Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science,(Deemed to be university under de novo catagory under section 3 of UGC)
Seal of IACS
Motto To cultivate Science in all its departments with a view to its advancement by original research and with a view to its varied application to the arts and comforts of life.
Type Public (Deemed University), Research institute
Established 29 July 1876
Founder Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar
President Man Mohan Sharma
Director Santanu Bhattacharya [1]
Location 2A & 2B Raja S C Mullick Road Kolkata-700032, West Bengal, India
22°29′54″N 88°22′07″E / 22.4983°N 88.3686°E / 22.4983; 88.3686
Campus Urban
Website www.iacs.res.in

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) is an institute of higher learning in Kolkata, India.[2][3] Established in 1876 by Mahendra Lal Sarkar, a private medical practitioner, it focuses on fundamental research in basic sciences.[4] It is India's oldest research institute [5][6] Located at Jadavpur, South Kolkata beside Jadavpur University, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology it is spread over a limited area of 9.5 acres.[7]. In May 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development announced that IACS[8] had been granted the status of Deemed University[9] under De-novo Category under section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act 1956.

Academic programme

The institute is engaged in fundamental research in various fields of physics, chemistry and chemical biology. It is one of the most active research institutes in India and publishes on an average ~ 500 research articles in peer reviewed journals including top journals like Physical Review Letters, Journal of American Chemical Society and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Recent interests include research in energy, fuel cells, nano materials like graphene and carbon nanotubes. The institute emphasizes PhD programmes, the degree being provided either by Jadavpur University or by University of Calcutta. There is also full-fledged Integrated PhD programme for post-Bachelor's students. From academic year 2005-2006 it started an integrated PhD programme in chemistry.[7] There are 8 departments in IACS, 4 units and 3 centres namely Materials Science, Solid state physics, Theoretical physics, Spectroscopy, Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biological Chemistry, Polymer Science unit, Energy research unit, Raman centre for atomic and molecular sciences, Centre for advanced materials, Center for Mathematical, Computational and Data Sciences, MLS Professor's unit and Director's Research Unit. After getting Deemed to be University status by UGC, the department structure has been replaced by School Structure. At present there are six schools namely School of Applied & Interdisciplinary Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, School of Chemical Sciences, School of Materials Sciences, School of Mathematical & Computational Sciences and School of Physical Sciences. There are about 70 working scientists in IACS. One important distinctive aspect of IACS is the presence of a majority of young scientist who are bringing new research areas and directions to IACS.

Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman did his groundbreaking work in Raman effect in this institute.[10] His work was first published in the Indian Journal of Physics, which is published by IACS.[11]

Apart from the works of C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan in Optics, IACS has produced several important paradigms in modern science. IACS has a very strong group in theoretical chemistry and quantum chemistry. Debashis Mukherjee developed the Mk-MRCC method to account for electron correlations in molecular systems which is considered as a "gold-standard" in computational chemistry. Another important discovery has been in the area of solvation dynamics of molecules and particular the dynamics of water molecules around the surfaces of membranes. These experiments performed by Professor Kankan Bhattacharyya have provided a fundamental insights into the behavior of water near biological surfaces and led to the coining of the word "biological water" in the physical chemistry community.

Second Campus

Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Harsha Vardhan unveiled the foundation stone of the Syamaprasad Mookerjee Advanced Reserch and Training (SMART)[12] campus of Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science(IACS) at Baruipur. It will have the facilities for cutting-edge research in multiple disciplines such as fundamental sciences, engineering sciences and medical sciences[13].

Administration

At its inception, the IACS was headed by a President, with the Honorary Secretary responsible for the day-to-day running of the Society. Until 1911, the office of President was de facto held by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, when the Lieutenant-Governor (Governor from 1912) became the co-patron of the Society alongside the Viceroy of India, whose office-holders were automatically Patrons of the Society until 1947.[14][note 1] Following India's independence in 1947, the administration of the IACS was reconstituted, with the designation of "Honorary Director" substituted for "Honorary Secretary."[15] The Director's prefix of "Honorary" was dropped in 1953.[16]

Presidents of the IACS (1876-present)

Secretaries and Directors of the IACS

Honorary Secretaries of the IACS (1876-1947)

Honorary Directors of the IACS (1947-1953)

  • Prof. Priyadaranjan Ray FNI (1947-1953)[15][16]

Directors of the IACS (1953-present)

Notes

  1. With the exceptions of Sir (later Lord) Antony MacDonnell (Lieutenant-Governor 1893-1895), Sir Charles Cecil Stevens (Lieutenant-Governor 1897-1898), James Bourdillon (Lieutenant-Governor 1902-1903), Sir Lancelot Hare (Lieutenant-Governor 1906) and Francis Slacke (Lieutenant-Governor 1906-1908).
  2. Prior to 1970, the Indian National Science Academy was named the "National Institute of Sciences of India", and its fellows bore the post-nominal "FNI". The post-nominal became "FNA" in 1970 when the association adopted its present name.

References

  1. "IACS director". iacs.res.in. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  2. Uma Dasgupta (2011). Science and Modern India: An Institutional History, C. 1784-1947. Pearson Education India. ISBN 9788131728185.
  3. Bernhard Joseph Stern. Science and Society. p. 84.
  4. "Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata". dst.gov.in. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  5. "saha.ac.in". Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  6. "Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science". twas.org. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  7. 1 2 "About IACS". iacs.res.in. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  8. Aswathi Pacha (13 February 2018). "IACS' new source of white light". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  9. Subhankar Chowdhury (3 June 2018). "Tag boost for research hub". The Telegraph. India. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  10. "Sir Venkata Raman - Biographical". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  11. "Indian Journal of Physics". springer.com. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  12. "Dr.Harsh Vardhan unveils foundation stone of shyamaprasad mookerjee advance research and training campus". United News of India. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  13. "Second campus for science hub". The Telegraph. 14 September 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  14. Report of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science for the Year 1915. Anglo-Sanskrit Press. 1915. p. 144.
  15. 1 2 The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1947-1948. 1948. pp. 25–26.
  16. 1 2 3 "The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1952-53" (PDF). Archive - IACS. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  17. Report of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science for the Year 1923. Anglo-Sanskrit Press. 1923. p. 11.
  18. "IACS - Annual Report for the Year 1924" (PDF). Archive - IACS. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  19. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for the Year 1935. 1935. p. 1.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 "Raman, Krishnan and the IACS Episodes of the 1930s" (PDF). INSA - Indian Journal of History of Science. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  21. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for the Year 1942. 1942. p. 20.
  22. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for the Year 1946. 1946. p. 1.
  23. "The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1950-51" (PDF). Archive - IACS. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  24. "The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1951-52" (PDF). Archive - IACS. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  25. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1953-54. 1954. p. 2.
  26. 1 2 3 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1955-56. 1956. p. 2.
  27. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1957-58. 1958. p. 2.
  28. 1 2 3 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1958-59. 1959. p. 2.
  29. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1961-62. 1962. p. 2.
  30. 1 2 3 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1965-66. 1966. pp. 2–4.
  31. 1 2 3 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1968-69. 1969. p. 1.
  32. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1970-71. 1971. p. 1.
  33. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1973-74. 1974. p. 1.
  34. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1974-75. 1975. p. 1.
  35. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1977-78. 1978. p. 1.
  36. 1 2 3 4 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1982-83. 1983. pp. 1–4.
  37. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1997-98. IACS. 1998. p. 3.
  38. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2000-2001. IACS. 2001. p. 3.
  39. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2002-2003. IACS. 2003. p. 6.
  40. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2003-2004. IACS. 2004. p. 1.
  41. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2007-2008. IACS. 2008. pp. 8–11.
  42. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2014-15. IACS. 2015. p. 11.
  43. 1 2 Report of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science for the Year 1904. Anglo-Sanskrit Press. 1904. p. 1.
  44. The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for the Year 1943. 1943. p. 2.
  45. The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for the Year 1944. 1944. p. 16.
  46. 1 2 The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for the Year 1945. 1945. p. 15.
  47. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1959-60. IACS. 1960. p. 2.
  48. 1 2 3 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1980-81. IACS. 1981. p. 2.
  49. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1989-90. IACS. 1990. p. 1.
  50. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1992-93. IACS. 1992. p. 1.
  51. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1999-2000. IACS. 2000. p. 1.
  52. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2008-09. IACS. 2009. p. 7.
  53. 1 2 Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2012-13. IACS. 2013. p. 9.
  54. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 2013-14. IACS. 2014. p. 11.
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