Newsletter of the Indian Academy of Sciences

Inside...

1. 2007 Mid-Year Meeting ............... 1

2. 73rd Annual Meeting, ................... 2Thiruvananthapuram

3. 2007 Associates ........................... 4

4. Special issues of Journals .......... 4

5. Discussion Meeting ..................... 7

6. Summer Fellowships ................... 8

7. Refresher Courses ....................... 9

8. Lecture Workshops .................... 12

9. Obituaries ................................... 12

No. 46 September 2007

2007 Mid-Year MeetingAs has been the general practice, the 18th Mid-Year Meeting of theAcademy was held on July 13 and 14, 2007, at the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore. Those attending included 210 Fellows (90 from Bangalore),5 Associates, 30 Teacher invitees (4 local) and many local students andthe general public.

On Thursday July 12, 2007, the day prior to the mainmeeting, two special activities were organized by theScience Education Panel for the benefit of the invitedteachers: a pre-lunch symposium comprising 3 talkson selected topics in current life science research; anda post-lunch discussion session led by S C Lakhotiaon the need and problems of science curricular reformsat college and university levels. In the evening a fullmeeting of the Academy's Science Education Panel,with representatives from INSA and NASI, was held.

indenting material samples withsuitable indentors yieldsinformation, valid in certaindomains, on hardness, plasticflow, stress-strain behaviouretc. In extreme conditionspressure induced phasetransformations and dislocationdynamics are also accessibleto study.

The second Special Lecture on 'A structural chemistry for boron' was presentedby E D Jemmis. This is a field surprisingly still in the early steps of development

Academy President D Balasubramanian was also present.

The opening Special Lecture by G Sundararajan on "The indentation ofmaterials to probe their mechanical behaviour" was an object lesson inclassical physics of materials. It explained how conceptually simple methods

S C Lakhotia

G Sundararajan E D Jemmis

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G Madhavan Nair

EDITORN. Mukunda

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

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(madhavan@ias.ernet.in)

Forthcoming Events –2007

Refresher Courses

Experimental physicsUniversity of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram(22 October - 3 November 2007)

Lecture Workshops

Concepts in chemistryRamananda College, Bishnupur (WB)(28-30 Sept. 2007)

Recent trends in physicsNGM College, Pollachi22-24 Jan. 2008

compared to carbon chemistry. The speaker described theimportance of icosahedral B12 as an important building block ofelaborate structures, and significantly observed that 'A chemistryrivaling carbon is waiting to be explored and the list ofapplications of boron is sure to increase'. Particularly impressivewas the large team of students and associates who over several

years have worked on these problemsunder the speaker's leadership.G Madhavan Nair's Public Lecture titled"Challenges in space exploration: Globalperspectives and Indian initiatives' wasa splendid survey of ISRO's efforts andaccomplishments over about fourdecades. The contributions in the areas

of communication, meteorology, disaster warning, remotesensing and resource surveys, are remarkable and praiseworthy.They are the fruition of Vikram Sarabhai's vision of the crucialinputs from space science to India's economic and socialdevelopment in a wide variety of areas. In the process, bothself-reliance and self-confidence have been achieved. Nair thenoutlined some avenues of work for the future – building cost-effective space infrastructure, planetary exploration projectsincluding the Chandrayan – 1 mission, and some forays intothe outer solar system. He also briefly mentioned ISRO's recenteffort to set up a training establishment for young personsneeded for ISRO's programmes in the coming years. The visualsfrom this Public Lecture are available at www.ias.ac.in.

The lectures by recently elected Fellows and Associates coveredas usual a very wide spectrum of subjects. To mention just afew: Sanjay Jain spoke on self-organisation and collapse ofcomplex networks; V Balaji on holonomy groups of bundles onalgebraic varieties; Amitava Raychaudhuri on the Indian NeutrinoObservatory; and Satheesh Chandra Shenoi on the reasonswhy the Bay of Bengal is warmer than the Arabian Sea.

Many participants and teachers commented on the highquality and intensity of the entire programme.

73rd ANNUAL MEETINGTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Scientific Programme1 November 2007 (Thursday)

1800 – 1930 Inauguration followed by presidentialaddress

D Balasubramanian, LV Prasad Eye InstituteHyderabadApproaches to understand and treat eyediseases

1930 Cultural programme

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2 November 2007 (Friday)

0930 – 1030 Special Lecture

ML Munjal, IISc, BangaloreTowards quieter automobiles

1100 – 1300 Lectures by Fellows/Associates

1100 Mythily Ramaswamy, TIFR Centre,BangaloreSymmetry of solutions of differentialequations

1130 Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT, ChennaiWhat does it take for India to becomea leader in wireless technology?

1200 Chanda J Jog, IISc, BangaloreLopsided spiral galaxies

1230 A Ajayaghosh, NIST,ThiruvananthapuramSelf-assembled molecular architectureswith controlled size, shape andfunctions

1400 – 1700 Symposium: Space sciences andapplications – Current trends andfuture perspectives(Convener : R Sridharan)

1400 K Kasturirangan, NIAS, BangaloreEvolution of space sciences in India

1430 JN Goswami, PRL, AhmedabadFrontier areas in solar system studies

1500 BN Suresh, VSSC, ThiruvananthapuramSpace transportation systems – Whatthe future beholds

1600 PS Goel, Ministry of Earth Sciences,New DelhiEarth from space

1630 RR Navalgund, SAC, AhmedabadSpace – Touching humanity throughapplications

1800 – 1900 Public lecture:Adoor GopalakrishnanEminent Playwright,ThiruvananthapuramDance of the Enchantress –Documentary-cum-discussion

3 November 2007 (Saturday)

0900 – 1000 Special lecture

Sulochana Gadgil, IISc, BangaloreForetelling the monsoon

1030 – 1310 Symposium: Re-emerging infectionsin India(Convener : CC Kartha)

1030 CC Kartha, SCTIMST,ThiruvananthapuramIntroduction

1035 AC Mishra, NIV, PuneChandipura encephalitis: Epidemiologyand pathobiology

1105 VA Arankalle, NIV, PuneRe-emergence of Chikungunya in India:Molecular analysis

1135 YD Sharma, AIIMS, New DelhiResurgence of malaria in India – Doesgenetic mutations in the parasitecomplement ecological causes?

1205 PR Narayanan, Tuberculosis ResearchCentre, ChennaiCurrent scenario of tuberculosis in India

1235 V Raman Kutty, SCTIMST,ThiruvananthapuramA policy perspective on prediction andcontrol of re-emerging infections

1305 UC Chaturvedi, LucknowConcluding remarks

1400 – 1500 Lectures by Fellows/Associates

1400 Harkesh B Singh, IIT, MumbaiOrgano-chalcogen and mercurychemistry: Role of intramolecularsecondary interactions

1430 Rahul Siddharthan, IMSc, ChennaiWhat DNA sequence tells us aboutgene regulation

4 November 2007 (Sunday)

0900 – 1100 Lectures by Fellows/Associates

0900 PN Rangarajan, IISc, BangaloreFrom vaccines to virogenomics

0930 Sunil Bajpai, IIT, RoorkeeIndia's northward drift and collision withAsia: Evolving faunal response

1000 LS Shashidhara, IISER, PuneOn the evolution of insect wings

1030 Sandhya S Visweswariah, IISc,BangaloreCellular communication: First andsecond messengers

1130 – 1230 S Ramaseshan Memorial PublicLecture

Lotika Varadarajan, HistorianNew DelhiSeafaring traditions of the Indian WestCoast

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ASSOCIATES 2007

Tripathi VikramTata Institute of Fundamental Research,MumbaiTheoretical condensed matter physics;strongly correlated electron systems;transport properties of granular metals;mesoscopic and nanoscale devices

Anandavardhanan, U. K.Indian Institute of Technology, MumbaiAreas of interest: Automorphic forms;representation theory

Ghosh Anil KumarIndian Institute of Technology, KanpurRobust and nonparametric statistics;pattern recognition; statistical computing

Jain MukeshUniversity of Delhi South Campus,New DelhiPlant genomics; biotechnology

Kavitha TelikepalliIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreAlgorithms and data structures;computational complexity;efficient graph algorithms

Mukherjee Partha SarathiIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreNanoscopic molecular architectures;single molecule magnets;metal-organic framework

Mukhopadhyay BanibrataIndian Institute of Science, BangaloreTheoretical astrophysics;astroparticle physics;field theory in curved space time

Mukhopadhyay PritamJawaharlal Nehru University, New DelhiSupramolecular; materials chemistry

Senthil Kumar, P.National Geophysical Research Institute,HyderabadImpact cratering; planetary geology;thermal evolution of planetary lithosphere

Subramanian GaneshJawaharlal Nehru Centre for AdvancedScientific Research, BangaloreDynamics and rheology of complex fluids;hydrodynamic stability; vortex dynamics

Suresh Babu, Surendran NairVikram Sarabhai Space Centre,ThiruvananthapuramAtmospheric aerosols; radiative forcing;climate impact

Thanikaivelan, P.Central Leather Research Institute, ChennaiLeather science and technology;environmental science and technology;new materials design and development

SPECIAL ISSUES OFJOURNALS

Flow Control and DiagnosticsGuest Editors : R Narasimha, TS Prahlad andSajeer AhmedSadhana, Vol. 32, Nos 1 & 2, February – 1 April 2007,pp. 1–154

Flow diagnostics and control have always been of greatimportance in fluid-dynamical technology, but in recentdecades they have become particularly active andexciting areas of research. In September 1998, IUTAMsponsored an international symposium on flow controlat Gottingen. Since then the great surge of interesthas continued, for several good reasons. The first is

the potential for control ofturbulent flows revealed bythe discovery of coherentstructures in what generallyhad earlier been consideredas motion with completedisorder. A second reasonis the related developmentof the theory of nonlineardynamical systems. Suchsystems are sensitive tosmall changes in initialconditions, and therefore necessarily also to smallcontrol signals if applied at the right time and place.Third, great advances have recently been made in thetechnology of sensors, actuators, computers and relatedsystems, making it feasible to consider small active

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control systems with a performance surpassing thosethat had earlier been available. Progress in MEMS andin nanotechnologies is unveiling ever newer possibilities.There is thus much interesting research being done inpassive, active and hybrid methods of control; newexperiments, computations and advances in the theoryof control of continuous systems have all contributedto the excitement. And of course the potential benefitsof turbulence management, to reduce or enhance drag,lift, heat transfer, mixing etc. as the application requires,are huge.

An Academy discussion meeting to consider theserecent advances therefore seemed most appropriate.The meeting was organized in the pleasant environs ofOrange County, Coorg, in February 2006. There were27 participants including several from USA and UK.The four-day programme included 22 presentations insessions that dealt with flow control, flow diagnosticsand flow instability. Of these, the texts of 13 paperspresented at the meeting are now published in thisissue. The subject of the papers divides broadly intothree areas: diagnostics, stability and control. Thepapers on stability are sandwiched between those inthe other two areas, because an understanding ofinstabilities in the flow sought to be controlled hasimplications for both diagnostics and control.

Fluorescence spectroscopyGuest Editor : N PeriasamyJournal of Chemical Sciences, Vol. 119, No. 2, March2007, pp. 53–215

Publication of special issuesdevoted to active areas ofcurrent research in chemistryhas been a regular featureof Journal of ChemicalSciences. Fluorescence isnow so widely used inchemistry, biology andmaterials research that itwas decided to bring out aspecial issue on 'fluore-scence spectroscopy and itsapplications'.

There are just three properties that we measure influorescence: intensity, spectrum and polarization. Theinformation obtained from these about the fluorescentmolecules in a sample is straightforward, namely,concentration, identity of the emitting molecule and itsspatial orientation. Fluorescence is highly sensitive tothe immediate environment of the molecule, whichmakes it extremely useful in numerous applications inchemistry and biology, especially the latter. The time-

dependence of these three fluorescence properties, whenexcited by an ultra-short light pulse, adds a newdimension to the understanding of the chemical kineticsand molecular dynamics of the excited molecule. Thisspecial issue contains eighteen articles dealing withmany different aspects of fluorescence spectroscopyand applications in chemistry, which should be usefulto both chemists and spectroscopists.

Environmental factors, cellularstress and evolutionGuest Editor : Subhash C LakhotiaJournal of Biosciences, Vol. 32, No. 3. April 2007,pp. 429–628

For its survival and continuity,an organism has to be "intune" with its internal as wellas external environment,neither of which is ever static.Consequently, the organismand its constituent cellsincessantly adjust theirphysiological milieu to remainin harmony with the dynamicenvironment. The adjust-ments involve long-termevolutionary adaptations as well as short-termresponses to sudden changes. The sudden changes inenvironment are stressful to cells and since the natureof changes experienced by organisms are enormouslyvaried, one may expect the cellular responses to beequally varied. Surprisingly, however, work carried outduring the 1960s and 1970s revealed that the coreresponse of individual cells to a variety of biotic andabiotic environmental stresses is remarkably conserved.For historical reasons, this cellular response has cometo be known as the heat shock response.

Intensive studies of genes and proteins induced bycellular stresses have provided deep insights not onlyinto some of the basic cellular processes like proteinfolding, gene regulation, cellular homeostasis ans soon, but have also stimulated biotechnological and clinicalapplications. At a more fundamental level of biology, itis clear that environmental stress factors have beenkey players in shaping organic evolution. However,research on the molecular biology of stress responseshas often remained separated from that on the role ofenvironmental (stress) factors in evolution anddevelopment. It is obvious that an integration of thesediverse domains is essential for a comprehensiveunderstanding of the biology of living organisms as wellas for improvements in practical applications of our

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understanding of the stress responses. An internationalmeeting was held at the Banaras Hindu University,Varanasi in October 2006 to provide an integratedperspective for understanding the roles of stressproteins and stress responses in cell. The twenty papersin this issue are based on the presentations at themeeting.

The articles provide succinct surveys of their chosenfields and should be of immense benefit not only tospecialists but also to those generally interested inthe broad area of stress biology. This special issuewill have served its purpose if it catalyses theintegration of stress responses with evolution andenvironmental factors.

Raychaudhuri equation at thecrossroadsGuest Editors : Naresh Dadhich, Pankaj Joshi andProbir RoyPramana, Vol. 69, No. 1, July 2007, pp. 1–158

The Raychaudhuri equation has three aspects whichare logically sequential. First and foremost, it is ageometric statement on the congruence of non-spacelike paths, including geodesics, in an arbitraryspacetime manifold. Second, on introducing thePrinciple of Equivalence, it becomes a statement onthe congruence of the trajectories of material particlesand photons in an arbitrary gravitational field.Finally, the use of Einstein's equations and of theenergy conditions leads to the result that in a generallynonflat spacetime manifold there exist trajectorieswhich are necessarily incomplete in the sense thatthey and their neighbouring trajectories inevitablyfocus into singularities at finite comoving times. Theequation describes how trajectories behave duringthe course of their dynamical evolution, i.e. howthey expand, reconverge, get distorted under shearingeffects of gravitational fields and rotate under theinfluence of the energy density and matter fieldspresent. The scope of the Raychaudhuri equationis very wide since it is a geometric statement on theevolution of paths in a general (not necessarilyspacetime) manifold. For gravitational dynamics, itencompasses all spacetime singularities from thecosmological big bang to black holes and nakedsingularities that could arise in astrophysics fromcollapsing stars.

More than fifty years have passed since this powerfulequation was written down. In this intervening half-century, it has influenced different types of research,not only in classical GR as well as in still incompletetheories of quantum gravity, but also in string theoryand even in hydrodynamics. There is every likelihoodthat research involving the Raychaudhuri equationwill take new directions in future. Just to illustrate thispoint, let us mention that in the currently fashionableLoop Quantum Cosmology, this equation is needed ina new avatar in the possible avoidance of thecosmological big bang singularity. Standing at thecrossroads, it is an appropriate juncture to view thisequation in perspective. To this end, essays wereinvited from several experts, working in different areas,whose current research not only derives inspirationfrom this equation, but in fact makes use of it in someway or the other. It was felt that, as a celebrationof the golden jubilee of the birth of this amazingequation, publication of such a volume would be thebest tribute that we can offer to the memory of itsdeceased creator. This special volume contains 12articles on this topic including an article reminiscingAKR.

In 1953 something extra-ordinary happened at theIndian Association for theCultivation of Science inCalcutta. Amal Kumar Ray-chaudhuri, twenty-sevenyears of age and employedungainfully as a scientificassistant at the ExperimentalX-ray Section, made astartling theoretical discovery

in General Relativity (GR). Without assuming anysymmetry constraint on the underlying spacetime, hederived an equation which showed the unavoidableoccurrence of spacetime singularities in GR under quitegeneral conditions. Nearly a decade later, by globaltopological arguments utilizing the causal structure ofspacetime and Einstein's equations, this result wasgiven a complete mathematical generalization andproved rigorously in terms of a set of preciselyenunciated theorems, now very well-known assingularity theorems, by Hawking, Penrose andGeroch. The equation of Raychaudhuri was thecritical starting point for these theorems which heldunder more general conditions of which Raychaudhuri'sconditions were a subset. Its import and significancewere immediately recognized as was evident fromthe fact that Charles Misner could obtain a grant fromNSF for an year's visit of AKR to the University ofMaryland in 1964.

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Bioinformatics: From molecules tosystemsGuest Editor : Alok BhattacharyaJournal of Biosciences, Vol. 32, No. 5, August 2007,pp. 807–1030

Bioinformatics is not a newdiscipline. It has been in voguefor hundred years, ever sincethe analysis of biologicalprocesses using mathematicalor quantitative techniques wasinitiated. Computationalmodels were developed inmany areas, particularly inecology, enzymology andmetabolism, with reasonablesuccess. Attempts could notbe made to simulate actual real world systems dueto a lack of computing power. In the last three decadeswe have witnessed an explosion in our ability togenerate data in the area of nucleotide sequencesand protein structure, simultaneous gene expressiondata for thousands of genes, protein-protein interactiondata and so on. Fortunately, the computing powerrequired to analyse such information has also keptpace.

Recently, bioinformatics has emerged as a disciplinein which emphasis is given to curate, store and analyselarge volumes of data. However, in order to comprehendbiological processes and reactions, it is necessary tocarry out large scale modelling and simulation. Attemptswere made to develop computational frameworks tosimulate large systems such as a cell; and rudimentarysimplified cells or organs were modelled with somesuccess. But it became obvious that methods werestill not available to model all the complexities thatexist even in simple bacterial cells. Bioinformatics todayis the application of computational methods tounderstand the behaviour of a single molecular speciesor a large ensemble as in cells and tissues. This specialissue entitled Bioinformatics: From molecules tosystems is based on presentations made at TheInternational Conference on Bioinformatics for the year2006 (INCOB 2006), which was held in New Delhi inDecember, 2006 an annual conference sponsored bythe Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBIONET).The collection of articles reflects the diversity in thefield. The articles range from analysing molecularinteractions at the atomic level to systems-levelsimulations. The major areas covered by the articlesare DNA regulatory site characterization, protein structureanalysis and predictions, analysis of metabolic path-ways, gene networks and microarray data analysis.

DISCUSSION MEETING

Structure and evolution of thelithosphereOrange County, CoorgFebruary 19–22, 2007

Planet earth's lithosphere is a fragmented jig-sawset of its outer solid boundary layer, consisting ofthe simpler and larger (~70%) oceanic lithosphereand the more complex continental lithosphere. Theformer essentially constitutes the surface limbs ofa convecting cell that mediate thermal loss from theinterior eventually returning to the underlying mantleby gravitational foundering at their junctions withthe lighter continents which they earlier rifted apart,and are nowhere older than 200 million years. Thecontinental lithosphere, on the other hand, has remainedbuoyant for much of earth's history, incorporating init the products and structures created during theirsuccessive processing from the primordial crustalmaterials. A knowledge of the lithospheric structureand its evolution, important as it is for understandinhgplanetary processes, is also important for gaininginsights into its ongoing dynamics. Much has beenlearnt in recent years about the lithosphere's thermaland mechanical state which provides a goodvantage point for exploring some fundamentalaspects of its structure and evolutionary processes.

The meeting was designed to systematically brain-storm some of the significant questions which canbe more definitely examined today. The meetingheld at Orange County was attended by 22 participantsfrom various institutions in India and Dan McKenzieand Keith Priestley from Cambridge who have thoughtof some of the most revolutionary ideas we haveabout the subject.

The meeting started with talks by Keith Priestleyand Dan McKenzie on the use of shear velocity ofseismic waves that travel through the earth's litho-sphere to estimate the temperature in the earth'slithosphere. The question that was addressed in thetalks was that if the shear wave velocity in a regionis known, can we use that information to find thetemperature in that region.

Two days were spent in discussing various aspectsof the structure and evolution of the earth's litho-sphere. The talks by McKenzie and Priestley stressed

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on the use of shear velocity waves to look at thestructure, temperature and geometry of the litho-sphere. The Canadian shield in North America andEurasian shields were discussed in fair detail and itwas pointed out that the Canadian shield goes allthe way down to Gulf of Mexico on the basis of shearvelocity observations. Some of the questions thatconcerned the Indian lithosphere included discussionson the lithosphere in the Dharwar Craton and discussionof the question: Is Tibet presently a shield in themaking? The talks also pointed to a molten layer inthe upper Tibetan crust resulting from high concentrationof radioactive isotopes at that level which was thesource of material involved in upper crustal channelflow from Tibet into the Himalaya. Keith Priestleydiscussed the issues related to surface wavetomography. He covered the factors affecting thesensitivity and resolution in tomography and showedhow the higher modes provide good resolution overthe upper mantle in surface-wave tomography. Healso focused on using a physically-based regularizationof the inverse problem and emphasized on thepossibility to offset the shortcomings of ray theoryby using a dense coverage of relatively shorterpaths. He presented a new upper mantle model forthe India-Tibet region with high wave-speed mantlelid extending to ~160 km depth beneath southernIndia, ~200 km depth beneath northern India, and~250 km depth beneath central Tibet. Finally, heproposed that the lithosphere below Tibet is fullyintact and has not delaminated; thus, the northernTibet crust has not been exposed to the hotasthenospheric mantle.

The other intriguing topic discussed was related tomelt generation and its separation from the sourceregion in the upper silicate region of the earth. McKenzieled the discussion and pointed out that melt is generatedwithin the earth by three general mechanisms:

This leads to the development of discrete melt pocketsat four (or more) phase junctions within the rock.Following melt generation, textural equilibration occursbetween the solid phases and melt. The angle subtendedby a melt phase at the junction of two solid phases isthe dihedral angle. If this angle is less than 60°, themelt pockets become interconnected and melt extractionbecomes possible. Since the accumulated melt isnormally less dense than the matrix, it will tend tomove upward and will consequently separate from thesource. However, the questions related to thissegregation process are: how much melt mustaccumulate before it starts moving, how quickly is thismelt generated and how fast does it move to the surface(for volcanic rocks)?.

The last day of the meeting was devoted to discussionsand interactions amongst participants culminatingin the formulation of future research plans to give aboost to research activities in this important fieldwith the help of McKenzie and Priestley. VK Gaur ledthis activity and first-order proposals were discussedand presented by Anand Mohan, Talat Ahmad,D Mukhopadhyay, R Srinivasan, Saibal Gupta, SS Raiand RN Singh. The proposed work was dividedinto peninsular and Indian shield and the extra-peninsular Himalayan regions and involved carryingout work in various disciplines such as seismology,geochronology, petrology and geochemistry.

SUMMER FELLOWSHIPSThe 2007 summer fellowship programme wasconducted jointly with the Indian National ScienceAcademy (New Delhi) and the National Academyof Sciences, India (Allahabad). It was agreedbetween the three Academies that IASc will takethe responsibility for running this programme. TheFellows of INSA and NASI will also guide thesummer fellows and the total expenses will be equallyshared.

Group photograph with summer Fellows 2007

(a) decompression of hot material withlittle change in entropy, to the extent thatit crosses its solidus; (b) by conductiveheating at constant pressure, that leadsto an elevation of the temperature so asto intersect the solidus; and (c) by theaddition of volatiles, that causes thesolidus temperature itself to decrease. Byeither of these mechanisms, melt isformed within the lower crust, or uppermantle. Melting initiates at points withinsystem where the melting point is lowest– this corresponds to locations where fouror more crystals of different phases meet.

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The following table gives information on the numbers of applicants and the fellowships offered (in brackets) in2007.

Subject Teachers Students

Male Female Total Male Female Total

Chemistry 54(20) 16(4) 70(24) 341(35) 256(36) 597(71)

Earth & Planetary Science 8(5) 1(0) 9(5) 74(15) 57(13) 131(28)

Life Sciences 86(28) 56(13) 142(41) 991(78) 1008(98) 1999(176)

Mathematics 23(9) 5(3) 28(12) 93(12) 39(15) 132(27)

Physics 34(12) 9(2) 43(14) 322(30) 123(18) 445(48)

Engineering & 24(3) 5(3) 29(6) 405(30) 123(11) 528(41)Computer Science

229(77) 92(25) 321(102) 2226(200) 1606(191) 3832(391)

REFRESHER COURSES

Topics in mathematics andphysicsRamakrishna Mission Vivekananda University,Belur MathMay 14–26, 2007

No. of participants: 32

Course Directors: A Sitaram (ISI, Bangalore) andRohini Godbole (IISc, Bangalore)

Course Coordinator: MJ Mahan (Ramakrishna MissionVivekananda University, Belur Math

Resource Persons : G Misra and A Sitaram (ISI,Bangalore), KB Athreya (Iowa State University),SC Bagchi and BV Rao (ISI, Kolkata), SreerupRaychaudhuri (IIT, Kanpur), Rohini Godbole (IISc,Bangalore), Ram Ramaswamy (JNU, New Delhi),JK Bhattacharjee (IACS, Kolkata) and DebashisGhoshal (HRI, Allahabad).

Topics covered in mathematics : Fourier series;connections with heat equation & wave equation;mean square convergence of fourier series; pointwiseconvergence; some applications to other branches ofmathematics; fourier transforms; inversion formula;plancherel theorem; mathematical versions of theuncertainty principle; multidimensional fourier transforms;applications to problems of geometric analysis; laplacetransforms; basic properties & connections with fourier

transforms; introduction to wavelets; brief descriptionof probability and conditional probabilities ending withBose-Einstein statistics; introduction to discrete state;discrete time Markov chains including recurrence/transience/limiting behaviour; ending with Chandrasekharchain; Ehrenfest chain (of heat diffusion) and simplesymmetric random walks in 1/2/3 dimensions; briefintroduction to Brownian motion; existence/simple pathproperties without proofs; explanation as a Markovprocess/relation to the laplacian.

Topics covered in physics : 1) Application of fourierseries and transforms in: (a) quantum mechanics andfield theory: wave packets, momentum spacerepresentation; phase space; canonical quantizationof fields; (b) optics: diffraction theory; coherence;holography; (c) electrodynamics: Maxwell's equationswith sources; radiation theory; power spectrum;2) anisotropy in the cosmic microwave backgroundradiation; 3) fast fourier transforms; 4) applications ofprobability theory to physics: focus on differenceequations; differential equations; dynamics andstatistical mechanics; (a) dynamical systems – discreteand continuous; (b) chaotic evolution – discretesystems; (c) Hamiltonian systems – Poincare Birkhoffand KAM; (d) foundations of statistical mechanics;(e) discussion of chaos/attractors and measures.

The teacher participants were from Adipur, Bangalore,Berhampur, Burdwan, Chikmagalur, Coimbatore,Dewas, Ernakulam, Guntur, Iritty, Kendrapara, Kolkata,Manjeri, Midnapore, Navi Mumbai, Ongole, Pala,Paralakhemundi, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy,Udgir and Warangal.

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Advances in biophysicsCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad

May 25 – June 8, 2007

so that they are able to transfer some of the excitementsin biophysical theory and techniques through theirteaching. The programme was designed to introducethe teacher-participants to the multi-faceted natureof biophysics with lectures, demonstrations andlaboratory sessions.

The Course was divided into six modules to studystructure, function of biological macromolecules andintracellular localization and processes. (i) spectroscopy(ii) high resolution microscopy (iii) nuclear magneticresonance spectroscopy and imaging (iv) X-raycrystallography (v) proteomics and (vi) comparativeprotein modelling using bioinformatics tools andcomputational systems biology.

The morning sessions were devoted to theory lectureson the topic and the afternoon sessions were forlaboratory demonstration of the relevant biophysicaltechniques. There were special lectures in the eveningon nanotechnology, stem cells, quantum dots andemerging trends in biology.

Participants were from Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhopal,Coimbatore, Davangere, Durg, Gwalior, Hyderabad,Jaipur, Madikeri, Mahe, Mayiladuthurai, Nagaon,Namakkal, Nanded, Noida, Palakkad, Raipur, Rangpo,Rayagada, Sikar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchengode,Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam.

Experimental physicsAnna University, Chennai

May 28 – June 10 2007

No. of participants: 31

Course Directors : Ch. Mohan Rao and SomdattaSinha (CCMB, Hyderabad)

Resource Persons : Amitabha Chattopadhyay,Mandar V Deshmukh, Jyotsna Dhawan, K Guruprasad,Ch Mohan Rao, R Nagaraj, Anant Bahadur Patel,Nandini Rangaraj, Rajan Sankaranarayanan, RamRup Sarkar, Lalji Singh, Shashi Singh, Somdatta Sinhaand Ravi Sirdeshmukh (all of CCMB, Hyderabad).

Extracts from report by Course Directors

Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that usesconcepts and methods from physical sciences andengineering to elucidate the workings of biologicalprocesses at molecular, cellular, and organismallevel. The scale encompasses solving of proteinstructure or measuring the kinetics of interactionson one hand, to application of models and experimentaltechniques derived from physical sciences to largersystems such as tissues or organs on the other. Thesystems and methodologies used by biophysicists thusspan a large number of disciplines, such as biology,chemistry, computer science, mathematics, medicine,physics, physiology, and neuroscience.

Biophysics often does not have separate departmentsof its own in colleges, and is primarily taught bybiologists who have specialized in other areas of lifesciences. Given the interdisciplinary nature of thesubject, teaching biophysics to undergraduate andpostgraduate students remains a challenging task.With the advent of new techniques to unravel intra-cellular processes at a very small and fast space-time scales, it becomes necessary for the teachersto acquaint themselves with the rapid developmentstaking place in the area.

The goal of the Course was to expose the biologyteachers to the recent advancements in biophysics,

No. of participants : 28

Course Director : R Srinivasan

Course Coordinator : J Kumar

Resource Persons : R Srinivasan (RRI, Bangalore),JBC Efrem Desa, KRS Priolkar, SM Sadique (all ofGoa University, Goa), J Kumar, R Dhanasekaran,

Course Director Prof. Srinivasan demonstrating an experiment

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S Moorthy Babu, PK Palanichamy, K Baskar,SN Kalkura and R Jayavel (all of Anna University,Chennai).

Extracts from the report

The programme was designed such that the participantscan concentrate on improving the experimental activitieswhich are being carried out by the PG (physics)students. Towards achieving this goal ten experimentswere given to the participants during the morningsession. In the afternoon session the participants carriedout project work to assemble lock-in amplifier, constantcurrent source, etc. The participants assembled thecomponents and the entire experimental set-upand the project related kits were brought and co-ordinated.

Resource Persons : JK Bhattacharjee (IACS, Kolkata),Somesh Chandra Bagchi, Rana Barua, ProbalChaudhuri, Alok Goswami and Palash Sarkar (allof ISI, Kolkata), Swapan Kumar Chakravarty(Howrah).

Extracts from the report

Science Education Programme for senior schoolstudents is an effort to inspire young, brilliant andtalented minds in science and an endeavour forreversing the trend, which sees young mindsdrifting from the field of basic sciences. The mainaim of this course was to create awareness andmotivation towards the basic sciences especially inmathematics, and to inculcate a problem-solvingapproach in the young minds. The course providedthe students a glimse of the captivating world ofmathematics through discussions on the fundamentalsand conceptual aspects of mathematics which are notdiscussed at the school level.

In his lecture JK Bhattacharjee emphasized on thedevelopment of the fundamental concepts of basicsciences especially in the field of mathematics andmotivated the participants to take challengingcareers in this field. J Basu introduced the teacherparticipants to the activities of CMERI and addedthat conducting programmes of this genre is a partof the mandate of CSIR for societal benefit. PalashSarkar described to the students about the recentachievements of the Indians in the field of mathematics.He also shed light on the emerging areas ofmathematics in which research and development isrequired.

The participants received two books on "What ismathematics" and "Mathematics and its history".

Participants were from different schools nearDurgapur.

There was a special lecture every evening tointroduce the participants to new developments inexperimental physics. The participants were alsointroduced to the experimental facilities at theCrystal Growth Centre of the Anna University tocarry out experimental project activities on crystalgrowth. A visit to the Indira Gandhi Centre forAtomic Research was also arranged.

The teacher participants were from Bangalore,Chennai, Coimbatore, Kurnool, Madurai, Perambalur,Pollachi, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Thiruchengode,Thirupattur, Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvannamalai,Tiruchirappalli, Tumkur, Vellore, Warangal.

Mathematics and its applicationsCentral Mechanical Engineering Research Institute,Durgapur

June 9 –14, 2007

No. of participants : 45

Course Director : JK Bhattacharjee, IACS, Kolkata

Course Coordinator : Gopal P Sinha

Participants working on a project

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LECTURE WORKSHOPS

Physics of living matterAurora College, HyderabadJuly 19–20, 2007

Participants : 150 students and faculty from Mar Ivaniosand other local colleges

Topics covered : Group theory; quantum mechanics;quantum field theory.

Frontier topics in physics

CB Khedgi's Basaveshwar Science College, AkkalkotAugust 10–11, 2007

Convener : LS Shashidhara (CCMB, Hyderabad)

Speakers : MRN Murthy (IISc, Bangalore), SrikanthSastry (JNCASR, Bangalore), R Sankaranarayanan(CCMB, Hyderabad), Musti J Swamy (University ofHyderabad), Gautam Menon (IMSc, Chennai) andGV Shivashankar (NCBS, Bangalore).

Participants : 350 students and faculty from collegesin Hyderabad.

Topics of lectures : Protein structures; X-ray vision ofbiomolecules; biological membranes; machines at themolecular scale; genome organization and function withinliving cells.

Quantum mechanics, quantum fieldtheory, group theory and tensors

Mar Ivanios College, ThiruvananthapuramAugust 1–3, 2007

Conveners : DG Kanhere and Sulabha K Kulkarni(University of Pune)

Speakers : Sulabha K Kulkarni and DG Kanhere(University of Pune), IS Mulla (NCL, Pune), BB Kale(C-Met, Pune), R Nityananda (NCRA, Pune), Milind GWatve (Abasaheb Garware College, Pune).

Participants : 120 students and faculty from the physicsdepartment and colleges in Solapur district.

Topics covered : Nanoscience and technology;nanoparticles; GMRT: beyond our universe; excitementin astronomy; opportunities and advances in lifesciences and computers in physics education.

Convener : Diptiman Sen (IISc, Bangalore)

Speakers : N Mukunda and Diptiman Sen (IISc,Bangalore) and B Sathiapalan (IMSc, Chennai).

OBITUARIES

Chanduri Venkatasatya Kusumahara Baba –a great teacher, physicist, and above all a greathuman being – died on 5 December 2006 inHyderabad. A few months before his death, he wasdiagnosed as having lung cancer. The death camequietly and he did not suffer for too long.

Baba was born on 2 October 1937. He was fromthe first batch of the Department of Atomic EnergyTraining School. After completing his training hejoined SK. Bhattacharjee's group at Tata Institute

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of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 1958. His mainarea of research, in the early days, was nuclearspectroscopy using radioactive sources. He didseveral measurements of nuclear lifetimes, magneticmoments, beta-gamma angular correlations, conversionelectron coefficients etc. Almost all the equipmentneeded was home built, including many valve-based electronic modules wired together by Babajihimself.

Baba visited Niels Bohr Institute twice, the first timein 1962–63 and then again in 1979–80. He spenttwo years at the Technical University of Munich from1970, where he proposed and did a beautifulmeasurement of the difference of two g-factors in210Po using the perturbed angular correlationtechnique. After his return from Munich, he decidedto shift to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).This move helped start an accelerator-basednuclear spectroscopy programme at the Van de GraaffLaboratory, Trombay. In the late seventies andearly eighties only a few experiments were done,due to problems with the 5.5 MV Van de Graaff.This, however, did not dampen his enthusiasm andhe just took up different problems such as theassignment of a radiative decay from an isomericexcited state in the negative ion of Li, search forparticle bound polyneutrons in the fission of 236U,search for a difference in the radii characterizingthe neutron and proton mean-fields using the betadecay of 209TI, search for the light axion in radiativeneutron capture by protons at the 220 MW Tarapurreactor and in the MI decay of 13C, etc.

He often provided neat and simple solutions toproblems. The horse-shoe magnets used in vacuumdischarge gauges came to be known as BabaMagnets. Put at appropriate places on the beamline they helped steer the charged particle beam onto the target. Recently, nearly thirty years after hisoriginal innovation, they were also used to reducethe secondary electron background from the super-conducting RF cavity while making time profilemeasurements of the LINAC beam at TIFR. Babaalso devised a simple technique to scan theexcitation function in a nuclear reaction by rampingthe reference voltage of the analysing magnet andhence the energy of the analysed beam from theVan de Graaff accelerator at Trombay. This trickreduced significantly the labour and systematic errorin such measurements. Baba's own view was thatit was not significant enough to write this up forpublication. However, it was recorded in a paper by

his colleagues and he was quite happy with a mentionof his name in the acknowledgement. He latercollaborated on high energy gamma ray experimentsfirst at VECC, later at the TIFR Pelletron and finallyat the Pelletron at the Nuclear Science Centre (NSC),Delhi, now known as Inter University AcceleratorCentre (IUAC). At the NSC he suggested a solutionto a problem that was encountered while using thelarge Nal(TI) detector. The large crystal was viewedby several photo-multipliers whose recommendedvoltage for best energy resolution was not enoughfor the fast timing needed to discriminate againstneutrons by time-of-flight. His idea of increasingthe high voltage on the central PMT for good timingworked out very nicely.

Baba was open to unconventional ideas aboutexperiments suggested by other group members, the17 keV neutrino search in the beta decay beingone such. Indeed this was the first experimentthat cast doubts about the existence of the 17 keVneutrino. After the Pelletron started operating atTIFR, he started a programme of studying heavyion reactions around the Coulomb barrier. He movedback to TIFR in 1983. He was an active member ofthe TIFR collaboration with Pune University for theM.Sc. (Physics) programme during 1987–1989.

In the last decade after his retirement he used tospend time at NSC giving lectures on nuclearphysics to the Ph.D. students there. He also lecturedat several university departments. In his interactionswith theorists, he contributed much to their understandingof experiments. He even collaborated on purelytheoretical projects; this included such varied topicsas neutrino physics and the quantum hall effect.

Baba had a pivotal role in most of the major projectsin nuclear physics in the country. He was anactive supporter of the on-going effort to build anunderground laboratory devoted to neutrino physics.He did the early ground work with some colleaguesat the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennaiwhere he was a regular visitor after his retirementfrom TIFR, to identify the site for locating theunderground laboratory. The choice of the magnetizediron calorimeter detector as the main detector wasalso in no small measure due to him. Making a successof this project including the other planned experimentsthere, such as the neutrino-less double beta decayexperiment (with the 124Sn cryogenic bolometer), wouldbe a fitting tribute to his memory.

Above all, Baba was a great human being loved by hiscolleagues, students and just about any one who got

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to know him. He was vehemently opposed to themisuse of science; in particular, when nuclear testsand weapons were justified in the name of scienceand security. He enjoyed listening to music especiallyNorth Indian classical music, and maintained alarge personal collection. He learnt to play theviolin, but was hesitant to play it in front of others.

Baba leaves behind his wife Sukanya, a daughter(Prasanna) and a son (Srinath).

mental health and evaluation of mental healthprogrammes. His epidemiological training helped himto devise and conduct a four-year long cross-culturalstudy of mental disorder in collaboration with G.M.Carstairs. The aim of the study carried out in avillage of nearly 10,000 population was to comparethe frequency and patterns of mental disorderamongst three South Indian communities who livedin the same district but showed some strikingdifferences in their way of life. Two of the communitieswere matrilineal and one was patrilineal. Beforeconducting the inquiry through a population surveya number of preparatory studies were carried out.One aimed at the development of a structuralinterview schedule suitable for the local contextand testing of its reliability. Another was a socio-anthropological study on a participant-observer modelto know more about the three communities. Attitudesof the communities towards modernization andtowards the use of traditional healers for psychiatricproblems were also examined. During the mainsurvey every one with one or more symptoms wasasked if he or she had consulted any one for therelief of symptoms. Social functioning of those withsymptoms was compared with those without, througha specially prepared social functioning questionnaire.Finally an attempt was made to assess the degree ofpsychiatric need amongst those with symptoms withthe help of a 'need scale' constructed on the basisof 'number of symptoms', 'consultation' and subjectivelydeclared inability to cope and also as a book. Theresults of the above study were published in a seriesof papers.

His research interests then moved towards 'evaluation'and when acting as a temporary adviser to WHOmental health office in Geneva in 1974, he submitteda research proposal for evaluating low cost mentalhealth programmes in developing countries.

Kapur founded the Department of Psychiatry inKasturba Medical College as well as the Departmentof Community Psychiatry at NIMHANS. The latterinvolved evolving innovative strategies for communityinvolvement in mental health. He did intensive researchon the psychological and experimental aspects ofyoga. At NIAS, he was engaged in understanding thepsycho-social construct of violence in a multicentredstudy across the country and another study to elucidatethe nature of creativity in Indian scientists. He wasalso involved in studying the large incidence ofsuicide tendencies among the student community inIndian Institute of Science and helped reduce suchtendencies through a counselling mechanism.

Ravinder Lal Kapur (elected1977) was born on 7 July 1938at Lahore in Pakistan toMohan Lal Kapur and Vidyavati.After his schooling, he did hisMBBS in Amritsar in 1960 anda Diploma in PsychologicalMedicine in 1965 from theAll India Institute of Mental

Health and Neurosciences (now known as NIMHANS)in Bangalore. He then left for England to work atthe Department of Psychiatry in University ofEdinburgh first as a commonwealth Medical Fellow(1966–67) and then as a Research Assistant(1967–70). During this period he completed his Ph.Dfrom Edinburgh and the topic was a prospectiveepidemiological enquiry into factors related tofailure and dropout amongst roughly 2000 studentsadmitted to Edinburgh University in 1967. A numberof social, psychological and academic factors werefound to be related to wastage amongst the cohortand were combined to form two different kinds ofprediction scales. One of the scales used the statisticaltechnique of multiple regression and the other wasbased on a common sense unweighted procedure.Both the scales predicted the outcome with nearly70% efficiency at given cut-off points. The multipleregression scale was also cross-validated.

Returning to India he joined the Kasturba MedicalCollege in Manipal as professor and head of theDepartment of Psychiatry between October 1971and September 1975. In 1975 he joined NIMHANS,Bangalore as a professor of community psychiatryand continued there until 1983 when he joined theIndian Institute of Science as a visiting professor.In 1987 he joined the newly founded National Instituteof Advanced Studies (NIAS) again as a professor ofthe Department of Health and Human Behaviour andlater as Deputy Director. He continued at NIAS untilhis end.

Kapur's research interests include psychiatricepidemiology, cross-cultural psychiatry, student

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bioenergetics, in particular to the understanding ofglycolysis in its steady and oscillatory states. Earlyin his work he developed sensitive fluorometrictechniques to monitor glycolytic reactions and usedthese techniques to study the steps that control therate of glycolysis in vivo. His work led to the ideathat certain reactions in this biochemical pathwaymay approach equilibrium although the total systemsupports a net flux. An interesting result of this workwas the discovery of oscillations in this reactionsequence.

Maitra and his collegues studied the induction of theenzymes involved in glucose utilization and themetabolites that regulate these enzymes, They haveshown that the apparent constitutive synthesis ofglycolytic enzymes results from the presence ofendogenous inducers and have identified the keymetabolites involved in the induction process in yeastand bacteria. Later they isolated genetic mutantsdefective in the structural genes for several glycolyticenzymes opening a new approach to the study ofglycolysis. Maitra along with S. L. Chakrabartiinvestigated the effect of ribosomal mutations onthe fidelity of translation. Their work showed thatmutations in ribosomes led to changes in the structureand kinetic properties of enzymes synthesized onthese ribosomes. Maitra's work on glycolysis also ledto the discovery of a new glucokinase in yeast.

Maitra is thus a leading expert in the field of glucosemetabolism. He is a member of International CellResearch Organization's panel of experts of EnergyMetabolism and a member of the editorial board ofthe Journal of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.

After superannuation from TIFR Maitra settled downat Pune working at the Agharkar Research Institute.Even though he spent only a relatively short period oftime at the Agharkar Research Institute, he isremembered there even today for having completelyrejuvenated the student community at that institute.He was a remarkable guide to his students, bothacademically and otherwise, and inculcated in thema philosophy of practising science that was strikinglydifferent from what appears to be the norm in Indianscience today.

Apart from science, Maitra was passionate aboutother good things in life – sports, particularly football(he was diehard supporter of the Mohun BaganFootball Club of Kolkata), Hindustani classical music,Bengali folk music and Rabindrasangeet, literatureand of course, food and Bengali sweets. He would

Kapur received many awards. Murthy Rao GoldMedal for best performance in his D.P.M. examination;the first Marfatia award (1971); the Hari Om AshramAlembic Award (1977), Poona Psychiatric awardand Bhagwat Award of the Indian Psychiatric Society(1982) and Eminent Psychiatrist Award (1992–93).He was elected Fellow of the Royal College ofPsychiatrists and the National Academy of MedicalSciences. His writings include a book "Great Universityof Kota" (Hogarth, 1976), two edited books "Mindapproaches to its understanding" and "Psychotherapeuticprocesses".

Kapur passed away on 24 November 2006 whileon a visit to Italy. He leaves behind his wife Malvikaand they have a son and a daughter.

Pabitra Kumar Maitra (elected 1975), a pioneer inthe field of yeast biochemical genetics, passedaway after a brain haemorrhage in a Kolkatanursing home on 4 September 2007.

Maitra was born on 1 November 1932 in Mazda, asmall town in the Nadia district of West Bengal. Heattended school in Krishnagar in the same district.He obtained his Bachelor's, Master's and PhDdegrees from Calcutta University during the periodfrom 1952 to 1960. His doctoral research, under theguidance of S.C. Roy of the Department of AppliedChemistry, dealt mainly with the biochemicalregulation of certain metabolic pathways of Streptomycesolivaceous. He then joined the Johnson Foundation,University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with BrittonChance and Ronald Estabrook on the bioenergeticsand regulation of cellular metabolic pathways, withparticular focus on baker's yeast Saccharomycescerevisiae as a model system. During this period hedeveloped sensitive flurometric assays for the enzymesand inter-mediates of the glycolytic pathway. Theseassays have since been used widely to monitorglycolytic reactions and their rates in vivo. A noteworthyout-come of these studies was the discovery ofoscillations in this pathway.

After his return to India, Maitra joined the MolecularBiology Unit of the Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch, as one of its first members, in 1963. Here,he and his colleagues, notably Zita Lobo (whom helater married in 1977), worked on the biochemicalgenetics of Escherichia coli and S. cerevisiae. His groupmade distinctive contributions to the field of

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often announce seminars on the applications ofglycolysis to human life and serve rossogollas thathe had carried for the entire department all the wayfrom Kolkata!

Rangaswamy Narasimhan(elected 1966), consideredthe father of Indian computerscience research, passedaway on 3 September 2007.He was born on 17 April 1926at Madras. After his schooling,he obtained his B.E (Hons)degree in telecommunicationsengineering in 1947. In 1949he received his MS in electrical engineering fromCalTech (Pasadena) and then proceeded to theIndiana University in USA for his M.A and Ph.D inmathematics in 1953 and 1954 respectively.

He joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) in 1954 as a research fellow and worked onthe logical and system design of TIFRAC, the firstdigital computer to be designed, built and operatedin India. A three-year stint at the university of Illinoisas a visiting faculty member (1961–64) enabled himto work on the development of computationaltechniques for processing pictures in digital computer.He also developed a model for visual data processing.Returning to TIFR in 1964 as Associate Professorand Head of the Computer Group and CDC-3600-160A computer installation, he became a full professorin 1966 and Senior Professor in 1973. He wasalso designated as Director, National Centre forSoftware Development and Computing Techniqueswhich was set up in TIFR with assistance from UNDP.This Centre was renamed National Centre of SoftwareTechnology (NCST) which became the cradle fornot only ERNET, the choice gateway of severalacademic and research institutions, but also thepromotion of Internet domains in the country. NCST –certified courses in software, the epitome of qualityeducation, was much sought after by the industry.

At TIFR Narasimhan made important contributions inthe field of pattern recognition using computers. Hewas able to formulate a linguistic model for patternanalysis and description – and to devise a specificalgorithm based on this model for the processing ofbubble chamber data and other pictures.

In the late sixties, as an offshoot of the recommendationsof a three-man sub-committee, constituted underthe Bhabha Committee, with Narasimhan as chairman,

a national company was set up to address computermanufacture and maintenance in the country.Narasimhan was drawn into these early efforts toset up the Computer Maintenance Corporation laterrenamed CMC Limited and was the natural choiceto be the first chairman. Narasimhan was on asustained quest, over two decades, of developing ameta-theory of behaviour. This led him to deepresearch in the areas of computational modellingof behaviour, modelling language behaviour, firstlanguage acquisition, artificial intelligence in thestudy of agentive behaviour among others. Thiscovered a wide range of subjects from pictureprocessing to natural language theory to linguisticsto behavioural sciences to formal mathematics. Hewas the first to discover an analogy betweenformal grammars of natural languages and theformal structures underlying picture processing. Heassisted policy formulation for computer and soft-ware industry, often from behind the scenes. Otherthan pure research, he was also keen on how ITcould be deployed to serve the bulk of the population.While he acknowledged the beneficial role ofgovernment, to the extent they were catalytic andconstructive, he also encouraged the industry andthe academia to jointly set up a private society toevolve and articulate their stand on the industrialand academic aspects of design, manufacturing,services and applications of computers. His campaignresulted in the setting up of the Computer Societyof India in 1964 and served as its founder-Presidentfrom 1964 to 1969.

Narasimhan was also interested in the role of scienceand technology in socio-economic change anddevelopment. To give a creative direction to earlyeducation of children, he investigated the languagebehaviour environment that a child is exposed to inthe very early stages (9 months to 3 years) offirst language acquisition. This led to an importantethological study of language acquisition behaviour.Such first language acquisition was found to haveclose links to the orality-literacy contrast. He showedthat pre-literate oral language behaviour differsfrom literate language behaviour and that theformer, and not the latter, has correlations withgenetically prewired behaviour. Further, he showedthat language acquisition in the two cases bearsan analogy to the differences between connectionistAI and rule based AI, the former defined to includenon-literate modes of functioning which cannot bereduced to a 'puzzle-solving' mode. He wrote athought-providing book on this at the age of 77.These studies have revealed new paradigms fornursery and primary education of children.

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Narasimhan was elected to all the three nationalscience academies of the country, was recipient ofPadma Shri (1976), the Homi Bhabha Award (1976),the Om Prakash Bhasin Award (1988) and the DataquestLifetime Achievement Award (1994).

Kumbakonam ViswanathaRamanathan (elected 1975)passed away on 8 March2007. He is well known forhis pioneering efforts toestablish in India a viableresearch and developmenteffort in the area of semi-conductor electronics. Thegroup he established andheaded for several years at Tata Institute ofFundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai wasacknowledged to be among the leading ones inthis area in India. As the Chief Executive of theSemi-conductor Complex of the Government ofIndia, he pioneered the growth of that young institutionfrom 1976 to 1980.

Ramanathan was born in Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu)on 17 July 1926 and studied first at the ThiruvadumarudurHigh School and then at P.S. High School inMylapore, Chennai. He studied at the PresidencyCollege, Chennai to graduate in 1945 as B.Sc (Hons)student in physics. The rules that existed then atthe Madras University meant that this degreeautomatically became an M.A. after a specifiedtime. It was common those days for such physicsgraduates either to opt for IAS or some technicalservices, since very few research opportunitiesexisted. All India Radio was one of the attractivetechnical services since it was a governmentservice and Ramanathan joined AIR in 1947 andworked until 1958 as a technical assistant, first inChennai, later in Dharwar and then on to New Delhi.When the gates of the US universities opened forIndian students for science after the world warRamanthan went to US for graduate studies. At theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, he was awardedthe MS (Applied Physics) in 1960. After completingthe course requirements for a Ph.D. degree, hejoined the MTS, TRW Systems (California) and in1962 moved to be a staff scientist at the HughesResearch Laboratories. At that time the ElectronicsCommission of India was active in promoting semi-conductor research and Ramanathan joined TIFR in1964 with a mandate to set up a state-of-theart semiconductor research laboratory. The Solid

State Electronics Laboratory at TIFR was thenone among the very few labs in India to pioneerresearch and development effort for advanced workon unit processes for integrated circuits and trainyoung graduates in this important field. During histenure at TIFR, he was seconded to the Semi-conductor Complex of the Government of India,Chandigarh from 1976 to 1980. He retired fromTIFR in 1983 but continued his involvement in thisarea as a visiting professor or as a visiting scientistat the University of California (Los Angeles), IBMResearch (New York), Rensselaer PolytechnicInstitute (Troy, NY), University of Florida (Gainesville),Australian National University (Canberra) and IndianInstitute of Science (Bangalore).

Ramanathan worked in all aspects of physics ofsemiconductors and devices and technology withreference to integrated circuits. During the earlystages he was involved in the original patent dis-closure of TTL, devised dielectric isolation by chemicalmeans, and developed a method for depositingSiO2 on integral silicon oxide to increase the yields.Characterizing these circuits resulted in better maskdesigns yielding three patents. He also worked ondiscreet p-n-p design and fabrication, on the mechanismof filamentary switching in chalcogenide glasses,and the Mott prefactor problem in hydrogenatedamorphous silicon. He investigated the thermal stabilityof MOS devices, deep levels in silicon and theirgettering, properties of ion implanted oxides, XPSmeasurements on the effect of implanted chlorine inthermal oxides, hot electron and hole instability inthermal oxides, and modelling of three dimensionalstructures made by laser annealed polysilicon.

At TIFR, his group established the facilities for diffusion,ion implantation, photo resist, CVD for polysilicondeposition, epi reactor, plasma etching, plasmadeposition, e-beam evaporation, and cw laser forlaser annealing. Characterization equipment suchas IV, CV, DLTS, four point probe, Dektak etc. wereestablished. Computer aided tools like CAD formask pattern generator, SUPREME and MSINC weredeveloped. His group worked intensively in the areaof large scale integration (LSI) and very largescale integration (VLSI). The TIFR effort, besidesestablishing an outstanding facility for fabricationof novel semiconductor devices, made substantialcontribution to the basic understanding of semi-conductor device processes. The main fallout fromthe TIFR's R&D effort is: (a) the TTL (gold doped)version and the Schottky TTL developments weresubsequently transferred to manufacturing units,and (b) along with his coworkers a facility for R&D

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and manufacture of LSI devices was established atthe Chandigarh Semiconductor complex.

After TIFR, his research on solid phase epitaxy ofsilicon helped build a molecular beam epitaxy systemto study strained layer superlattices. The area oflow energy (> 1000 eV) reactive (oxygen) ion beamsynthesis of oxides of transition metals like Cr, Cuto produce very thin films was studied. The transportproperties, the structure, the oxidation state, themorphology etc were studied by Squid magneto-meter, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron diffraction,XPS and SEM and the composition of the films bynuclear back scattering. It was found that theenergy, the flux, and substrate temperature had aphenomenal effect on the composition and structure.These studies show the existence of a new, asyet unidentified, phase with unusual properties andresulted in patent disclosures.

Ramanathan shares four patents: original patentfor co-inventing the TTL computer circuits (1962);deposited oxide (1962); dielectric isolation bychemical etching (1962) and low energy ion beamsynthesis (1986).

Ramanathan's contributions to solid state electronicswere recognized by awards such as Vasvik and agold medal for original contributions to solid stateelectronics in 1986. He was a member of thecommittees of the Government of India which wentinto several aspects of semiconductor electronics.He was also a consultant to UNIDO in Vienna.

Ramanathan was a multifaceted person. He is rareamong scientists in that he held license as a fullpilot for a single-engined plane. He was fond ofCarnatic music and on the whole enjoyed life. Hewas friendly and ever keen to share his views withothers.

He settled down in Chennai since 1995. He leavesbehind his wife Radha, a son and two daughters.

Udai Narain Singh (elected1975) was born on 1 January1931. After his schooling, hegraduated from the Universityof Calcutta and then had hisearly training in physicalchemistry at the BanarasHindu University (1952–54)and university of Pennsylvania(1956–57). He obtained his

Ph.D from the university of Chicago in 1963 andworked for a brief period at the McGill Montrial

General Hospital between 1963 and 1965. In 1966he joined TIFR, Mumbai and worked there for 20years. In 1986 he moved to the university of Delhi.

After his early interest in physical chemistry hechanged over to biophysics and biochemistry. Amonghis early contributions in this area was the developmentand application of a quantitative analytic method forthe evaluation of isotope incorporation data in animalcells. He used this approach to demonstrate theprecursor product relationship between nuclear andcytoplasmic RNA. Subsequently this approach provedto be of general applicability to a variety of problemssuch as the replication of viruses and maturation ofribosomal RNA.

At TIFR he worked on different aspects of synthesisof RNA and protein. During this period he developeda stochastic model of protein synthesis on labiletemplates which provides a framework for co-ordination of transcription, translation, and degradationof messenger RNA in microorganisms. This modelprovides the rational basis for a variety physiologicalphenomena such as the size distribution of polyribosomes and the rapidly labelled RNA, distributionof nascent peptides, and the temporal relationshipbetween the synthesis of enzymes and its mRNA.

Singh and his students investigated the biogenesisof ribosomes in E. coli using a quantitative immuno-chemical technique. His work led to the suggestionthat the ribosomal proteins in E. coli are synthesizedin a coordinate manner and the free proteins in thepool function as a positive control element in thesynthesis of ribosomal RNA. He has shown thatthe genes for 16 S and 23 S ribosomal RNA arecontiguous and involve a common initiation site.

Singh passed away at Varanasi on 31 December 2006.He remained a bachelor.

Veeravalli Venkata RangaVaradachari (elected 1974) wasborn on 1 July 1925 in anorthodox family in Gutala, asmall village on the banks ofriver Godavari in AndhraPradesh. After completinghis primary and secondaryeducation , VVR obtained hisB.Sc (Hons) degree in physics

in 1948 from the Andhra University and the M.Scdegree in meteorology and oceanography in 1949with a second rank from the university. On completion

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of this course, VVR worked as a member of theteaching faculty in the Department of Meteorology, andOceanography of the Andhra University beforeproceeding to the Florida State University in Tallahassu(USA) on a research fellowship. At Florida heworked with Seymour L. Hess in the Department ofMeteorology, which was then an US Air Force advancedtraining centre in meteorological forecasting.

VVR returned from Florida in 1956 with an MS degreein fluid dynamics. Back at Andhra University, hecontinued his career as a teacher at postgraduatelevel in meteorology and oceanography to makesignificant contributions to teaching, planning andorganizing oceanographic cruises in the seasaround India, and formulation of marine scienceprogrammes in several Indian Universities havingpostgraduate courses in physical oceanographyand meteorology. Varadachari made significantcontributions to oceanography in India. His maincontributions are in the areas of physical anddynamical aspects of upwelling along the IndianCoast line, ocean currents, water masses, submarinecanyons, wave refraction and littoral currents alongthe Indian coast line, circulation in the seas aroundIndia, coastal oceanography and coastal zonemanagement, particularly on problems of beacherosion, mud banks along the Kerala coast, ripcurrents, harbour sedimentation, bar formation nearriver months, dispersal of effluents in the nearshoreenvironment, and the role of oceans and oceanvariables on the Indian Southwest monsoon. Hisbasic researches triggered applied researches andled to several sponsored projects in coastaloceanography.

VVR joined the National Geophysical ResearchInstitute (NGRI) at Hyderabad in September 1962and shortly thereafter moved to Cochin as Senior

Scientist with Oceanographic Research Wing (ORW)of NGRI. He was a leading Indian Oceanographerto participate in the International Indian OceanExpedition (1961– 65). On completion of the expedition,the ORW under NGRI became the nucleus for theformation of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO)in January 1966. VVR shifted his place ofwork from Cochin to Goa, and continued to serveNIO till his retirement in July 1985. He formulatedresearch programmes in physical oceanography,as Head of the Physical Oceanography Division ofNIO right from its inception in 1966, and in variousaspects of marine sciences, as the Director of theInstitute from 1981 to 1985. He provided logisticsupport for the first scientific expedition toAntarctica.

VVR was elected a Fellow of all the three nationalAcademies of the country, and a founder Fellow of theIndian Geophysical Union. He served as aMember Secretary of the Indian National Committeesfor Scientific Committees on Oceanic Research(SCOR) and was elected Vice-Chairman of the JointSCOR/IOC committee on climatic changes and theOcean (CCCO). He represented India in manyinternational conferences of the IntergovernmentalOceanographic Commission and contributed to thepreparation of the document on 'Ocean Sciencesfor the year 2000' published by IOC/UNESCO. AtNIO, under his directorship VVR played a key rolein organizing the four Indian scientific expeditionsto Antarctica from 1981 to 1984, and NIO receivedthe status of "pioneer investor" in the survey of"polymetallic nodules" in the Indian Ocean.

Varadachari was married to Kamala who passedaway leaving two sons and four daughters. Subse-quently, he married Radha who also predeceasedhim.