Annual Report for General Secretary
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ANNUAL GENERAL BODY MEETING
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,
Mankhurd, Mumbai - 400088.
August 5, 2010.
Distinguished IPA members and colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to present the report on IPA activities for year 2009-2010. I am reporting for the period between the last AGBM held on March 20, 2009 to till date.
IPA Elections :
Biennial Elections of IPA Office Bearers for the term 2010-2012 were conducted by the returning officers Prof. R. Varma, IIT Bombay, Mumbai and Dr. B. N. Jagatap, BARC, Mumbai. The election results were declared on June 3, 2010 and the following members of IPA executive Committee have been declared elected:
Prof. S. Kailas - President
BARC, Mumbai
Prof. M.K.Sanyal - Vice President
SINP, Kolkata
Prof. S. S. Major - General Secretary
IITBombay, Mumbai
Dr. D. Kanjilal - Joint Secretary
IUAC, New Delhi
Prof. Ashok Mody
Mithibhai College, Mumbai - Treasurer
Prof. Jahan Singh,
Shobit University, Meerut - Member (North Zone)
IPA would like to thank the Election Officers for conducting the elections smoothly.
Membership :
During the period of this report, IPA has enrolled 170 new life members, 13 new annual members, 19 new student members.
Launching of new IPA website :
A new website of IPA (www.ipa1970.org.in) has been launched since January, 2010. This has resulted in substantial increase in interaction of IPA members and chapters with the Head Office.
Physics News :
During the period April 2009 to June 2010, 5 issues (Vol. 39, Nos. 2-4 and Vol. 40, Nos. 1- 2 of Physics News have been published, with the financial support of CARE, SINP, Kolkata. I am happy to report that the new look - Physics News has been received very well by IPA members and would like to congratulate Prof. Dipan Ghosh, Chief Editor, Physics News and his editorial board for the same. It may be mentioned to Prof. Ghosh's credit that he has been greatly successful in bringing in articles of contemporary interest and high standard, written by reputed scientists/authors during his two years tenure. I would also like to point out that the two special issues of Physics News on (i) Dr. Homi J Bhabha (January 2009) and (ii) Sir J C Bose (October 2009), have been received extremely well by one and all. The special issue on Dr. Homi Bhabha has been later expanded in the form of a monograph, 'Tribute to a Titan' (Editors, Dipan K. Ghosh and Arun K. Grover) with the support received from Homi Bhabha Centenary Committee (DAE).
Lectures and Seminars :
Prof. P. A. Pandya Endowment Lectures :
Prof. P A Pandya Endowment Lecture - 2009 was delivered by Prof. Sibaji Raha, Director, Bose Institute, Kolkata on 5th April 2010 at the Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi under the auspices of IPA Varanasi chapter. The topic of the lecture was 'Climate Change & Cosmic Rays - the Physicist's Role in Global'. IPA would like to thank the speaker, the local organizers and the host institution for the successful conduct of the lecture.
DAE - C. V. Raman Lecture Series :
As informed in the last AGBM, BRNS (DAE) has resumed support to IPA for holding four DAE - C V Raman Lectures across the country every year. The lectures are to be delivered by eminent scientists at academic institutions, such as universities, colleges, IITs and IISERs, etc., primarily for the exposure and benefit of students and young researchers. I am happy to inform you that all the four lectures for the year 2009-10 have been successfully conducted and very well received. The details are as follows:
(a) The first lecture was organized by IPA Kalpakkam Chapter on 8th December, 2009 at Madras Christian College, Chennai. The lecture was delivered by Dr. C. S. Sundar, Director, Materials Science Group, IGCAR, Kalpakkam on, 'Solid State Physics then - to Materials Science now'.
(b) The second lecture was organized by IPA Kolkata Chapter on 15th January, 2010 at IISER, Kolkata. The lecture was delivered by Prof. S. Dattagupta, Director, IISER, Kolkata on 'Quantum Dissipation of an electron in a Magnetic Field'.
(c) The third lecture was organized by IPA Chandigarh Chapter on 17th March, 2010 at the Department of Physics, Punjab University, Chandigarh. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Amit Roy, Director, IUAC, New Delhi on, 'Renaissance in Nuclear Physics'.
(d) The fourth lecture was organized by IPA Mumbai Chapter on 19th March, 2010 at IIT Bombay. The lecture was delivered by Dr. S. Banerjee, Chairman, AEC on, 'Challenges for Meeting the Energy Demands of India'.
On behalf of IPA, it is my pleasure to put on record our thanks to BRNS (DAE) for supporting the DAE - C V Raman lectures and the annual grant of Rs. 1.0 lakh sanctioned for this purpose. I would also like to thank all the lecturers, the organizers (local chapters) and the host institutions for the successful conduct of these lectures.
IPA - IoP Biennial Exchange of Lecturers :
Under this exchange programme, Prof. Peter Littlewood (FRS) of Cavendish laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK, delivered three Cockcroft - Walton Lectures at Mumbai (IIT Bombay on December 4, 2009), Allahabad (HRI on December 8, 2009) and Kolkata (SINP on December 11, 2009). Prof. Littlewood, who is an eminent condensed matter theorist, spoke on' The Physics of Synchrony: from Huygens to Higgs via Kamerlingh Onnes, Bose and Einstein'. The lectures were extremely well received and IPA thanks the speaker, the Institute of Physics (UK), the local organizers and host institutions for their successful conduct.
Awards :
Shri M M Chugani Memorial Award for Excellence in Applied Physics :
The M M Chugani Memorial award - 2008 was conferred on Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission. The award function took place on May 11, 2009 at Nehru Centre in Mumbai, during which Dr. Kakodkar delivered the lecture on 'Preparing for our Technology Future'.
R D Birla Award for Excellence in Physics :
The R D Birla Award - 2008 was conferred on Prof. M G K Menon at the Science Congress in Thiruvanathapuram on January 5, 2010.
IPA- Prof. C V K Baba Best Thesis Award (Nuclear Physics) :
For the year 2009, this award was given to Dr. Ritesh Kshetri of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata during Nuclear Physics Symposium, held at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (Dec 8-12, 2009).
IPA Best Thesis Awards in Solid State Physics :
For the year 2009, the awards were jointly given to Dr. Manjusha Inamdar, TIFR, Mumbai and Dr. N. E. Rajeevan, University of Calicut, Kerala.
C. L. Bhat Memorial Award (Astronomy Olympiad Orientation - cum - Selection Camp):
For the year 2009, the awards were given to Mr. Prafulla Sushil Dhariwal (Junior group) and Mr. Kedar Tatwawadi (Senior group).
For the year 2010, the awards were given to Mr. Yash Gupta for Junior Science Olympiad, Mr. Pritish Patil for Astronomy Olympiad (Junior group) and to Mr. Aniruddha Bapat for Astronomy Olympiad (Senior group).
Indian National Physics Olympiad:
The award for "Best Solution to a Challenging Problem" award was given to Mr Abhishek Padmanabhan for 2009 and to Mr. Anumula Jitendar Reddy for 2010. The award for the "Best Performance in Experimental Programme" was given to Mr. Vinayak Gagrani for 2009 and to Ms. Aankanksha Sarda for 2010.
IPA congratulates and wishes the best to all the awardees, for their future endeavours.
Interaction with Overseas Physics Associations / Societies :
PA - IOP Annual Exchange of Lecturers :
As mentioned above, under this exchange programme, Prof. Peter Littlewood, FRS, delivered three Cockcroft-Walton lectures for the year 2009.
Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies :
IPA continues to be a member of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies.
Activities of IPA Chapters :
Presently, IPA has 44 chapters, some of which have been quite active. I present below the reports received for some IPA Chapters:
Pilani Chapter : IPA Pilani Chapter has organized the following talks by eminent scientists :
(a) Dr. M B Choudhary, Deputy Director, IPR Gandhi Nagar delivered talk on 'Spectroscopy studies of LHD heliotron and Aditya Plasmas'.
(b) Dr S N Joshi, Emeritus Scientist CEERI Pilani delivered a talk on 'An overview of C V Raman's achievements, on the occasion of Science Day celebrations.
Indore Chapter : IPA Indore Chapter had a discussion meeting on May 8, 2010 for conducting activities on 'Motivating students to take up Physics and Designing simple mobile experiments for secondary level'.
Kalpakkam, Chandigarh and Mumbai chapters : These chapters have conducted one DAE - C V Raman lecture, each.
Kolkata Chapter : The chapter has conducted one DAE- CV Raman lecture and one Cockcroft- Walton lecture.
Varanasi chapter: The chapter has conducted Prof. P. A. Pandya Endowment lecture.
Before concluding, I take this opportunity to thank the President IPA, Prof. Bikash Sinha, Vice - President, Prof. S. Kailas, treasurer, Mr. A. N. Nakra, Chief Editor, Physics News, Prof. Dipan Ghosh, all other members of the Executive Committee for their guidance and support. I would also like to thank local IPA seniors and colleagues, including Prof. P. H. Umadikar, Shri J. N. Soni, Mr. P.R. Vijayaraghavan, Dr. Arun Grover, Prof. H. C. Pradhan, Dr. R. R. Puri, Prof. Ashok Mody and Shri Suhas Naik-Satam for their timely advise and action and unstinted co-operation. I am sure that I have unwittingly left out some names and I apologise for the same.
I wish to express my deeply felt appreciation of the hard work done by Mrs. Suvarnalatha and Mr. Ashok Dhule of IPA office. Without their dedication to the cause, it would not have been possible to make whatever small progress that we have made during the period of this report. I thank them profusely for their un-stinted support in conducting the IPA activities.
I now request the IPA members present here, to accept this brief report.
Thank you!
S S Major