FAN-IITB Workshop on Nanotechnology

The Faculty-Alumni-Network (FAN) and IIT Bombay jointly organized an International Workshop on Nanotechnology at IIT Bombay during January 6-8, 2005. The workshop had 21 high quality presentations spread over three days including 11 presentations from invited researchers from USA, Australia, Singapore and 10 by IIT-B faculty. Over 160 participants attended this workshop, including about 40 IIT-B faculty. The oral presentations were in the broad areas of Nano-materials, Nano-biotechnology, and Nano-electronics.  There were 15 poster presentations at this workshop highlighting the research activities by IIT Bombay researchers in the area of Nanotechnology.

The purpose of the workshop was to mainly identify specific areas where increased collaboration is possible between the FAN members and the IIT-B faculty. To this end, the workshop had various informal gatherings and breakout sessions for the FAN members and the IIT-B faculty to interact and discuss specific areas for mutual collaboration, including opportunities to share resources, expertise and exchange of students.

One of the major highlights of the workshop was a session titled  "Mumbai Initiative on Nanotechnology"  chaired by Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India. The session consisted of an inaugural address by Dr. Chidambaram followed by presentations by the directors of BARC, TIFR and IIT Bombay. In his address Dr. Chidambaram highlighted the importance of Nanotechnology research for India, and how India can make a mark in this emerging field. He also highlighted the various national level initiatives for strengthening research in the area of Nanotechnology and the steps proposed in this direction. He specifically mentioned the recent initiatives by the Govt. of India in setting up two Centers of Excellence for research in Nanoelectronics, with one of the centers being located at IIT Bombay. He also requested the FAN members to share their experiences with similar initiatives they have been involved in other countries, to shape up the national level programmes. Dr. S. Banerji, Director, BARC then presented BARC's perspective on Nanotechnology and the kind of work that is currently underway in BARC in this area, including BARC's expectations from the Nanotechnology research. Prof. S. Bhattacharya, Director, TIFR made a presentation on the current Nanotechnology related research activities at TIFR, and highlighted the strengths that exist in TIFR for Nanotechnology research. Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay then made a presentation providing a glimpse of IIT Bombay's current research activities in this area. He also mentioned the initiatives taken internally at IIT-B to strengthen the interdisciplinary research activities, including the initiatives for starting new post-graduate level courses in the area of Nanotechnology. At the end of the session, a "Charter for the Mumbai Nanotechnology Initiative" was signed by the three directors in the presence of Dr. R. Chidambaram. All the directors present expressed their willingness for strengthening the collaboration between BARC, IIT-B, and TIFR, in the area of Nanotechnology.

The workshop ended on a high note with expectations that concrete proposals would emerge out of the tie-ups between the FAN members and the IIT-B faculty.