Expert Insight Archives | Page 3 of 3

Mar

19

2020

0 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

Public health concerns

Expert InsightCovid-19, Ebola, Herd immunity, IIT Kharagpur, Science Communication Conclave, vaccine

‘Herd immunity’, a much discussed issue now the world over, and ‘R-naught’ (R0) – both the terms came up during a discussion on public health by Prof. Sangeeta Bhattacharya of the School of Medical Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Bhattacharya, a double board certified physician in the US and Associate Faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, was talking on the importance of the coverage of public health during the recent Science Communication Conclave organized at IIT Kharagpur (Feb 28-29). The conclave sought to facilitate better communication between the scientific community and journalists. During her talk at…

Feb

19

2020

2 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

The evolving grammar of healthcare

Expert InsightAlgorithm, biomarkers, Clinical Biomarkers Discovery Laboratory, Healthcare, hospital, IIT Kharagpur, Interview, omics approach

The Clinical Biomarkers Discovery Laboratory at IIT Kharagpur is actively involved in using the newly emerged field of metabolomics, which is capable of providing biological end-point markers of the cellular processes that occur as a result of disease. The lab focuses on the use of metabolomics for comprehensive identification of disease biomarkers and understanding of the pathogenic mechanism underlying complex human diseases. Prof. Koel Chaudhury, who heads the lab, talks to the KGP Chronicle about how she has used the metabolomics approach to investigate women’s health, the progress her team has made and the future challenges. Could you please give…

Dec

06

2019

0 Comments

By Guest Contributor

Exploring EHD

Expert InsightElectrohydrodynamics, interdisciplinary, Microfluidics

Contributor: Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur The last week of November saw sixteen eminent researchers from leading universities in France and India congregate at IIT Kharagpur to join four of our own colleagues with a common objective of knowledge sharing and what followed was three days of "fluid" interactions and "charged up" ideas among this "microcosm" of professionals from mechanical, chemical, electrical engineering, applied physics and medical science disciplines. This Indo-French workshop on "Recent Advances in ElectroHydroDynamics (EHD) - applications in microfluidics" was organized at IIT Kharagpur during 27-29 November 2019. About ElectroHydroDynamics (EHD) EHD, strictly…

Sep

06

2019

0 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

Mission possible

Expert InsightA S Davis, DHI, DHI Centre, DHI Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing, IIT Kharagpur, Lord Bhattacharyya, Vinod Gupta, WMG

Prof. Surjya K. Pal, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor-in-Charge, DHI Centre of Excellence in Adv Manuf Tech (http://www.coeamt.com ), Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs, Chairman, Steel Technology Centre, Executive Adviser, Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park (STEP), added another feather to his cap recently. He has been appointed Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya Chair Professor of Manufacturing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of IIT Kharagpur for 2019-22. The Chair was set up in April 2019 by Prof. Tapan Bagchi (DSc/2012/IM), alumnus of the Institute, former Director, NITIE, Mumbai, and former Dean of SP Jain Mumbai and Dubai. The Chair was instituted in…

Sep

02

2019

0 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

Written on the walls

Expert InsightCenter for Heritage Conservation, Department of Architecture, first IIT, IIT Kharagpur, Modernism, Priya Jain, Texas A&M University

As a former detention centre for freedom fighters during the Raj and then as the first Indian Institute of Technology that laid the foundation of the IIT system, IIT Kharagpur’s heritage is widely known and acknowledged. The academic building, together with a host of early structures in the campus, stands testimony to a momentous era. Do they bear any other secret? Prof. Priya Jain, Associate Director, Center for Heritage Conservation and Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University, believes they do. “IIT Kharagpur was the first large scale campus that was designed in the modernist style in India,”…

Aug

15

2019

0 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

Look back in hope

Expert InsightAnjali Roy, IIT Kharagpur, Independence, Independence Day, memory, Partition, postmemory, Routledge

Can there be looking ahead without looking back? The 73rd Independence Day of India could be a good time to ask the question. But as Prof. Anjali Roy’s just-released book on the ‘memories and post memories of Partition’ makes obvious, the question is a complicated one, for looking back itself is a complicated task. One reason that has complicated the ‘looking back’ at Partition –a fact of history indissociable from Independence - is the deafening silence surrounding it. Part of this is because of the conscious erasure of the disturbing memories of Partition in order to promote the triumphalist narrative…

Mar

19

2019

0 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

Build small, think big

Expert InsightBen Feringa, Chemistry, molecular engines, Nobel laureate, Nobel Prize

“The duty of universities, more than ever now, is to train students to think critically,” said Prof. Ben L. Feringa during his visit to IIT Kharagpur Professor Ben L. Feringa won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Jean-Pierre Sauvage (France) and Sir James Fraser Stoddart (UK) for their work on the development of molecular machines. He has been a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Groningen since 1988. In 1999, his discovery of the 'molecular motor' - a light-driven rotary molecular motor -was widely recognized as a spectacular scientific breakthrough. Prof. Feringa is internationally recognized as a…

Jan

28

2019

0 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

An Interaction with the Partition Archive

Expert InsightGera Roy, home, IIT Kharagpur, national, Partition Archive, violence

Three young boys, almost painfully conscious of addressing what they believed was a way more mature audience than what they probably had in mind. Yet they represented a wisdom that is perhaps as tall as a mountain. The three of them were from “The 1947 Partition Archive”, a globally important organisation. The Partition Archive, a non-profit organization born at Berkeley, with an office in Delhi, has been collecting, preserving and sharing first-hand accounts of the Partition since 2010. The three bright young scholars, who have worked for the organization and continue to work with it, were invited to IIT Kharagpur’s…

Nov

01

2018

3 Comments

By Chirosree Basu

Beyond the horror and heartbreak of Partition

Expert Insight1947, Anjali Gera Roy, embodied violence, heartbreak, horror, IIT Kharagpur, Partition, Partition Archive, untold stories, victimhood, victims

Dr Anjali Gera Roy's ongoing project, “After Partition: Post-memories of the Afterlife of Partition 1947”, is part of the worldwide initiative to record the stories of the victims of Partition as they orally recount their horror and heartbreak A house by the river. Moonshine on the waters. And an amazing sunrise every day. That is how Sova Mukherjee recounts the idyll she had to leave behind in Noakhali when political vagaries and Partition drove them away from their land. The family got divided as they shifted to Ganderia in old Dhaka and then to Kolkata before coming together again. Sova…