Professor Inder "Paul" Batra, 65, killed in tragic car crash Professor Inder "Paul" Batra of the Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago passed away suddenly on July 23, 2007 in San Jose, California. Professor Batra and his wife Uma were out for an evening walk when a speeding teenage driver hit them. The driver, his companion and the Batras did not survive the accident.
Professor Prasenjit Sen of Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad and Executive Vice Chancellor Uday Sukhatme of Indiana University - Purdue University have written about their association withInder "Paul" Batra. Ashtekar, Gupta, Patel win ACIPA Prizes
ACIPA thanks Jainendra Jain, Erwin Mueller Professor of Physics at Penn State for chairing the ACIPA Prize committee in 2007. The committee included Ravindra Bhatt of Princeton, Umesh Garg of Notre Dame and Jogesh Pati of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. ACIPA is deeply indebted to these members for their dedicated work. Professors Jay Gupta and Kumar Patel received their awards at the APS March Meeting in Denver (see the photo showing Gupta and Patel from left to right). Professor Ashtekar was supposed to receive his award in the APS April Meeting in Jacksonville. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather, his flight was canceled. Professor Ashtekar will be formally recognized in a future meeting. *** Upcoming Meetings/Workshops to be held in India Kodai-Trieste Workshop on Plasma Astrophysics, Kodaikanal, 27 August - 7 September, 2007 International Conference on Cosmology and Galaxy Formation, Harish Chandra Research Institute, November 3-5, 2007 Advanced String Theory School, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneshwar, November 8-14, 2007 International Conference on Ferromagnetic Alloys, S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, November 14-16, 2007 International Symposium on Recent Trends in Surface and Colloid Science, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, November 15-16, 2007 International Conference on Magnetic Materials, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, December 11-16, 2007 International Conference on Advances in Energy Research, IIT-Bombay, December 12-14, 2007 Hands-on Research: Complex Systems in the Physical and Life Sciences, Institute of Plasma Research, Bhat, Gandhinagar, January 6-18, 2008 IC-SOLACE 2008 - International Conference on Solar Cells, Cochin University of Science and Technology, January 21-28, 2008 *** |
APS and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum to support Travel Grants for Students and Senior Scientists In the upcoming weeks, APS and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum will announce a program to support the travel of students and senior researchers between India and US. The grants will be awarded by the APS and are designed for lecture trips and research visits. Stay tuned for more information. APS Forum on International Physics joint reception with ACIPA, Association of Korean Physics Association (AKPA), and Organization of Chinese Physicists in America (OCPA) ACIPA was a co-organizer/co-sponsor of a joint reception with the Forum on International Physics (FIP) on March 6 at the 2007 APS March Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The goals, objectives and activities of the ACIPA were mentioned in this occasion. Several ACIPA members attended the evening session. We hope more people would participate in these programs in the 2008 reception. Current FIP Chair, Herman Winick of Stanford University chaired the event. The FIP receptions are regarded as largely social events where FIP nominated APS fellows are recognized and the common interests of the APS and the so-called expatriate organizations are addressed. APS Officers such as President Leo Kadanoff of The University of Chicago, Executive Officer Judy Franz and others were in attendance. The reception included snacks and refreshments. The photo above shows V. Krishnamurthy of Oak Ridge National Labs, Sunil Sinha of the University of California at San Diego and Leo Kadanoff enjoying the evening at the FIP reception. *** Professor Puru Jena named Jefferson Science Fellow P. Jena, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Virginian Commonwealth University is one of nine selected nationwide for the prestigious Jefferson Science Fellowship at the US Department of State. Jefferson Science Fellows advise and educate policy officials, including the Secretary of State, of complex, scientific issues and their potential impact on U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Following a one-year term, Jena will return to VCU, but remain available to the U.S. government as an expert consultant for short-term projects for a period of five years. *** |
Indian Physics Association announces the recpients of the Murli M Chugani Award, Birla Award, & Buti Foundation Award
Buti Foundation Award- 2006 Buti Foundation Award of the Indian Physics Association for the year 2006 has been given to Dr. Tarun Souradeep of IUCAA, Pune. The Buti Foundation Award is given for outstanding contributions in the area of Theoretical Applied Physics, Astrophysics and Biophysics. *** |
The APS International Travel Grant Award Program It may be of interest to the ACIPA community to learn about the APS International Travel Grant Program (ITGAP) which has been around for a few years now. This $2,000 award is designed to promote collaborations between U.S. and developing country scientists. The awards are given every 6 months and the program is currently slated to last until 2009.*** Slight Decline in the number of Indian students in the US Open Doors 2006, the annual report on international education published by the Institute of International Education (IIE), with support from the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs reveal that the number of international students from India decreased by 5% to a total of 76,503 in the academic year 2005. However, India remains the leading place of origin for students in the US. For more on Indian students is the US and where they are headed see the article by Priya Ganapati. *** Journal Donations remain an important need - Please help if you can With the establishment of many new universities in India, especially state universities located in the less populated areas, there is a strong need for journal donations from our membership. It helps to have journals that are reasonably well catalogued and with no missing issues. Shipping costs are expensive. However, ACIPA resources can be occasionally used if no other funds are available for shipping. Currently, Amrita University in Cochin is looking for journals and your help will be welcome. Please contact Surajit Sen if you wish to explore journal donation. |
