As part of its efforts to strengthen interaction with the industry, the Partnerships Office at IISER Pune has faciliated interaction between researchers at IISER Pune and at Praj Industries, a leading process engineering company, through the ‘Jidnyasa: Virtual learning platform’ of Praj Matrix.

In this online lecture series organised by the Praj Industries for its employees, several IISER Pune faculty members participated as speakers. Through their talks, members shared insights gained from recent research in their respective areas of work, focusing on fundamental concepts and their implications in the current practices. The lectures helped participants get an in-depth account of some of the recent and fascinating advancements in science.                                    

Highlights:

The first lecture in this series was delivered by Dr. Nagaraj Balasubramanian on April 22, 2020. He spoke on the role of cell adhesion in our lives and the significance of studying how cells talk to their microenvironment. Prof. Bhas Bapat explored the physics behind some of the tools used in Medicine and Biology (April 23, 2020). Speaking about the Materials Design and Innovation Strategies for Emergent Applications in the Energy and Environment Sectors, Prof. Satish Ogale, shared his expertise on emergent implications in the energy and environment sectors and in energy conservation (April 24, 2020).

Prof. Sunil Mukhi delivered a lecture on Spin and the Quantum World (April 29, 2020) with a focus on basic information about quantum physics and relevant new knowledge in this area of research. Dr. Chaitanya Athale described a case study to model, build and test for small world genetic networks (April 30, 2020). He spoke about synthetic biology and the beneficial applications of specific approaches, skills, and techniques at the workplace. Dr. Aparna Deshpande threw light on the exciting science of two-dimensional  (2D) materials in her lecture on May 8, 2020.