Quantum magnetism;generalized charge transfer;quantum methods development

A K PatraNational Atmospheric ResearchLaboratory, GadankiArea: Ionospheric electrodynamicsand plasma instabilities; space weather,radar probing techniques

D RamaiahNational Institute for InterdisciplinaryScience and Technology,ThiruvananthapuramArea: Photobiology; biophysicalchemistry; organic photochemistry

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K RamamrithamIndian Institute of Technology,MumbaiArea: Databases; real-time systems;use of information and communicationtechnologies for socio-economicdevelopment

V RamamurtiChennaiArea: Vibrations; stress analysis

Upadrasta RamamurtyIndian Institute of Science,BangaloreArea: Mechanical behaviour ofmaterials; advanced materials;nanotechnology

G RangarajanIndian Institute of Science,BangaloreArea: Nonlinear dynamics andchaos; time series analysis;brain machine interface

T S S R K RaoIndian Statistical Institute,BangaloreArea: Mathematics; functionalanalysis; geometry of Banach spaces

V RaviNIMHANS, BangaloreArea: Neurovirology;viral diagnostics; molecularepidemiology of viral infections

Tanusri Saha-DasguptaS.N. Bose National Centre forBasic Sciences, KolkataArea: Condensed matter physics;computational materials science;electronic structure calculations

Mohammad SamiJamia Millia Islamia, New DelhiArea: Cosmology, higher dimensionalgravity; high energy physics

S S SaneUniversity of Mumbai, MumbaiArea: Finite geometries;design theory; graph theory

R SankaranarayananCentre for Cellular andMolecular Biology, HyderabadArea: Structural biology; translationof the genetic code; enzyme mechanisms

Apurva SarinNational Centre forBiological Sciences, BangaloreArea: Immunology; cell biology;apoptosis

S K SatheeshIndian Institute of Science,BangaloreArea: Aerosols; radiation; climate

S K SharmaAll India Institute ofMedical Sciences, New DelhiArea: Internal medicine; pulmonaryand critical care medicine; sleep medicine

G V ShivashankarNational Centre forBiological Sciences, BangaloreArea: Biophysics; cell biology;gene expression

Sudeshna SinhaIndian Institute of Science Educationand Research, ChandigarhArea: Nonlinear dynamics; chaos;complex systems

R SowdhaminiNational Centre forBiological Sciences, BangaloreArea: Structural bioinformatics;protein domain superfamilies;genome-wide survey and functionalannotation of genes

K SubramanianInter-University Centre forAstronomy and Astrophysics, PuneArea: Cosmic magnetic fields;structure formation; cosmology

J S YadavIndian Institute ofChemical Technology, HyderabadArea: Total synthesis of biologicallyactive natural products; agrochemicalsand pheromones; development ofnew methodologies for sustainable chemistry

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SPECIAL ISSUESOF JOURNALS

Emerging and re-emerginginfections in India

Guest Editors: C C Kartha and U C Chaturvedi

Journal of Biosciences, Vol. 33, No. 4, November2008, pp. 423 – 628

Communicable diseasesaccount for nearly 45% ofadult disease burden anddeaths in Southeast Asiadespite the epidemio-logical transition to anincreasing burden ofchronic non-communi-cable diseases and not-withstanding the develop-ments in medical scienceand technology. Thus,they are of great concern.

What is more disturbing is that in recent times, thepattern and profile of infectious diseases have undergonea sea change in India and other Southeast Asiancountries. Re-emerging infections contribute substantiallyto morbidity and mortality from infectious causes. Whiletuberculosis, hepatitis, malaria and HIV/AIDS continueto dominate the disease incidence rates, we in India inaddition have to cope with the re-emergence of influenza,plague, malaria, dengue, leptospirosis and chikungunya.Also, we are confronted by novel viral infections suchas SARS and multi drug-resistant/extensively drugresistant tuberculosis. These diseases adversely impactfamilies, workforce productivity and economicdevelopment. They also present a formidable challengeto already resource-limited health systems, and call foran approach based on prevention and health promotion.

This special issue is an attempt to discuss the burdenof selected communicable diseases in India and analysethe causes for the changing pattern of these infectionsin this country. The causes include genetic mutationsin the infectious agent, ecological factors and factorsthat promote the transmission of infections. Otherreasons may be poor surveillance, inadequateunderstanding of the dynamics of spread of infections,insufficient use of available tools for infection controland inappropriate policy response to epidemics.

The articles in this issue cover a wide spectrum ofbacterial, viral and parasitic infections and delineate thechallenges for their prevention and control. The authors

are experts in their domains and share their opinionson strategies that might hold promise for prediction andcontrol of epidemics, and deliberate on measures forappropriate health system reforms.

Phenotypic and developmentalplasticity

Guest Editors: V Nanjundiah and Stuart A Newman

Journal of Biosciences, Vol. 34, No. 4, October 2009,pp. 493 – 646

One of the most excitingareas of research incontemporary biologyconcerns the attempt tounderstand the basis ofvariation in traits exhibitedby cells, groups of cells andindividual organisms. Untilrecently, it was taken forgranted that the onlysignificant source of variationfor evolution, and byimplication for all of biology,was genetic variation. Because it was assumed thatnon-genetic variation was of no relevance for evolutionarychange, this attitude persisted in spite of the long-standing evidence for the existence of variation due toenvironmental causes or alternative developmentalpathways. It is becoming increasingly clear that sucha viewpoint is no longer tenable. Indeed, what is referredto as the plasticity of the phenotype – multiplicity ofbiological form and function against a constant geneticbackground – is coming to occupy centre stage withregard to a large number of major issues in biology.

The existence of plasticity in the development andexpression of phenotype has ramifications for evolutionarytheory, causing a rethinking of some of the premises ofthe currently prevailing neo-Darwinian synthesis.Theoretical understanding of the genotype-phenotyperelationship, the potential of developmental mechanismsto generate novel phenotypes, and notions of robustnessand evolvability of development, increasingly invokeplasticity as a fundamental property of living systems.Although plasticity has a longer history in the behaviouralsciences, it is gaining new ground in this field as well,in considerations of development and evolution ofbehaviour.

Based on both the increasing interest in plasticity andthe new experimental and theoretical approaches toit, a meeting on "Phenotypic and developmentalplasticity" was held at Thiruvananthapuram, in December

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2007. This special issue contains articles based onmost of the presentations made at the meeting as wellas one on a similar theme solicited afterward.

India's fossil biota: Currentperspectives and emergingapproaches

Guest Editors: Sunil Bajpai and Ashok Sahni

Journal of Biosciences, Vol. 34, No. 5, November2009, pp. 647 – 823

to the assembly of southern continents calledGondwanaland, broke free from its moorings withMadagascar about 90 million years ago and driftedrapidly northwards as an isolated, island subcontinent.Later, around 50 million years ago (mya) it crashedinto Asia and literally pushed up the great HimalayanRange. The Indian fossil record has immenselycontributed to a better understanding of some of thefundamental aspects of biotic evolution that basicallyunderscore the role of major geodynamic events inthe earth's history during the course of biotic evolution.This special issue covers glimpses of the Indianfossil record from a variety of perspectives, withsome of the articles emphasizing the growing integrationof palaeontology with biogeography, molecularphylogenetics and biomechanics.

Theoretical chemistry andelectrochemistry

Guest Editors: M V Sangaranarayanan andK L Sebastian

In recent years, research inpalaeontology, or thescience of fossils, has seenone of the most challengingand exciting phases in itshistory. The spectrum ofscientific issues andthemes being addressedusing fossils is trulyremarkable, encompassingas it does such diverseperspectives as the dating

and correlation of rock formations, origin, evolution andextinction of biota, palaeogeography, palaeoclimates,form and function, and many others. More recentapproaches involve integration of the fossil data withmolecular phylogenetics, evolutionary developmentalbiology (evo-devo) and biomechanics. Also remarkableis the range of temporal and spatial resolution madepossible by the fossil data, with studies ranging fromindividual organisms to larger taxonomic assemblages;dental and bone microstructure to whole organisms;empirical to theoretical; local to global and qualitativeto quantitative.

This year is celebrated as the bicentennial birth ofCharles Darwin and also the birth of an idea that haschanged the way we look at life, its diversity and itsevolving dynamism. One of the pillars that hassteadfastly supported the idea of evolution is the fossilrecord. It provides a dimension so crucial in documentingevolution, the dimension of time. Time does not merelyafford information on when lineages diverged but alsoprovides insight into rates of processes, gradual or byfits and starts. In addition there is a spatial dimensionof how life spread across the globe and how extinctionsresult in biotic reorganization tuned to the new worldaround them.

The Indian subcontinent has a unique fossil history.This is because the Indian landmass, joined as it was

Journal of Chemical Sciences, Vol. 121, No. 5,September 2009, pp. 559 – 950

This special issue containspapers on theoreticalchemistry and electro-chemistry. These papershave been contributedby friends and formercollaborators of S KRangarajan who passedaway in April 2008. SKRhas contributed very signi-ficantly to these areas andthereby promoted thegrowth of these disciplinesin India. The contributions of SKR extended over aperiod of more than 50 years, during which he workedat the Central Electrochemical Research Institute,Karaikudi, the National Aerospace Laboratories,Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangaloreand the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.

SKR made significant contributions to (i) theory ofFaradaic rectification; (ii) effect of diffuse double layeron electrode kinetics; (iii) accelerated Tafel plots formeasuring rates of corrosion; (iv) estimation of the activitycoefficients for mixed electrolytes, beyond the Debye-Huckel theory and (v) novel identities for a class ofspecial functions of mathematical physics. As a HomiBhabha Fellow at NAL during 1970-75, Rangarajan

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embarked upon developing a systems analysis approachto all classes of electrochemical experiments (transientand steady state) with diverse input functions (linearand non-linear potential perturbations of diverse genre).This formalism encompasses almost all the individualexperimental behaviour arising from chronoamperometry,chronopotentiometry, cyclic voltammetry, impedancespectroscopy, etc. for various electron transfer processes,coupled with mass transfer effects. In addition, hedeveloped a comprehensive theory of electrical doublelayer employing statistical mechanical models andfunctional analysis, which occupies a central place ininterfacial electrochemistry.

The papers presented in this issue cover a broadspectrum of topics in theoretical chemistry such aselectronic structure calculations, quantum dynamics,magnetic properties, solvation dynamics and moleculardynamics. In electrochemistry, a variety of topics likeelectrochemical nanostructures, photoelectrochemistry,electron transfer, capacitors, etc are discussed. It ishoped that this issue of Journal of Chemical Scienceswill be a fitting tribute to the scientific genius ofSKR.

2nd International Symposium onMaterials Chemistry ISMC-2008

Guest Editors: D Das and V K Jain

Journal of Chemical Sciences, Vol. 122, No. 1,January 2010, pp. 5 – 89

Genetics of eye diseases

Guest Editors: Chitra Kannabiran and Kunal Ray

Journal of Genetics, Vol. 88, No. 4, December 2009,pp. 393 – 527

activities in materials chemistry. The ISMC-2008 coveredvarious aspects of materials chemistry with an emphasison areas such as nuclear materials, nano materials,functional materials, superconductivity, materials forcatalysis and chemical sensors. The ISMC-2008 wasregarded as highly successful by international peersand reviewers. The wide range of topics covered in thisspecial issue reflect the trends emerging in materialschemistry.

The special issue of thisjournal is based on thelectures delivered at the 2ndInternational Symposium onMaterials Chemistry (ISMC-2008) held in December2008 at Bhabha AtomicResearch Centre, Mumbai.

There is an ever increasingdemand for advancedmaterials necessitatingresearch and development

This issue features a widearray of articles relating togenetic as well as molecularand cellular aspects of eyediseases. The eye itself is amicrocosm in terms ofstructure, organization andfunction and hence, thetheme of 'eye disease' isnecessarily very diverse. Itincludes diseases that affecta wide range of tissues thattogether perform the functionof vision – from the highly specialized, multiple types ofneurons that constitute the retina which is the lightsensitive layer, the pigmented cells of the choroid, thesupporting vasculature, to the transparent refractivestructures of lens and cornea – varied yet complementaryin their roles. The field of ophthalmic geneticsencompasses this diversity not only in the location andmanifestation of different eye diseases but also in thespectrum of genetic causation. While the field has beenpredominantly concerned with rare Mendelian or singlegene disorders in the past, the current decade hasseen a burgeoning of the genetics of the more commoncomplex eye diseases. This trend reflects that of humangenetics as a whole. Technological advances over thelate 20th century have made it feasible to dissectgenetic components of varying magnitudes that makeup the etiology of complex diseases. Questions relatingto the role of genes in the etiology of common complexdiseases are as yet largely unanswered and the currentchallenges facing ophthalmic genetics are inunderstanding of the nature of genetic variations as wellas their role in causation of complex eye diseasessuch as adult-onset glaucoma, age-related maculardegeneration and age-related cataract. On the otherhand, the tools that have been established and currentlyavailable for studying Mendelian disorders have resultedin the identification of a large number of genes underlyingvarious forms of the inherited ocular disorders such ascorneal dystrophy, congenital cataract, retinaldegeneration and congenital and juvenile glaucoma. Therapid growth in identification of genes in this group ofeye diseases is illustrated very clearly in the case ofretinal degenerations, which are a large group of veryheterogeneous diseases of the retina, for which thenumber of mapped and/or identified genes grew from

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none to almost 200 spanning most of the last threedecades.

Since the goal of all gene identification endeavours isultimately to understand the pathogenesis of the disease,a major task accompanying gene discovery is functionalgenomics. This involves investigation of functions andinteractions of the proteins involved and theconsequences of mutation at the biochemical and sub-cellular levels. This is a continuous effort as more genesare identified for ocular diseases.

In this issue, the theme of genetics of eye diseases iscovered by articles that review the genetics of severaldisorders and also highlight areas of current interest inmolecular pathogenesis and therapy in relation to eyediseases.

DISCUSSION MEETING

Indo-Swedish 3rd meetingOrange County, Coorg

25 – 27 February 2010

Speakers:

Titles of lectures: (1) High kinetic energy photoemission in basic and

applied research; (2) Electronic structure of alkali doped tungsten

oxides, AxWO3; (3) Mn-doped ZnS nanocrystals: a unique testing

ground for high temperature dilute magnetism; (4) Ba3Fe1-xRu2+xO9: A magnetic study on a series of

hexagonal ruthenates; (5) Neutron reflectivity study of a two-dimensional

heterogeneous magnetic phase; (6) Antiferromagnetism at simple oxide surfaces

probed by magnetic spectro-microscopies; (7) Manipulating orbital symmetry and covalency in

ultrathin complex oxide superlattices; (8) Variation of exchange interactions and magnetism

with uniaxiality in MnAs thin films; (9) Magnetic and transport studies on the quasi one

dimensional spin-chain oxides Sr3MPtO6 (M=Cu,NI);

(10) Cationic disorder and magnetic glassiness inLa2-xSrxCuRuO6 (0 x 1) compounds;

(11) Unraveling the internal structure of complexnanocrystals: Spectroscopy beyond microscopy;

(12) Metal-insulator transition in sodium tungstenbronze;

(13) Drying mediated assembly of colloidal silicaparticles;

(14) From disappearance and appearance of ferro-electricity in some transition metal oxides;

(15) Disorder, competing interaction and glassymagnetisation behaviour;

(16) LaSrVMoO6: the story of a proposed half-metallic

antiferromagnet;(17) High-pressure Raman study of LiCu2O2 multiferroic

cuprate;(18) Tuning the properties of graphene by defects;(19) Scanning tunneling microscopy: beyond imaging;(20) New candidates for orbital ordering -p band oxides.

1) Olof C Karis

2) Satyabrata Raj

3) Somnath Jana

4) Srimanta Middey

5) Milan K Sanyal

6) Krishna K Menon

7) John W Freeland

8) Ronny Knut

9) Subham Mazumder

10) Anil K Puri

11) Pralay K Santra

12) Anirban Chakraborty

13) Sumanta Mukherjee

14) Debraj Choudhury

15) Per Nordblad

16) Sugata Ray

17) Matthias Hudl

18) Biplab Sanyal

19) Abhijit Hazarika

20) D D Sarma

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Marc Fontecave, Professeur au College de France,Chaire De Chimie Des Processus Biologiques, Membrede 1' Academie des Sciences, Cedex, the Academy'stwenty-sixth Raman Professor, was in India in April 2009for three weeks to take up the Chair. He visited IIT,Chennai and IICT, Hyderabad and delivered an Academypublic lecture on Hydrogen: Water, sun and catalystson 22 April 2009 in Bangalore.

RAMAN PROFESSOR

He was in India for three weeks in October-November2009 to complete his assignment. He also visited anddelivered lectures at Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and attendedthe Academy's Platinum Jubilee Meeting in November2009.

ACADEMY PUBLICLECTURES

Time, Einstein and the coolest stuff in theuniverse

William D Phillips

National Institute of Standards and Technology,Maryland, USA

23 January 2010, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore

contemporary life; atomic clocks, the best timekeepersever made. Such super-accurate clocks are essentialto industry, commerce, and science; they are theheart of the global positioning system which guidescars, airplanes, and hikers to their destinations. Today,atomic clocks are still being improved, using atomscooled to incredibly low temperatures. Atomic gasesreach temperatures less than a billionth of a degreeabove absolute zero, without freezing. Such atoms areat the heart of primary clocks accurate to better thana second in 80 million years as well as both using andtesting some of Einstein's strongest predictions.

This lecture included experimental demonstrations anddown-to-earth explanations about some of today's mostexciting science.

Cold atoms: Strongly correlated bosons

Gianni Blatter

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

10 February 2010, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore

At the beginning ofthe 20th century,Einstein changed theway we think aboutNature. At the begin-ning of the 21stcentury, Einstein'sthinking is shapingone of the keyscientific and techno-logical wonders of

The phenomena of condensation,superfluidity, and superconducti-vity, as well as the morespeculative supersolid state areamong the most fascinatingtopics of cold matter physics,be it in atomic or condensedform. The speaker reviewedthese phenomena and their interrelation and proceededwith a discussion of the youngest member in the family,the atomic Bose gas pushed into the strong correlationregime with the help of an optical lattice. The speakerdiscussed the phase diagram of the system, itsexcitations, and their relation to weakly interactingbosons, making use of various theoretical approaches.Emphasis was given to the relation to superfluids incondensed matter. The lecture was concluded with ashort discussion of a non-equilibrium system, thestrongly correlated polariton gas.

SUMMER RESEARCHFELLOWSHIPSPROGRAMME

Summer Research Fellowships Programme is run jointlyby the three national Science Academies of the country(IASc, Bangalore; INSA, New Delhi; NASI, Allahabad)since 2007. From small beginnings at IASc in 1995when only 3 fellowships were awarded, the programme

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has grown both in size and stature, and includes bothstudents and teachers.

The following figures for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009indicate the steady growth of this programme.

Students Teachers

Year Applied Offered Availed Applied Offered Availed

2007 3884 336 318 315 102 76

2008 5210 529 412 372 88 65

2009 7606 822 639 419 111 70

In 2010, the number of applications received was 11,082and after a rigorous scrutiny by expert committeesrepresenting the three Academies and differentdisciplines, a total of 1543 candidates have beenselected (185 teachers, 1358 students).

The following is a subjectwise break-up of the figuresfor 2010.

Applications received Fellowships offered

Subject Students Teachers Students Teachers

Life Sciences +Agriculture 4059 248 442 42

Engineering 2906 103 242 23

Chemistry 1566 126 265 41

Physics 1013 122 159 60

Earth Sciences 467 11 139 7

Mathematics 418 43 111 12

Total 10429 653 1358 185

The success of this Programme is mainly due to theassistance received from scientists in various institutionsacross the country who have most willingly offered toguide the summer fellows. The heads of theseinstitutions also helped by extending the necessaryfacilities enabling the students and teachers to carryout their project work and contributing to the growthand improvement of science education in the country.

All the day-to-day work connected with this Programmeis handled at IASc, Bangalore. Also, most of the tasksconnected with this Programme such as receipt ofapplications, correspondence with the guides andsummer fellows as well as fellowships payable tostudents and teachers are now handled either online orthrough email.

In the next issue of Patrika, we hope to give someanalysis of the fellowships offered in 2010.

REFRESHER COURSESJointly sponsored by IASc (Bangalore)

INSA (New Delhi) andNASI (Allahabad)

A brief outline of the refresher course in ExperimentalPhysics which was initiated in 2001, with thespecific objective of developing simple, but effective,experiments at low cost with the aim of improvingthe laboratory programs in colleges and universitiesacross India, and to impart training in doing advancedexperiments in Physics. Over the years, newexperiments have been added and improvements tofirst circuits have been made. The Refresher Course inExperimental Physics, has been well acceptedin various universities across India, and manyuniversities have introduced these experiments intheir curriculum.

1. Experimental Physics – XVIOsmania University, Hyderabad26 June – 11 July 2009

No. of participants: 20

Course Director: R Srinivasan (Bangalore)

Course Co-ordinator: P Kistaiah (Osmania University,Hyderabad)

Resource Persons: N Satyavati, M Nagabhushanam,G Prasad, R Sayanna, M V Ramana Reddy,M Laxmipathi Rao, P Venu Gopal Reddy andK Narasimha Reddy (Osmania University, Hyderabad)

Seventeen lectures on how to perform experiments, thetheory behind the experiment, the calculations and finalconclusions and 3 special lectures were given. Feedbackwas collected from all participants at the end of thecourse.

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were delivered. An evening talk on "Rivers Mandoviand Zuari" was also delivered by Satish Shetye(NIO, Goa).

An experimental kit on behalf of the threeacademies was presented to the Principal of the hostCollege.

3. Experimental Physics – XVIIIUniversity of Calicut, Calicut23 November – 8 December 2009

No. of participants: 29

Course Director: R Srinivasan (Bangalore)

Course Co-ordinator: Antony Joseph (University ofCalicut, Calicut)

Resource Persons: Antony Joseph, P P Pradyumnan,M M Musthafa, C D Ravikumar (University of Calicut,Calicut)

In his key note address, Prof. Srinivasan explained thepurpose and plan of the course.

Seventeen laboratory sessions were conducted duringwhich the participants carried out 15 experiments. Therewere 3 discussion sessions in which R Srinivasananswered the questions from the participants andexplained the salient aspects to be taken care of indesigning some of the experiments. In addition to this,three special lectures were delivered by the faculty ofthe department.

2. Experimental Physics – XVIICarmel College for Women, Nuvem, Goa26 October – 9 November 2009

No. of participants: 31

Course Director: R Srinivasan (Bangalore)

Course Co-ordinator: Efrem D'Sa (Carmel College,Nuvem, Goa)

Resource Persons: K R S Priolkar, S M Sadique,Manohar Naik, Efrem D'Sa (Carmel College, Nuvem,Goa)

In this refresher course, two new experiments wereintroduced for the first time, namely Young's modulusby vibrating cantilever and B-H curve which wereperformed in a totally simple and easy method. Theparticipants performed a total of 16 experiments alongwith necessary calculations. Four special lectures

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R Jaganathan discussed how linear partial differentialequations can be variable separated and solved. Thesituations under which ordinary differential equationscan be obtained were also discussed. He also explainedhow homogenous differential equations with non-homogenous boundary conditions can be transformedto nonhomogenous differential equations withhomogenous boundary conditions. The solution ofnonhomogenous differential equations using Green'sfunction was also explained with examples.

Simon discussed quantum entanglement in twolevel systems, building the logic of analysis fromfundamental postulates of quantum mechanics.He explained how teleportation is not violatingthe uncertainty principle. He also discussed thepolarization optics taking two orthogonally polarizedstates as qubits and its significance to quantumcomputation.

A V Gopala Rao of Mysore University lectured onrelativistic electrodynamics. He gave a series of lectureson the Minkowski space and relativistic particlemechanics. He clearly explained the basic features ofrelativity theory and its various consequences. He alsoconcluded the tutorial sessions.

S Chaturvedi gave a series of 8 lectures on statisticalmechanics and thermodynamics. In addition heconducted tutorial sessions also. Chaturvedi explainedvery lucidly the basic principles underlying thedevelopment of statistical mechanics, the methodologiesinvolved and the consequences thereof. He cleared manyof the doubts on the fundamentals for both the teachersand students.

4. Theoretical PhysicsBishop Moore College, Mavelikara7 – 19 December 2009

No. of participants: 49

Course Director: M Lakshmanan (BharathidasanUniversity, Tiruchirapalli)

Course Co-ordinator: Thomas Kuruvilla (Bishop MooreCollege, Mavelikara)

Resource Persons: S Chaturvedi (University ofHyderabad, Hyderabad), A V Gopala Rao, K S Mallesh(University of Mysore, Mysore), R Jaganathan, R Simon(Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai),N Mukunda (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore),M Lakshmanan (Bharathidasan University,Thiruchirappalli).

During the course M Lakshmanan gave an overview ofclassical mechanics and its various formulations. Heexplained the effect of nonlinearities on dynamicalsystems and explained how to study the nonlinearproblems. The models like logistic map and nonlinearoscillators were discussed in depth and he explainedthe sensitive dependence on initial conditions. He alsoexplained how the linear systems can give rise to solitarywaves and solitons and discussed the basic theory ofsolitons.

P M Mathews gave a series of lectures on how classicalmechanics, especially rotation dynamics, can be appliedto the earth dynamics and how various geographicalphenomena and observational data can be explainedsystematically through careful theoretical analysis.

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N Mukunda delivered several illuminating lectures onvector spaces, tensors and group theory. He explainedlucidly the various symmetry groups and theirsignificance with the teachers.

K S Mallesh gave an elaborate account of quantummechanical perturbation theory, with particular referenceto time dependent systems.

Books on Mathematical methods by Arfken and quantumcomputation by Nielsen, were distributed to all theparticipants. One of the following sets of bookswere distributed to the MSc student participantsviz. Feynman Lecture Series; University Physics byZemansky Sears; Vignettes in Physics series byG Venkataraman.

5. Experimental physics – XIXKarnatak University, Dharwad4 – 20 January 2010

Course Director: R. Srinivasan

Course Co-ordinator: N Sankeswar(Karnatak University, Dharwad)

improve their basic knowledge and teaching skills. Itwas planned with the purpose of exposing them to themodern techniques of biotechnology and molecularbiology. After a brief introduction to molecularbiology and biotechnology, the following lectures weredelivered: 'Why study restriction enzymes'; 'Meta-genomics: a fascinating area of microbiology'; 'Genomicsand ethics of human cloning'; 'Gene expression analysis'.'the applications of laser biology and medicine'; 'Geneticsand human diseases' and 'Introduction to stem cell andapplications'; and various aspects of PCR techniqueswere explained.

Demonstrations and hands-on experiments werealso conducted for the participants during thiscourse. They include genomic DNA; bacterial cultureand plasmid isolation; chemical transformation andelectroporation experiments; micronucleus assay;chromosomal aberration assay; comet assay; H2AXassay; flow cytometry; cell-cycle analysis and immune-phenotyping experiments; dye exclusion assay;MTT assay; clonogenic assay or colony formationassay; LDH leakage assay; cell culture techniques;karyotype preparation from peripheral blood; isolationand estimation of proteins; plant tissue culture.

6. Biotechnology and modernmolecular biology techniquesManipal Life Sciences Centre, Manipal University,Manipal11 – 23 January 2010

No. of participants: 21

Course Director: V. Nagaraja (IISc, Bangalore)

Course Co-ordinator: K. Sathyamoorthy, Manipal LifeSciences Centre, Manipal University, Manipal

Resource Persons: P N Rangarajan, V Nagaraja,K P Gopinathan, P Kondaiah, Kumaravel Soma-sundaram (IISc, Bangalore), U V Shenoy, Girish Katta,M R Kumar (Kasturba Medical College, Manipal), IndraniKarunasagar (College of Fisheries, Mangalore), UllasKamath (Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal),Kemparaj, K Satyamoorthy, P M Gopinath, AMuthusamy, T S Murali, Reena Reshma D'Souza, B SSatish Rao, Shyamaprasad Sajankila, KamleshMumbrekar, K P Guruprasad, Bharath Prasad, MRajashekar, Premalatha Shetty, Herman D'Souza,Padmalatha S Rai, T G Vasudevan, Roopa Nayak,K S Babitha, K K Mahato, Vidhu Sankar Babu, SaadiAbdul Vahab, K Shama Prasada, Prashantha Hebbar,K Manoj Bhat (Manipal Life Sciences Centre, Manipal),Vishal G Warke (Mumbai).

The main aim of the course was to provide theparticipants the opportunity to sharpen their skills and

LECTURE WORKSHOPSJointly sponsored by IASc (Bangalore),INSA (New Delhi) and NASI (Allahabad)

1. Recent trends in mathematicsand its applicationsBishop Cotton Women's Christian College,Bangalore9 October 2009

Convener: Mythily Ramaswamy, TIFR-CAM, Bangalore

Co-ordinator: G. Muniraj, Bishop Cotton Women'sChristian College, Bangalore

Speakers: Mythily Ramaswamy, C S Aravinda, AmitApte (TIFR-CAM, Bangalore), M V Deshpande (JNCASR,Bangalore).

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Participants: 150.

Topics covered: Story of optimization; nonlineardifferential equation; applications of differential equations;milestones in the evolution of geometry from Euclid toPerelman.

2. Biotechnology in modernmedicinePES College, Bangalore23 – 24 October 2009

Convener: V. Nagaraja, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore

Co-ordinator: S L Shantha, PES College, Bangalore

Speakers: G. Padmanaban, Saumitra Das, Arun Kumar,P N Rangarajan, V Ravi, P Kondaiah, AnnapoorniRangarajan, Dipshika Chakravorty, Parag Sadhale,V. Nagaraja (IISc, Bangalore)

Participants: 250

Topics covered: Molecular medicine; viral therapeutics;analysis of human genetic disorders; traditional, modernand futuristic vaccines; viral diagnostics and swineflu; biomarkers in diagnosis and prognosis of cancer;

stem cells and cancer; strategies to counter bacterialinfections; diagnosis and control of fungal infections;strategies to counter resurgent TB.

3. Nano-materials and technologyin chemistry and green chemistrySikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim23 – 25 October 2009

Convener: Mihir K Chaudhuri, Tezpur University, Sikkim.

Co-ordinator: Amlan Kumar Das, Sikkim ManipalInstitute of Technology, Sikkim.

Speakers: Mihir Kanti Chaudhuri, Pritam Deb (TezpurUniversity, Sikkim), Sanjay Bhar (Jadavpur University,Kolkata), B C Ranu, S Ghosh (IACS, Kolkata), AjayJha, Sushobhan Choudhury, Sanjay Dahal, SangeetaJha (SMIT, Sikkim), Panchanan Pramanik (IIT,Kharagpur), Arun Chattopadhyay, B K Patel (IIT,Guwahati), R K Sharma (Delhi University).

Participants: 89.

Topics covered: Imperatives of green chemistry –practices in teaching, research and industries; organicreactions in the perspective of green chemistry; greenchemistry in research and teaching; high performancepolymeric nano composite and nano adhesive and itsperformance under space environments; palladium andcopper nanoparticles as efficient, green and selectivecatalysts for organic reactions; nano-particles and theirpharmaceutical applications; cooking nanomaterialsfor tomorrow; soft chemistry for nanomaterials;multifaceted opportunities in nanoscale science andtechnology; green chemistry with iodine, Cu and OATB;application of functionalized magnetic and optical nano-particle for diagnostics and separation methodologies;carbohydrates as renewable feedstocks; investigationon mechanical and electrical properties of carbonnanotube and other nanostructured materials; green

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chemistry education; metal organic frameworks; greenchemistry experiments; nanomaterials-current and futuretechnological applications.

4. Capacity building for canopyscience research in IndiaAshoka Trust for Research in Ecology and theEnvironment, Bangalore31 October – 2 November 2009

Convener: K N Ganeshaiah, UAS, Bangalore.

Co-ordinator: M Soubadra Devy, ATREE, Bangalore.

Speakers: Jan Wolf (Holland), Roger Kitching (Australia),Margaret Lowman (USA), Jagdish Krishnaswamy(ATREE, Bangalore), Nathan Philips (Boston University),Tim Kovar (North-West Tree Climbing).

Topics covered: Canopy science; epiphytes inthe canopy; canopy arthropods; research design incanopy; eco-physiology studies; methods of safeaccess and working in the canopy.

5. The idea of evolutionIndian Institute of Science, Bangalore24 November 2009

Convener: V Nanjundiah, IISc, Bangalore.

Co-ordinators: Najla Arshad, Subash Chandra Verma(IISc, Bangalore).

Speakers: V Nanjundiah, Rohini Balakrishnan, ReneeBorges (IISc, Bangalore), Ashok Sahni (PunjabUniversity, Chandigarh), K N Ganeshaiah (UAS,Bangalore), S G Kulkarni (University of Hyderabad,Hyderabad).

Participants: 180.

Topics covered: Where are we today?; planet earth:an oasis in space; behaviour in plants: what wouldbe Darwin's response?; Darwin, mind and emotion;the descent of man; the texture of Darwinian theory.

6. Planet GJai Hind College, Mumbai24 – 25 November 2009

Convener: Tarala D Nandedkar

Co-ordinator: Yasmina Dordi Avari

Speakers: L S Shashidhara (IISER, Pune), RoshanColah (NIIH, Mumbai), P S Amare (TMH, Mumbai),Shubha Tole (TIFR, Mumbai), Nishigandha Naik(Mumbai), Deepak Modi (NIRRH, Mumbai).

Participants: 325.

Topics covered: Transgenic approaches to under-standing brain development; antisense therapy –mission possible or impossible?; RNAi and itsapplications; recent advances in cytogenetics; genomicand proteomic approaches to understanding organdevelopment in Drosophila; thalassaemia: a geneticdisorder.

7. Contemporary issues in biologyUniversity of Mysore, Mysore3 – 4 December 2009

Convener: H A Ranganath, NAAC, Bangalore andJ Nagaraju, CDFD, Hyderabad

Co-ordinators: S R Ramesh and N B Ramachandra,University of Mysore, Mysore

Speakers: Daniel L Hartl (Harvard University, USA),J Nagaraju (CDFD, Hyderabad), Umesh Varshney, UshaVijayRaghavan, P N Rangarajan (IISc, Bangalore),R S Gupta (McMaster University, Canada), Mewa

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Singh (University of Mysore), T Kundu (JNCASR,Bangalore).

Participants: 450.

Topics covered: Microorganisms, genomes and thehistory of food; sex matters; mechanism of proteinsynthesis in Eubacteria; genome sequences and theoutlines of bacterial evolution; regulation of geneexpression in humans: implications in disease andtherapeutics; the making of a flowering stem: lessonsfrom molecular genetic analysis of flowering inmodel plants; development of recombinant vaccines forhepatitis B and rabies – the IISc experience; discerningecological principles from species diversity andspatiotemporal distribution.

8. Evolutionary biology: Darwinand beyondSt. Aloysius College, Mangalore17 – 20 December 2009

Convener: V Nanjundiah, IISc, Bangalore.

Co-ordinator: Monika Sadananda, St. Aloysius College,Mangalore.

Speakers: V Nanjundiah, S Mahadevan, Ratna Ghosal,Mahua Ghara, Santhosh Sathe, Subhash Verma, JahnaviJoshi (IISc, Bangalore).

Participants: 123.

Topics covered: How we understand evolution;the origin of variations; spontaneous mutations andnatural selection; development and social behaviourin cellular slime moulds; mutalism; proximate vsultimate principles underlying animal behaviour;phylogeny and character evolution; molecular biologyand evolution.

9. Recent advances inspectroscopy: theory,instrumentation and applicationsLady Doak College, Madurai18 – 19 January 2010

Convener: E Arunan (IISc, Bangalore).

Co-ordinator: Geetha Sivasubramanian (Lady DoakCollege, Madurai).

Speakers: K L Sebastian, E Arunan, S Umapathy (IISc,Bangalore), Mangalasunder K (IIT, Chennai), AnunaySamanta (University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad),Wategaonkar (TIFR, Mumbai).

Participants: 127.

Topics covered: Quantum states; why moleculesabsorb/emit radiation; study of short-lived species:electronically excited molecules and photochemicaltransient fundamentals; spectroscopy of moleculesand clusters: neutrals; femtosecond spectroscopy;spectroscopy of molecules and clusters: ions; rotationalvibrational interactions; wave packet formalism inspectroscopy; molecular beam microwave spectro-scopy.

10. Frontiers in biologySt Xavier's College, Mumbai18 – 19 January 2010

Convener: Shobhona Sharma, TIFR, Mumbai.

Co-ordinator: Sheela Donde, St Xavier's College,Mumbai.

Speakers: Shubha Tole (TIFR, Mumbai), Swati Patankar(IIT, Mumbai), Chaitanya Purandare (Pune),L S Shashidhara (IISER, Pune), Narendra Jawali (BARC,Mumbai), Rita Mulherkar (ACTREC, Mumbai), ViditaVaidya (TIFR, Mumbai).

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Participants: 208.

Topics covered: The blueprint for building the brain;molecular markers and their applications in plantbiology; regulation of gene expression in P. falciparum;gene therapy: an emerging modality for treatmentof cancer; stem cell therapy; the emotional brain:imprints of life history; behavioural adaptation andevolution.

11. Structure, function and designof biomoleculesBharathiar University, Coimbatore28 – 29 January 2010

Convener: D N Rao, IISc, Bangalore.

Co-ordinator: N Sundara Baalaji, Bharathiar University,Coimbatore.

Speakers: D N Rao, M R N Murthy (IISc, Bangalore),Jayant B Udgaonkar, M K Mathew (NCBS, Bangalore),S Krishnaswamy (MKU, Madurai), P Gautam (AnnaUniversity, Chennai), A Arockiasamy (ICGEB, New Delhi),Amitabha Chattopadhyay (CCMB, Hyderabad).

Participants: 260.

Topics covered: Restriction enzymes as modelsystems to study protein-DNA interactions; how doproteins unfold; form and function in a membrane protein:voltage-driven transitions in a potassium channel;structure and assembly of sebania mosaic virus;structural studies on enterobacterial membrane proteins;molecular dynamics simulation of lipases; crystalstructure of a plasmid fertility inhibition factor and itsimplications in horizontal gene transfer in bacteria; theworld of membrane proteins.

12. Projections 2010: A workshopin mathematicsSt. Joseph's College, Bangalore5 – 6 February 2010

Convener: Mythily Ramaswamy, TIFR-CAM, Bangalore

Co-ordinator: Renee D'Souza, St. Joseph's College,Bangalore

Speakers: Seema Nanda, Mythily Ramaswamy,C S Aravinda (TIFR-CAM, Bangalore), Siva Athreya (ISI,Bangalore), Sujatha Ramdorai (TIFR, Mumbai).

Participants: 94.

Topics covered: Mathematical biology; random walks;topology; groups and equations; geometry.

13. Animal biology andbiotechnology

S N Vanita Maha Vidyalaya, Hyderabad8 – 9 February 2010

Convener: A S Raghavendra, Aparna Dutta Gupta,

University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad.

Co-ordinator: G Y Bhargavi, S N Vanita Maha

Vidyalaya, Hyderabad.

Speakers: D Balasubramanian (LVPEI, Hyderabad),

P Prakash Babu, Aparna Dutta Gupta (University of

Hyderabad), Mahtab S Bamji (Hyderabad); P Judson,

Shobanaditya (Osmania University, Hyderabad).

Participants: 371.

Topics covered: History of genetics – past and present;Nobel Prizes-2009 diet, nutrition and health – challenges

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15. Frontiers in bioinorganicchemistryBharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli25 – 27 February 2010

Convener: M Palaniandavar, Bharathidasan University,Tiruchirappalli.

Co-ordinator: C Sivasankar, Bharathidasan University,Tiruchirappalli.

Speakers: M Palaniandavar (Bharathidasan University,Tiruchirappalli); T K Chandrashekar (NISER,Bubaneswar); S Sarkar, R N Mukherjee (IIT, Kanpur);C P Rao (IIT, Mumbai); S Mazumdar (TIFR, Mumbai);B U Nair, V Subramanian (CLRI, Chennai); A Raja (LeidenUniversity, The Netherlands).

Participants: 175.

and opportunities; changing world of poisons; recentadvances in stem cell research; molecular targets foreco-friendly insect pest management.

14. Modern trends in chemistrySt. Joseph's College, Irinjalakuda24 – 25 February 2010

Convener: K George Thomas, NIIST, Thiruvanantha-puram.

Co-ordinator: Rosabella K Puthur, St. Joseph's College,Irinjalakuda.

Speakers: Suresh Das, D Ramaiah (NIIST,Thiruvananthapuram), Kana M. Sureshan (IISER,Thiruvananthapuram), K L Sebastian, A G Samuelson(IISc, Bangalore).

Participants: 138.

Topics covered: Photoresponsive materials; design offunctional systems for biomolecular recognitions;reaction mechanisms in organometallic chemistry;dynamical processes in chemical biology: is theboundary between chemistry and biology fading?

Topics covered: Evolutionary bioinorganic chemistry;bioinorganic chemistry: an introduction; metallo-proteases; metal-coordinated radicals; photodynamictherapy; modelling phosphate ester hydrolysis; molecularmodelling of bioinorganic system; nickel containingenzymes and conjugates of carbohydrates and calyx[4] arene.

16. Diffraction and scatteringUniversity of Mysore, Mysore26 – 28 February 2010

Convener: R Srinivasan (Bangalore)

Co-ordinator: L Paramesh, University of Mysore,Mysore

Speakers: B A Dasannacharya (Mumbai), B V R Tata(IGCAR, Kalpakkam), M R N Murthy (IISc, Bangalore)

Participants: 100.

Topics covered: Neutron diffraction and theirapplications from materials; light scattering from

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18. Aspects of theoretical chemistryand spectroscopySree Neelakanta Govt. Sanskrit College, Pattambi25 – 26 March 2010

Convener: K L Sebastian, IISc, Bangalore.

Co-ordinator: M R Resmi, SNGS College, Pattambi.

Speakers: E Arunan, K L Sebastian (IISc, Bangalore),K Mangala Sunder (IIT, Madras), Ayan Datta (IISER,Thiruvananthapuram)

Participants: 134.

Topics covered: Basic principles of spectroscopy –I & II; theoretical aspects of spectroscopy – I & II; thestrange and beautiful world of quantum mechanics;tunneling in organic and organometallic reactions;molecular motors; understanding structures of cavitiesat the nanoscale.

19. Contemporary issues inchemistryVisveswarapura College of Science, Bangalore26 – 27 March 2010

Convener: H A Ranganath, NAAC, Bangalore

Co-ordinator: K G Srinivasamurthy, VisveswarapuraCollege of Science, Bangalore

Speakers: G Padmanaban, E N Prabhakaran, K J Rao,S Chandrasekaran (IISc, Bangalore), Hema Balaram,Subi Jacob George, Tapas K Kundu, M Eswaramurthy(JNCASR, Bangalore).

Participants: 211.

materials; X-ray diffraction and crystal structure proteincrystallography.

17. Research paradigms incommunication and dataengineeringDr G R Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore18 – 19 March 2010

Convener: Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT, Madras.

Co-ordinator: K Vanitha Sidambaranathan, Coimbatore.

Speakers: M V Pitke (Mumbai), T Devi (BharathiarUniversity, Coimbatore), V S Patwardhan (OpsimSoftware, Pune), V Saravanan (Dr NGP Instituteof Technology, Coimbatore), K Giridhar (IIT, Madras),D S Nagaraj (IMSc, Chennai), T Senthilkumar (AmritaSchool of Engineering, Coimbatore), V Thavavel (KarunyaUniversity, Coimbatore)

Participants: 100.

Topics covered: Next generation network researchissues; research issues in data engineering; designand development of process simulators; inclusivecomputing using data mining; wireless broadbandnetworks; computational modeling; NS2-principles andhands on training; data mining using matlab & polyanalystand hands-on training.

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per cent by mid-century. To avoid a catastrophic energyshortage by mid-century, these fuels must be replacedby ecologically acceptable and sustainable alternatives.Solar and wind power appear to be the most promisingcandidates. Although, at the present time they constituteonly ~ 2 per cent of the global energy consumption,their production has recently been rising by a spectacular30 to 40% per year, or a factor of 15 per decadeand 225 in 20 years. This arithmetic suggests thatthe entire deficit stemming from the impendingexhaustion of oil and gas might be compensated inabout 10 to 20 years by continuing aggressivecommitment to solar and wind energy. The lectureexamined this speculation. It provides useful guidelinesfor the second half of the century and beyond. Atthe same time, there is a very serious energy deficitduring the one to two decades of transition from thepresent (oil-gas)-era to the (sol-wind)-era, which willrequire additional measures.

2. MADHAV GADGIL (Agharkar Research Institute,Pune).

'Major transitions in evolution'.

29 October 2009, UGC Academic Staff College, MizoramUniversity, Aizawl.

4 November 2009, West Bengal State University,Barasat.

Summary: For the last 3.8 billion years, life hasflourished on planet earth, expanding and diversifying. Ithas led to the evolution of ever more complex organisms,and animal societies, along with evolution of new formsof replicating entities, memes and artefacts. Itsculmination in the present day information andcommunication technology, has brought us tothe threshold of another major transition, that tohuman societies with global access to entire stockof human knowledge.

Topics covered: Chemistry-biology interface; peptidesand small molecules in nano-technological applications;protein engineering; one dimensional nano tubesand their applications; green chemistry Copenhagenmeet on climatic changes; supra molecular synthesis;chemical biology and nano technology approachto understand human gene expression – implicationsin disease and therapeutics; green chemistry incatalysis.

PLATINUM JUBILEEPROGRAMMES

Platinum Jubilee specialpublication

To mark the historicPlatinum Jubilee year2009, the Academyinvited several of itsdistinguished Fellowsfrom different areas ofspecialization to puttogether expert reviewson chosen themes,giving a snapshot ofthe state of science.The 42 articles inthis special issue titled

“Current Trends in Science” cover seven major areas,all of them written and edited with care. (The 5contributions in Physics have additionally appeared ina special issue of Pramana, so as to increase theirvisibility).

Platinum Jubilee Lectures

1. WALTER KOHN (Department of Physics, Universityof California, Santa Barbara, USA).

'A world predominantly powered by solar and windenergy'.

23 October 2009, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Summary: It is widely recognized that the fossil fuels,oil and natural gas, which currently provide almost 60%of the world's energy consumption, will be largelyexhausted in a few decades. At the same time, worldpopulation will have increased by an estimated 30 to 40

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3. JÉRÔME LAVE (Centre de RecherchesPétrographiques et Géochimiques, Nancy, France).

'Mountain building: life and death of mountainrange'.

5 November 2009, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore.

Summary: How do mountain ranges grow and decay?How long do their topographies last? What sets theelevation of the high peaks of the Himalayas and of theother mountains on Earth? How do large orogenicplateaus like the Tibetan plateau form, and why some

type of rock exposed at the surface. For twenty years,major advances in characterising the physics of erosionprocesses, in measuring denudation rates and innumerical modelling have brought new quantitativeunderstanding on how mountain ranges evolve modulatedby the feedbacks between tectonics, climate anderosion. These most recent views, putting a particularemphasis on the Himalaya-Tibet collision zone, werepresented.

4. RÜDIGER WEHNER (University of Zurich,Switzerland).

'Desert ant navigation: mini brains – mega tasks –smart solutions'.

10 November 2009, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore.

other ranges are much narrower? If the emergence ofthe plate tectonics theory in the 60s has permittedexplanation of the primary engine or internal forces thatcontribute to building topographies, the progressiverecognition in the 90s of the role of erosion in theevolution of the mountain ranges has revolutionized thetectonics and geomorphology fields. The erosion notonly creates relief with deep valleys and sharp peaks,it also contributes during the active phase of mountainbuilding to stabilize the topography toward a dynamicequilibrium through several negative feedback loops orcoupling between internal and external processes. Thiscoupling arises because erosion depends on topographywhile denudation influences tectonic processes bymodifying the Earth's surface through mass redistributioni.e., by changing the stress state in the orogenic wedge,which in turn induces an internal (or tectonic) responseto try to restore the initial wedge geometry. The evolutionof a mountain range, its mean and maximum elevation,as well as its width or its eventual shape asymmetry,are all dictated by this subtle balance or imbalancebetween mass addition from tectonic processes andmass removal from erosion. As a consequence, thecharacteristics of any mountain range not only reflectthe tectonic convergence rates across the collision zoneand the thermal state of the deforming crust, but alsothe climate intensity, the precipitation distribution, the

Summary: How does a 0.1 mg brain housed in a 10mg insect solve complex computational tasks, whichwe humans would be able to accomplish only withGPS devices? In trying to answer this question thetalk focussed on the extraordinary navigational skillsof visually guided desert ants, Cataglyphis. Whatdoes the compass and the odometer that the antemploys look like? Is the spatial information providedby the ant's path integrator and landmark guidanceroutine integrated into a cognitive map? A multi-disciplinary approach combining behavioural andneurophysiological studies with computer simulationsand robotics implementations is used to tackle suchquestions. The result is that Cataglyphis uses anumber of dedicated neural systems that deal withparticular aspects of the animal's overall navigationaltask. One of these navigational toolkits is the pathintegrator by which the ant is continually informedabout its current position relative to the starting pointof its journey. In addition to path integration, Cataglyphisemploys various mechanisms of landmark guidance

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such as snapshot matching and visual route following.Finally, however, these various kinds of informationacquired by the path-integration and landmark–memory routines are not knitted together in a staticmetric map, but are flexibly used in context-dependentways. To employ procedural rather than positionalknowledge of its environment – to know what todo when encountering a given signpost rather thanwhere this signpost is within a survey map – is theinsect's way of getting around in its visual world.

5. DANIEL L HARTL (Higgins Professor of Biology,Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,Harvard University, Cambridge, USA)

(a) 'Microorganisms, genomes, and the history offood'.

6. H EUGENE STANLEY (Departments of Physics andChemistry, Boston University, Boston, USA).

(a) 'Liquid water, the most complex liquid'.

17 December 2009, Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch, Mumbai.

Summary: The strange properties of water, the mostcomplex liquid were discussed. Recent progress inunderstanding some of its anomalous properties hasbeen achieved by combining information from recentexperiments and simulations on water in bulk,nanoconfined, and biological environments. The unusualbehaviour of water in biological environments, andwhether liquid water can exist in two different phases;and the useful analogies between water and other liquids,such as silicon, silica, and carbon, as well as metallicglasses were also discussed.

(b) 'Economic fluctuations and statistical physics:quantifying extremely rare and much less rareevents'.

18 December 2009, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore.

3 December 2009, RaniBahadur Auditorium,University of Mysore,Manasagangotri, Mysore.

Summary: An overview ofmajor innovations in thehistory of food, includingcooking, social rituals,domestication, selectivebreeding, trading, global exchange, agribusiness, andgenetic modification was presented. Microorganismshave long been essential in the production of andpreservation of foods, and the focus is on the specialrole of budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiaein producing ethyl alcohol, whose mind-altering,analgesic, disinfectant, and preservative propertiesmade it the most widespread drug and medicine ofantiquity.

(b) 'Natural history of the malaria parasite and itsgenome'.

7 December 2009, DST Auditorium, University ofHyderabad, Hyderabad.

Summary: Malaria is endemic in tropical regions ofmany countries with a population at risk of 3.3 billion.A history of the disease from its origin in primateancestors through its earliest recorded presence inhumans to the present was presented. High levels ofgenetic variation allow the malaria parasite to overcomedrugs and escape vaccines. Results with next-generationDNA sequencing and genotyping technologiesdemonstrate the potential to discover drug resistancebefore it spreads.

Summary: Recent analysis of truly huge quantities ofempirical data suggests that classic economic theoriesfail not only for a few outliers, but that there occursimilar outliers of every possible size. If one analyzesa small data set, then outliers appear to occur asrare events. However, when we analyze orders ofmagnitude more data, we find orders of magnitudemore outliers – so ignoring them is not a responsibleoption. We find that the statistical properties ofthese outliers are identical to the statistical propertiesof everyday fluctuations, suggesting the existence ofa single underlying mechanism for fluctuations of anysize.

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ACADEMY – SPRINGERCO-PUBLICATION

AGREEMENT

The agreement with Springer for co-publication of the10 journals of the Academy came to an end inDecember 2009. A fresh agreement for the 5-yearperiod 2010 – 2014, basically along the same linesas the earlier one, was signed by the Academy andSpringer in July 2009. The new draft agreementprepared with legal assistance ensures as before,the interests of the Academy such as ownership,copyright, editorial operations, acceptance andrejection of papers, printing hard copies for domesticcirculation, etc. The reach and visibility of eachjournal and the number of downloads from eachjournal have improved significantly during theperiod 2007 – 09. We hope these trends will continue.Fellows and other scientists should consider contributinga significant share of their research papers to theAcademy journals since their visibility worldwide hasmuch improved.

BUILDING – ACADEMYGUEST HOUSE AT

JALAHALLI

The Academy has been facing difficulties inaccommodating teachers and students selected forSummer Research Fellowships assigned in Bangalore,for some years now. The 3-floor guest house facility,situated in Jalahalli about 8 kms from the Academyoffice, is far from adequate to meet the requirements,especially since the numbers selected have beengrowing year after year. An additional floor comprising12 rooms constructed recently along with some changesmade in some rooms on the ground floor will ease thesituation to some extent as it can accommodate anadditional 40 or so persons.

Keeping the future requirements in view, the Academyhas acquired a plot of land measuring about 10,000sq.ft. adjacent to the existing guest house building.

The assistance rendered by the Director and Staff ofRaman Research Institute in preparing the plan andconstruction of additional floors and in acquiring theland is acknowledged with gratitude.

OBITUARIES

Dhanonjoy Nasipuri (1925-2009)an outstanding researcher andan inspiring teacher, was born on01 April, 1925 into a family ofvery modest means in the districtof Birbhum, West Bengal. Hisinherent academic brightness wasapparent from very early years. Hewas a rank-holder in Matriculationand I.Sc and in both B.Sc. (Chemistry Honours) andM.Sc. he stood first – all from Calcutta University. Aftera short stint as a chemist in the Institute of JuteTechnology, Calcutta, he joined the Department ofPure Chemistry in the College of Science at CalcuttaUniversity as an Assistant Lecturer in 1951. This gavehim the opportunity to start his doctoral researchin synthetic organic chemistry under the supervisionof J. C. Bardhan. He received his Ph.D degree in1955. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral researchscientist under the Colombo Plan (1957-58) andstudied metal-ammonia reduction of monobenzoidcompounds with A. J. Birch, at the University ofManchester. One of the two papers publishedduring this time elaborated the final mechanism ofBirch reduction. Later (1963-65) he collaborated withE. L. Eliel of the University of Notre Dame, as aFulbright Fellow, on the study of stereospecific hydridetransfer to ketones from some alkoxyaluminiumdichlorides. He was awarded the D.Sc. degree ofCalcutta University in 1964 on the strength of hispublished papers. Nasipuri served as a faculty memberat the Calcutta University for many years (1951-69) andin April 1969 he moved to the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kharagpur as Professor of Chemistry.After retirement (1985) he was associated with theIndian Institute of Chemical Biology, Calcutta as INSASenior Scientist and CSIR Emeritus Professor.

His achievements in stereochemical research wereinternationally recognized and he was invited twiceas Session Chairman in Gordon Conferences –asymmetric synthesis (1975) and organic stereo-chemistry (1990). He published the well-known bookStereochemistry of Organic Compounds : Principlesand Applications (Wiley Eastern) first in 1991 and arevised second edition appeared in 1994. As acomprehensive text of modern organic stereochemistryit has few parallels and it compares well with the treatiseof Eliel et al.

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Nasipuri was offered academic positions by manydistinguished universities and research institutes. Hewas a Senior Royal Society Bursar Fellow in Dyson-Perrins Laboratory, Oxford University, LeverhulmeVisiting Fellow in the University of New South Wales,Visiting Professor in the University of Toronto, VisitingScientist in the University of North Carolina, ChapelHill, USA, invited lecturer in the Polish Academyof Sciences, in the University of Tokyo and in theUniversity of Hong Kong. As a UGC Guest Professor(1990-91) he delivered lectures in several Indianuniversities.

He was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Societyof Chemistry, England (1965), Indian Academy ofSciences, Bangalore (1976) and the Indian NationalScience Academy, New Delhi (1978). He was thePresident of the Indian Chemical Society, Calcuttaduring 1994-95. In appreciation of his contributionsto organic chemistry a one-day seminar on 'Synthesisand Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds' was heldon 15 December, 1995 in Calcutta.

Nasipuri passed away on December 28, 2009. He issurvived by two sons and a daughter.

Sripadrao Kilpady (elected1953), the oldest living Fellow,passed away on 22 December2008 in Australia. This centenarianwas born on 13 November 1906at Kundapur in Karnataka. Hisundergraduate studies were innatural sciences (geology, botanyand zoology) from the CentralCollege, Bangalore and he viewed it as the turning pointin his academic life. He topped the final examinationin all the three subjects and became eligible forscholarship/freeship. He opted for geology whichlater turned into a profession and charted his entirefuture. He passed B.Sc. (geology) in 1928 with a firstclass and distinction. He obtained his M.Sc. (geology)in 1932 from the Mysore University and passed out witha first class. Soon after M.Sc. he undertook researchwork at the Central College itself.

For a period of five years, Kilpady worked as a temporaryDemonstrator in geology on a salary of Rs. 175 p.m.He presented his first original paper to the IndianScience Congress in 1930 and was complimentedby its then president D. N. Wadia. By 1941, he hadpublished 20 research papers in geology. However, therewas a brief lull in his research career when he wastransferred to the Tumkur Intermediate College forfive years with absolutely no facilities to carry outresearch work. In 1946, he joined as Reader and Head

of the newly started Geology Department of theNagpur University, worked there for 21 years andwas instrumental in establishing one of the finestgeology departments in the country.

After nearly four decades of service in the universitiesof Mysore and Nagpur, Kilpady had to his credit 70research publications, a senior fellowship of theGeological Society of London and a fellowship of theNational Academy of Sciences. His research workincluded optical, differential, thermal and X-ray powder-diffraction studies of manganese; micropaleontologicalstudies of Cretaceous, Palaeocene and Eocenealgae and charophyta which substantially contributedto fixing the age of the Deccan Traps and identificationof certain horizons of the early Tertiary formations ofthe Salt Range.

Kilpady's favourite means of entertainment were moviesand music – devotional, ghazals, classical and LataMangeshkar's popular hits. He was extremely fondof detective fiction authored by Arthur Conan Doyle,Agatha Christie and Stanley Gardner. He was greatlyinterested in photography and it continued to be a'chronic addiction' (in his own words) even afterretirement. He is survived by his son Uday Kilpady.

Sukumar Biswas. India lost oneof its leading solar physicistswhen Biswas passed awayon 16 November 2009. Hehad the unique distinction ofhaving worked closely with twoof the leading physicists, whobuilt major scientific researchinstitutions in independentIndia – Homi Bhabha andMeghnad Saha.

He was born on 1 July 1924 in Jalpaiguri in WestBengal. All through his school and universityeducation, he was a distinguished student. After hisgraduation from Calcutta University, he continuedhis research in physics with Meghnad Saha inCalcutta. When V. D. Hopper of the University ofMelbourne offered him the opportunity to work withhim for his second Ph.D., he accepted and distinguishedhimself in Australia with his research in nuclear physics.When Bhabha started the Atomic Energy Programme,Biswas moved to work with him to Mumbai. Hewas with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Researchalmost from its start until he retired as Senior Professorin 1989. Then he continued there until 1992 as EmeritusProfessor.

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His research career, spanning more than four decades,brought out several unique contributions from him.Using the nuclear emulsion techniques, his earliercontributions to discovering new particles are wellknown to experimental particle physicists. Later onwhen he went to work in Minnesota, he turned hisattention to cosmic ray composition studies usingnuclear emulsions. He was a member of the groupwhich detected nuclei heavier than helium in cosmicrays. After his return to TIFR, he concentrated on thecomposition of cosmic rays using nuclear emulsions.His contributions to the heavy primary cosmic raywork brought new laurels to India in this field. Hethen moved on to interpretations of the propagationof cosmic ray nuclei. One of his major achievementsis the development of space-borne detector 'Anuradha'to detect the solar cosmic ray composition. This washis last contribution to cosmic ray research.

He was the recipient of several honours including themembership of the three science academies in Indiaas well as the membership of American PhysicalSociety. He was one of the earliest awardees ofthe UNESCO Fellowship. The Anuradha experimentfetched him the NASA Public Service GroupAchievement Award. He received the C V RamanAward in 1984. He had the distinction of becomingan academician of the International Academy ofAeronautics.

Kappiareth Gopal Nair whopassed away on 12 March 2010was an outstanding cardiologist,master teacher, and investigatorpar excellence. Born inKollengode, Kerala in 1931, hecompleted schooling in St.Vincent’s High School, Pune, andInter Science in FergussonCollege, where he topped the class and won manyprizes. Drawn early to a physician’s calling, hejoined the Seth G. S. Medical College, Mumbai wherehe had a brilliant academic career, culminating in thereceipt of MBBS and MD degrees from theBombay University. The nineteen fifties, when hegraduated in medicine, was an exciting decade inthe development of cardiology worldwide, and Bombaywas witness to the endeavour of pioneers in thenew discipline led by Vakil and others. Given his lovefor the practise of medicine and equal passion forinvestigative medicine, it was inevitable that Nairshould find the pull of cardiology irresistible duringthat exciting period. In contrast to the previous decadewhich offered little for the care of cardiac patients, hesaw in the fifties a glorious chapter ahead when

electrophysiology, haemodynamic studies, coronarycare units, and advances in cardiac surgery promisedto revolutionise the science and practise of cardiology.The turning point came when he received a RotaryFoundation Fellowship to serve under the legendary PaulWhite at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).His clinical skill and keen mind blossomed in thevibrant environment of MGH, where he was appointedas an Assistant Professor of Medicine of the HarvardUniversity. During this period he was mainly involvedin the study and applications of vector cardiography.His scientific talent and promise were soon spottedby Rabinowitz who invited him to his laboratory in theUniversity of Chicago where he obtained a Ph.D. inPhysiology – an unusual distinction for a practisingcardiologist. His doctoral work involved the purificationof AMP (adenosine monophosphate) by the hydrolysisof cyclic AMP, which received wide attention, and hewas invited to join the National Institute for MedicalResearch in London as a Visiting Scientist. His paperon the study of ribosomes during the visit andsubsequently in Chicago appeared in Nature (1966)and confirmed his dual status as a basic scientistand cardiologist of a high order. In the later part ofhis long association with Rabinowitz in Chicago, hetook up the study of cardiac hypertrophy and becamea pioneer in looking at the molecular basis of thisphenomenon. The seven papers which his grouppublished on this important topic between 1966 and1970 broke new ground in the study of cardiachypertrophy which continues to be a thrust area forresearch in cardiology.

On his return to India in 1971, Nair joined his almamater, Seth G. S. Medical College, as Director-Professorof Medicine, when he introduced the DM programmein cardiology and a Ph.D. programme in AppliedBiology in that venerable institution. He quickly earneda name as a brilliant teacher and academician, andinfluenced the professional development of hundredsof young physicians over 10 years before moving tothe Jaslok and later, Hinduja Hospital as HonoraryCardiologist. His high repute as a practising cardiologistdid not diminish his interest in research, which ledto his studies on the role of allopurinol and adenosinein cardiac surgery; of taurine in cardiomyopathy;and the genetic basis of hyperlipidemia; and poly-morphisms in the ACE and angiotensinogen gene.He had a genius for combining clinical practiceand basic research in the right proportion, whichcharacterized his entire career and made him a completephysician of our times.

Nair was a recipient of many honours and awardsincluding the Fellowships of the National Academy ofMedical Sciences, American College of Cardiology and

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International College of Angiology. He was also electedthe President of the Association of Physicians of India,Cardiological Society of India, and Indian Society ofElectrocardiology. Thanks to his excellence as aphysician and investigator, he was much in demandas a speaker, examiner, mentor, and an effectivemember of various official committees. He was alover of music and often found solace in the soundof the sitar.

Nair is survived by his wife Sumati, son Rajeev whois a surgeon, and daughter Sunita who is anastrophysicist.

T C Anand Kumar (elected1981) the pioneer of India's firstscientifically documented test-tube baby, passed away on26 January 2010 at the age of74. A reproductive biologist ofinternational repute, he will alwaysbe remembered for his diversecontributions to the field suchas the role of the neuro-endocrine system inreproduction; developing the means of administeringhormones via the nasal route and spear-heading theteam that produced India's first test-tube baby atthe ICMR's Institute for Research in Reproductionand the KEM Hospital, Mumbai in 1986. After hisretirement as the Director of the Institute for Researchin Reproduction, Mumbai, he founded the Hope InfertilityClinic in Bangalore in 1991 where many of the firstgeneration of ART C specialists in the country weretrained and started their careers in this field.

A graduate from Bangalore, he attained his doctoratefrom the University of Jodhpur and then went onto Birmingham, UK to pursue his studies. Despiteseveral job opportunities provided to him in the UK,he was committed by the national spirit and returnedto India to participate in the growth of science inthe young nation. It was then that he started theelectron microscopy laboratory at the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences in 1970 which is still functionaleven today. He served at the premier All India Instituteof Medical Sciences from 1969 to 1982 where hewas committed to teaching medical students andalso started the neuro-endocrine research laboratory.

He founded the Indian Society for the Study ofReproduction and Fertility in 1988 comprising membersrepresenting distinguished scientists, public healthexecutives, programme managers and clinicians fromthe field of reproductive sciences which is an active andflourishing society today.

He continued sharing his wisdom and experiencewith the younger generation of scientists by servingas an adviser on many committees – World HealthOrganization, Department of Science and Technology,Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Governmentof India; Department of Biotechnology, Governmentof India and the Indian Council of Medical Research tillSeptember 2009.

His work was recognized by his peers and he receivedthe Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award, the highestscientific award in the country; the Sanjay GandhiNational Award, and was Fellow of the National Academyof Medical Science (India) and Fellow of the Gonvilleand Caius College, Cambridge.

The visionary in Anand Kumar was equally concernedabout the welfare of his patients seeking treatmentwith newer reproductive technologies. When the firstscientifically documented test-tube baby was born, hewas always questioned whether an overpopulatedcountry needed test-tube babies. With this modalityof treatment gaining acceptance and hundreds ofclinics operating in India, he took a lead in formulatingnational guidelines for accreditation, supervision andregulation of ART clinics in India.

A man who stood for truth had the greatness to giveaway his fame and glory of being the pioneer of India'sfirst test-tube baby when he discovered all thehandwritten notes of Subhas Mukerjee. Mukerjee fromKolkata had claimed to have created a test tubebaby in 1979 (the second in the world) but his claimswere neither substantiated nor recognized by scientistsor the authorities, leading to the man ending his lifeprematurely. Anand Kumar had the courage to researchhis predecessors' findings and scientifically presentit to the world giving Mukerjee his due place in medicalhistory. Such generosity and honesty is a very rare andprecious attribute.

Anand Kumar's love for science and the search fortruth will always be remembered. His students whoare now highly placed all over the world wouldalways cherish their mentor. He is survived by hiswife, a son and a daughter.

Mihir Kumar Bose (elected 1981)a distinguished teacher and aneminent earth scientist passedaway on 1 October 2009, after abrief illness. He was born on1 September 1933 in Calcutta (nowKolkata). He had a distinguishedacademic career and obtained B.Sc.(Honours) and M.Sc. degrees from

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the University of Calcutta. He joined the Department ofGeology, Presidency College in 1956 as a lecturer andspent his entire professional career there. Aftersuperannuation he continued his teaching and researchas a CSIR Emeritus Scientist and INSA HonoraryScientist. He worked on the magmatic rock complexesaround Koraput, Orissa under the supervision of S. Rayand obtained the doctorate degree fromthe University of Calcutta in 1965. Subsequently, hereceived Post-doctoral Fellowship from the Universityof Oslo, Norway and worked with the renownedpetrologist, T. F. W. Barth. There he carried out intensivepetrological-mineralogical research on parts of Osloigneous complex of Norway. Bose carried out studieson petrology, mineralogy and structural history of anumber of magmatic complexes, particularly the alkalinerocks of the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan VolcanicProvince. He has made fundamental contributionsto the understanding of the evolution of the Indianshield, particularly the checkered tectono-magmatichistory of the country. He made seminal contributionsto the petrology-geochemistry-tectonic setting of theDalma Volcanics in the Proterozoic Mobile Belt ofNorth Singhbhum. His model of a back-arc setting forthe Proterozoic Singhbhum Basin has received widerecognition. He was one of the pioneers in India whointroduced geochemical modelling and numericalanalysis of geochemical data to elucidate petrogeneticprocesses. He has a long list of publications inpeer-reviewed Indian and foreign journals and is theauthor of a widely acclaimed text-book on igneouspetrology.

Bose was awarded the S.S. Bhatnagar Prize in EarthSciences (1976) for his outstanding and innovativeresearch in petrology and mineralogy. He was electedFellow of the Indian National Science Academy. Hereceived the P. N. Bose Memorial Gold Medal (2006)of the Asiatic Society and the National Mineral Award(1972). He was a Fellow of the Geological Society ofIndia, and the Geological Mining and MetallurgicalSociety of India.

Bose served as a member of the Subcommission onSystematics and Nomenclature of Igneous rocks,instituted by the International Union of GeologicalSciences (IUGS). He chaired a joint session (Mineralogyand Alkaline Rocks) of the 24th International GeologicalCongress, Montreal, Canada (1972). He was a memberof the National Committees for a number of IGCPprogrammes (International Geological CorrelationProgramme) and a member of the National Committeeon Science and Technology (NCST). Bose was theeditor (1972-79) of the Indian Journal of Earth Sciences,the President (2004-2006) of the Geological Miningand Metallurgical Society of India, and the Vice-Presidentof the Indian Association of Geochemists.

Samavedam Srinivasa Sri-ramachari (elected 1967)popularly known as Chari, passedaway on 25 December 2009. Hewas one of India's celebratedmedical scientists born in the eraof colonialism when medicalhistory in India was markednot only for discoveries of themalaria pathogen by Ronald Ross but was also anage when diseases peculiar to the subcontinentwere grouped generically as 'tropical diseases'. Historygot rewritten when a band of post-independencemedical doctors such as Chari investigated the localdiseases with fresh minds.

Chari was born on 25 June 1925 into a scholarly Tamilfamily settled in Andhra Pradesh. His early educationwas in St Joseph's Convent, Waltair and Maharaja'sCollge, Vizianagaram followed by Andhra MedicalCollege, Visakhapatmam where he obtained MBBSand MD degrees in 1948 and 1955, respectively. Chariacknowledged the influence of M D Anantachariin arousing his interest in liver diseases during thisperiod, an interest that lasted a life time. He joinedthe Nutrition Research Laboratories (ICMR) in Coonoorin 1951. It was here that some of the best work onKwashiorkor and protein calorie malnutrition wasundertaken by the triumvirate of V. Ramalingaswami,C. Gopalan and Chari. They laid the foundation forthe understanding of malnutrition and gave remedialand preventive guidelines to the nation. Chari movedto Delhi in 1962 on deputation to the ICMR headoffice and never left it without serving the organisationin various capacities. Chari was an institution builder.Seeing the need for pathology research in India andhaving observed the impact of disease data basesabroad, he founded the Registry of Pathology in 1965in two rooms of Safdarjung Hospital. With unstintingefforts, he developed it into the current six floor Instituteof Pathology (IOP) which conducts research in cancer,leishmania, chlamydia and placental models forpollutant monitoring. He was appointed as the firstAdditional Director General of ICMR and returned toIOP and worked there till his death. He continued tonudge the ICMR for appropriate interventions at timesof national crises.

One is enriched and amazed at the breadth ofinvestigative pathology undertaken by Chari, traversingas it did nutritional, liver, muscle and bone pathologywith ease not to mention his interest in colourphotography. His publications cover kwashiorkor, varietiesof fatty liver, Indian childhood cirrhosis on which hewas an authority, noncirrhotic portal fibrosis/hypertension– another disease of the subcontinent brushed off earlier

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as 'tropical' disease, effects of Vitamin D on bonemineralization, fluorosis, types and causes of cerebraledema and neurolathyrism. What distinguished Chari'sapproach to diseases was not only the questionsasked but the innovative techniques he would developto answer them. He did not limit himself to biomedicinebut crossed into disciplines that were not in the purviewof most doctors. He would use chemical and physicalprinciples to understand medical problems much to thesurprise if not criticism by the conventional pathologistsof that time. Chari is reputed to have been the firstto do large scale liver biopsies and liver function tests.He was one of the earliest to develop histochemicalstaining to study the chemical alterations in cells andexperimental animal models to not only understandthe disease process but also to reverse the pathologyand thereby provide a solution for amelioration. He lookedat rat and monkey models to understand liver damageand effects of malnutrition which continue to plague useven now. He showed that though there was fat in theliver cells in both childhood cirrhosis and proteindeficiency, in the former it led to the serious conditionof cirrhosis whereas in the latter only mild fibrosis/scarring was noted. He was also able to show thatthese were reversible by appropriate dietaryreplacements.

Chari combined good science with intense nationalism,the latter would perhaps be considered old fashioned intoday's world of career-based science. He was atthe forefront whenever the country faced adversity.He was called to Delhi by C. G. Pandit, the Chief ofthe ICMR when Sino-India war broke out to instituteresearch in high altitude related problems of our soldiers.He investigated the deaths following the KanishkaAir Crash as well as the death of Sivarasan who wasinvolved in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. Similarly whenthere was public concern about the ill-understoodchild deaths in Nagpur in the summer months of theseventies, Chari, established the presence of brain-edema through his autopsy studies and furthermorelinked it to heat pyrexia and not encephalitis. Hewent on to develop monkey models to prove thisassociation and demonstrated that cerebral-edemawas a critical but reversible factor not only in heatstrokes but also in head injuries. His desire to produceaffordable teaching slides and save the depleted foreigncurrency of that time made him spend many yearsperfecting a teaching set of pathology slides for medicalcolleges of India. Even here his curiosity and lateralthinking overtook him to investigate the principle ofcolour reproduction and the influence of light and dyesthat would give the best results.

Perhaps, Chari would be best remembered for hisresearch on the infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy and the

worst industrial disaster of the world that hit the UnionCarbide factory in Bhopal on 3 and 4 December 1984.He was one of the early scientists to reach Bhopal andalong with the late legendary Heeresh Chandraconducted hundreds of autopsies. 'Cherry red' colourationof organs during the immediate aftermath of exposureto methyl isocyanate (MIC) strikingly observed byChandra was suggestive of cyanide poisoning. Thoughthis was hotly disputed by Union Carbide, clinicalimprovement with an injectable cyanide antidote ofsodium thiosulphate brought by Munich based MaxDaunderer, supported the theory. Furthermore, Charishowed unequivocally the excretion of sodiumthiocyanate, a metabolic product of cyanide in the urineof the patients. Following double blind clinical trials,ICMR formally recommended thiosulphate treatment tothe surviving victims. However, 30% of the patientsshowed relapses and the degree of lung damage wasnot sufficient to explain the symptoms. These patientsresponded well to subsequent administration ofsodium thiosulphate. Even though Union Carbidedeclared that MIC does not cross the alveolar barrierin the lungs, Chari showed that MIC bound to theblood/haemoglobin and tissues by a process ofN-carbamylation of amino acids and thereby reducedthe oxygen affinity. He further showed that the chronicsymptoms of muscle weakness and respiratory problemswas explainable by endogenous release of cyanideoccurring through S-carbamylation of glutathione, leadingto impairement of enzymes such as rhodanaseand esterase. The work of the Indian investigators brokethe earlier myths about MIC effects on tissues. In thelater years along with his colleagues in IOP, he waspreoccupied in developing better tools for toxicology.Jain and he were exploring the uses of placentaltissue for the detection of environmental pollutantsas it seems to be a store house which is easily availablesince it is discarded after child birth. Till his deathChari continued to feel that more research was neededon long term effects of MIC and worried about the futureof the survivors.

When the world and the country were making ceremonialtributes for the 25 anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy,Chari spent the terminal period of his life driving himselfto complete the ICMR report. Worried about Chari'shealth but nevertheless wishing to pay homage tothe victims of the gas tragedy, ICMR and Vijayan, theDirector of V. P. Chest Institute who was also his treatingphysician held a special function on the premisesof the hospital in Delhi on 3 December 2009. It seemedas if Chari had willed himself to live for that day andhe gave a memorable lecture sitting in a wheel chairconnected to oxygen supply and surrounded by anxiousphysicians. He deteriorated physically thereafter but

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his mind was razor sharp and he out-argued hisyounger colleagues in the intensive care ward.

Chari was a man of contradictions like many thinkers.He often joked that he was a Tamil but not a Tamilianas he never lived in Tamil Nadu. His steely determinationto reach his goal belied his polite exterior. His unendingcuriosity, demand for perfection, and lateral thinking,apparently diverting from the main path of investigation,drove many of his colleagues to distraction but broughtscientific dividends. Like his forefathers he waswell versed in Sanskrit. He was sociable and friendlybut was nevertheless conservative and addressedeven decades-old colleagues formally by their familyname. His loyalty and commitment to ICMR waslegendary and went beyond the call of duty. Hewas apolitical as an adult but his commitment as astudent made him choose 1 May as the date for manyof the special functions associated with him.

He leaves behind his daughter Sandhyamani, whofollowed his footsteps to become a pathologist andhis doctor sons Murli and Krishna. His wife Pushpa haddied decades earlier due to a drug reaction andis remembered by a memorial lecture instituted byChari. He also dedicated research awards for the youngdoctoral students of IOP.

Patcha Ramachandra Raopassed away suddenly after acardiac arrest in Madurai on 10January 2010, leaving behinda rich legacy in materialsresearch, education and scientificleadership. He was born on21 March 1942 at Kavutavaramin the Krishna District of AndhraPradesh. His parents, Narayanaswamy and Laxmi Bai,schooled him at home and admitted him to the seventhstandard directly and he completed school at the earlyage of 13. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in physicsfrom Osmania University in 1961 and B.E. degree inmetallurgy from the Indian Institute of Science in 1963.His long and distinguished association with theBanaras Hindu University (BHU) in many capacitiesbegan soon afterwards, when T. R. Anantharamaninspired him to pursue further studies at the Departmentof Metallurgical Engineering, BHU. He obtained hisM.Sc. (Engg.) in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1968. This was aturning point for not just Rao but also for the school ofmetallurgical research at BHU. His doctoral studiesestablished the rapid solidification group at BHUwhich grew into a major force in this area of researchreceiving significant international recognition. Heserved the faculty of BHU from 1964-92 as lecturer,

reader and professor. He was to return later as its ViceChancellor.

Rao was an innovative and a dexterous experimenterand pioneered several techniques such as the twin-roller quenching for rapid solidification, the use of theheat pipe, diamond as a substrate, laser solidificationand mushy state quenching. He was restless in pursuingnew ideas and new themes. These enabled him andhis students to produce an array of metastable alloyswith novel structures and microstructures includingmetallic glasses and a large number of new metastablephases. He spent two spells overseas early in his careerat the University of Cambridge and the Universityof Sussex. In collaboration with G. A. Chadwick andR. W. Cahn, he established rapid solidification researchat these two centres.

In addition to outstanding experimental skills, Rao hada remarkable understanding of theory. He excelled inapplying thermodynamics to problems in physicalmetallurgy. Besides solving the crystal structure ofmetastable phases, he recognised that the basicprocesses that lead to metastable effects need to beunderstood. He quickly realized that the melt getsundercooled below the freezing temperature duringrapid solidification and the nature of this melt holdsthe key to our understanding of metastable solids. Heturned to thermodynamics to explore the behaviourof these undercooled liquids. His intense effortsculminated in several outstanding scientific findingswhich continue to illuminate the field. In particular, theexpression of the free energy of undercooled liquidwhich often defies experimental determination is widelyrecognized internationally and used as a standardexpression for any thermodynamic treatment ofundercooled liquids. His other major contribution duringthis period was the discovery of a new class ofquasicrystals in magnesium alloys. As most of usstarted our work following the discovery of quasicrystalsin Al-Mn alloys, Rao with his typical innovative stylefound a new system and a new type. What is remarkableis that at that time the structure of quasicrystals washazy. Yet, he took one look at Pauling's compoundexhibiting icosahedral coordination and designated itas a candidate alloy. The title of his paper in Pramana‘A basis for the synthesis of quasicrystals’ seemedat first audacious but in fact was sheer genius. This isone of the best papers to have come out of researchin physical metallurgy in India to date. It is alsoduring this period that he got interested in microgravityresearch. Rao has pioneered the microgravityexperiments in the country and the experimentsdesigned by him on the solidification of silver-germanium alloys were carried out in space in a Soyuzspaceship.

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In addition to being an outstanding researcher and aninspiring teacher, Rao demonstrated administrativeacumen of an extraordinary degree. Rao's services atBHU included the coordinatorship of the School ofMaterials Science and Technology at BHU. He gave ita direction and strength in its formative years. In 1992,he moved to the National Metallurgical Laboratory(NML) as its Director. With the help of a young breedof scientists, he catalysed research in several newdirections. One among the many achievements isthe creation of the research group on biomimeticmaterials, for the first time in the country. He alsosucceeded in bringing a completely new research culturein the laboratory. In 2002 he was invited to take overthe Vice Chancellorship of the Banaras Hindu University– the first student of the University to shoulder thisresponsibility. Once again he infused strength intothis old centre of learning. His love for teaching wasso strong that he took classes in spite of being theVice Chancellor. Again he attracted brilliant facultyand munificent endowments including the singlelargest donation received in recent times of Rs 6crores. In 2005, he moved to the Institute of ArmamentTechnology, Pune, as the first Vice Chancellor of thenewly accredited and deemed to be University knownas DIAT. He superannuated from DIAT in 2007 andreturned to Hyderabad as a DAE Raja RamannaFellow at ARCI, Hyderabad. It was a joy for him toreturn to active research unburdened by administrativeresponsibilities. He started new lines of thought butdid not live to complete these fresh pursuits. However,Rao's work is of enduring value and his partiallycompleted books and papers will be continued byhis colleagues and students. In his book on Thermo-dynamics, he has effectively utilized his deep under-standing to explain abstract thermodynamic conceptsin simple language using a large number of illustrativeexamples from everyday life. Equally, his grand visionfor expressing the temperature dependence of thespecific heat of metals undergoing allotropictransformations with one universal constant and onemetal-dependent constant will be completed.

Ramachandra Rao was a fellow of all the academiesin India as well as a fellow of the Academy ofSciences for the Developing World (TWAS). He wonmost of the major awards in engineering sciencesincluding the S S. Bhatnagar Prize. He was recognizedby the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the IndianInstitute of Science. He was President of Indian Instituteof Metals, Vice President of Materials Research Societyand Vice President of the Indian National ScienceAcademy. His sagacious guidance was sought after

by many organizations, most notably the Council ofScientific and Industrial Research, The Indo-FrenchCentre for the Promotion of Advanced Research andthe Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced ScientificResearch. Rao had many special gifts apart fromscience. He played the mridangam, recited poemsand drew cartoons including one of Linus Pauling.Above all, he had endearing qualities that his friendsand associates were privileged to experience. He leavesbehind his wife, Sudha Rao, daughter SuparnaDandamudi and son Animesh Patcha.

Prahlad Chunilal Vaidya(elected 1975) a doyen of Indianrelativists and an inspiringteacher died on 8 April, 2010 inAhmedabad. He was a Fellowof the Indian National ScienceAcademy. He was the Presidentof the Indian Association ofGeneral Relativity and Gravitation

(IAGRG) from 1974-76, besides being its FounderMember. He had the distinction of being a FounderMember of the International Committee on GeneralRelativity and Gravitation. While gracing these researchpositions nationally and internationally, Vaidya wasalso the Founder and first President of the GujaratGanit Mandal, an organization that concentrated onteaching school mathematics.

Vaidya was born on 23 March 1918 in Shahapur in theJunagarh District of Gujarat. Right from his youngerdays he liked and excelled in mathematics and it wasclear that he would end up with a successful careerin that field. After finishing his schooling at Bhavnagar,he went to Mumbai where he studied at the IsmailYusuf College, Andheri and then to the RoyalInstitute of Science where he got his M.Sc. degreefrom Bombay University with specialization in appliedmathematics.

In 1942, he enrolled himself as a student of V V Narlikarin the Mathematics Department of the Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU), because he wanted to work onthe general theory of relativity and the group underVVN was then known to be a flourishing centre forrelativity. However, this was a purely informalarrangement, Vaidya had saved a certain amountof money through frugal living and he felt that hewould work in BHU till that money lasted. He marriedin 1939 and soon after had a baby daughter. With afamily to support, Vaidya stayed in Banaras for 10months. But that period under an inspiring teacher

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was sufficient to lead Vaidya to the work for whichhe became best known a few years later, namelythe Vaidya solution. He got his PhD degree from theBombay University in 1948.

He spent a year (1947-48) at the newly establishedTata Institute of Fundamental Research where hecame in contact with Homi Bhabha. While he wouldhave liked to continue at TIFR, the difficulty of gettingaccommodation at an affordable price made himshift from Bombay to his native state of Gujarat. Hefound a niche in Vallabhbhai Patel College in VallabhVidyanagar (which later developed into the SardarPatel University). From there, he moved to Ahmedabadwhere he worked in several places and was Principalof M N College in Visanagar for a year. With hisgrowing stature in the educational field, Vaidya occupiedprestigious positions as Chairman, Gujarat PublicService Commission and Vice Chancellor, GujaratUniversity.

All through his career, P. C. Vaidya was a teacher atheart and despite his administrative commitments,he found time to take M.Sc. classes. He would cycleto work in his usual simple Gandhian dress of whitekhadi kurta with the inseparable Gandhi cap. It washis concern for fellow teachers that led him to starta new organization called the Gujarat Ganit Mandalwhich conducts lectures, workshops and discussionsrelating to problems of teaching mathematics. It alsobrings out a journal in Gujarati, called Suganitam whichpublishes articles useful to teachers.

No account of Vaidya will be complete without adescription of his major work, namely the gravitationalfield of a radiating star. According to general relativity,the presence of a gravitating object is perceivedand measured by the non-Euclidean geometry ofspacetime around it. In the earlier days of relativity,Karl Schwarzschild had worked out the spacetimegeometry near a spherical mass in an otherwiseempty universe. The next question was 'how does thegeometry change if the mass is radiating energy, asa typical star does'. This was the problem thatVaidya successfully tackled and the solution is knownas the 'Vaidya solution'.

Although the problem was solved in the early forties,it was relevant even in the sixties when astronomersdiscovered compact but very powerful radiators ofenergy known as quasi-stellar objects or quasars.As the subject of relativistic astrophysics tookshape, the 'Vaidya solution' found a natural place in it.

Vaidya had been working on several aspects of relativityand published articles in leading journals on topics

like exact solutions, supermassive objects, black holes,etc. His research accomplishments were all themore remarkable in that they were achieved in anenvironment of minimal research infrastructure. Hewas remarkably active both physically and intellectually,though well into his eighties. This may be ascribedto his simple style of plain living and high thinking.He was Honorary Fellow of the Inter-University Centrefor Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and hadbeen associated with many of the centre's pedagogicalactivities. Participants recall his regular presencewith alert questions to the speakers all through a schoolor workshop.

IUCAA in collaboration with Vigyan Prasar of Delhihas produced a film on P. C. Vaidya that deserves tobe shown in all our educational establishments. Itpresents a unique and inspiring picture of a simpleman with profound accomplishments.

Kalakad Sundaram Viswanathan(elected 1956) passed away on5 July, 2009. He was born inKalakad, Tamil Nadu on 9 June1929. Viswanathan, togetherwith S. Chandrasekhar, T. K.Srinivasan, M. R. Bhat,D. Krishnamurti, S Pancharatnamand A. K. Ramdas constituted thestudent body at Raman Research Institute (RRI) in1950.

His academic training (BA and MA) being inmathematics, C V Raman singled him out for researchon theoretical problems e.g., lattice dynamics andatomistic theory of elasticity. His discoveries thatthe group velocities of the normal modes of crystalsvanish at the zone centre and the zone boundary (Proc.Indian Acad. Sci., 1953, 36, 308), as well as hisdeduction that crystals are characterized by 45independent elastic constants in general if the stressand strain tensors are not symmetric (Proc. Indian.Acad. Sci., 1954, 39, 196), are scientific resultsnoteworthy for their originality from the earliestphase of his scientific career at RRI. They formedthe basis of his 1955 Ph.D degree awarded for histhesis submitted to Madras University. He remainedat RRI from 1955 to 1961 as Assistant Professor.Viswanathan broadened and deepened his researchinterests as documented in his papers dealing withanharmonicity of molecular vibrations, the relativistictheory of chemical binding, and the Dirac equation formany electron systems.

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In 1960, Viswanathan joined the National AeronauticalLaboratory, Bangalore as the Head of the MathematicalSciences Division (1960 – 1970). In 1970, he acceptedthe Physics Professorship of the Kerala University,Thiruvananthapuram. He spent short periods as a visitingscientist at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies,Ireland (1965 – 1966), Plasma Physics Laboratory,Princeton University, Princeton (1966 – 1977); and shorterperiods at the International Centre for TheoreticalPhysics, Trieste, Italy (1977 – 1979). His publicationsreveal an impressive sweep of topics to which he madecomprehensive contributions: ‘Close equatorial satellitesof the Moon’ (Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1962, 56, 291),‘Artificial satellites and the earth's gravitational field’(J. Indian Geophys. Union, 1964, 1, 77), ‘Anharmonicity

of vibrations and inner displacements in crystals’ (withK Watanabe) (Phys. Rev., 1966, 149, 614), ‘The internalconical refraction of elastic waves in solids’ (IndianJ. Pure Appl. Phys., 1970), ‘Helicon-Phonon interactionin metals’ (J. Phys., 5, L107, 1975) and ‘Phononmagnification in cubic crystals’ (Phys. Rev. B., 17, 4969,1978). This selected list of publications illustratesViswanathan's deep and extended scientific intereststo which he brought his mathematical expertise, physicalinsights and an impeccable taste in the selection ofnovel research areas.

He was the Secretary of the Indian Academy of Sciencesand Editor of the Proceedings of the Indian Academy ofSciences from 1957 to 1961.

Many Patrika readers probablyalso regularly read P. Balaram'sfinely crafted fortnightlyEditorials in Current Science ona wide variety of topics. Formany years now since 1999,he was greatly helped in thiswork by a young, enthusiastic,and always smiling young man– Riki Krishnan.

Riki joined the staff of the Academy in 1999, and workedover the years for some of the Academy Journals. Heendeared himself to everyone, was always willing tohelp others, and was completely selfless in every

respect. His greatest efforts however, were reserved forthe Current Science Editorials.

Tragedy struck in late 2008 when he was diagnosedas suffering from throat cancer. After many sessionsof radio and chemo therapy, which always broughtonly limited and temporary relief, he lost the battleon 19th March this year. A particularly touchingtribute and a fine appreciation of his qualities madeup Balaram's Current Science Editorial of 25 March2010. That cannot be bettered.

All of us at the Academy will remember Riki withfondness, and with the unanswerable question – whymust such things happen?

In memory of Riki Krishnan (1971 – 2010)

Erratum

Patrika (No. 50), September 2009, Page 9

1. Motivational bridge course in physicsGogate – Joglekar College, Ratnagiri23 March 2009 – 11 April 2009

Course Director : S. Ananthakrishnan

Course Co-ordinators : G V Kelkar (IAPT), A W Joshi, Anjali Kshirsagar (Pune University),K V Sukhatankar (Gogate – Joglekar College, Ratnagiri).

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