Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
TypePublic research university
Establishedc. 1876; 148 years ago (1876)
FounderMahendralal Sarkar
Academic affiliation
Budget₹162.49 crore (US$20 million)
(FY2023–24 est.)[1]
PresidentVinod K. Singh
DirectorRanjan Sen
Location
Kolkata
,
West Bengal
,
India

22°29′56.09″N 88°22′7.76″E / 22.4989139°N 88.3688222°E / 22.4989139; 88.3688222
CampusLarge city
LanguageEnglish
NewspaperIndian Journal of Physics
Websitewww.iacs.res.in Edit this at Wikidata
University and College rankings
Global – Overall
CWUR World[citation needed]1092 (2021)[2]
National – Overall
CWUR National[citation needed]19 (2021)[3]

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in basic sciences under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.[4] Established on 29 July 1876 by Mahendralal Sarkar, a private medical practitioner, it focuses on fundamental research in basic sciences.[5] It is Asia's oldest research institute[6][7] located at Jadavpur, South Kolkata near 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[8] and currently in the process of building an advanced SMART campus at Baruipur.[9]

The association is engaged in research in various fields of physics, chemistry, biological sciences, mathematical and computational sciences, materials sciences and various interdisciplinary areas.[10]

Indian Journal of Physics (IJP)

Indian Journal of Physics was founded in 1926. It is published monthly.[11] Springer distributes print version of the Journal worldwide. The present chief editor of the journal is Prof. Subham Majumdar, who is a senior professor in the School of Physical Sciences, IACS.[12]

Second Campus (Offshore Campus at Baruipur)

Union Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Harsha Vardhan unveiled the foundation stone of the Syamaprasad Mukherjee Advanced Research and Training (SMART)[9] 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][14]

Institutions merged with IACS

On 2017 Ratan Wattal led NITI Aayog high-level committee advice Finance Ministry recommended premier research institutes, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences and Bose Institute would be merged with Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.[15]

Academic Divisions

Starting from 2018, after being declared as a deemed university by MHRD, for academic purposes, departments and centres in the Institute are broadly assigned to six major schools, each headed by a Chairperson (School Chair):

  1. School of Applied and Interdisciplinary Sciences (SAIS)
  2. School of Biological Sciences (SBS)
  3. School of Chemical Sciences (SCS)
  4. School of Materials Sciences (SMS)
  5. School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (SMCS)
  6. School of Physical Sciences (SPS)

Apart from these six major schools, there are a few centers, designed to perform specific and cutting-edge research, by the institute administration:

  1. Centre for Computer Research, Education and Services (CCRES)
  2. Director's Research Unit (DRU)
  3. Technical Research Center (TRC)
  4. Central Scientific Services (CSS)
  5. Raman Centre of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Sciences
  6. Polymer Structural Unit
  7. Energy Research Unit

Administration

Office c. 1907

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.[16][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."[17] The Director's prefix of "Honorary" was dropped in 1953.[18]

Presidents of the IACS (1876-present)

Secretaries and Directors of the IACS

Honorary Secretaries of the IACS (1876-1947)

Name Period in office Duration in office
Mahendralal Sarkar (Founder) 15 January 1876 – 23 February 1904[45] 28 years, 1 month and 8 days
Amritalal Sarkar 16 June 1904 – 8 September 1919[45][22] 15 years, 2 months and 23 days
C. V. Raman 18 September 1919 – 31 March 1933[22][46][47] 13 years, 6 months and 13 days
K. S. Krishnan 31 March 1933 – 19 June 1934[22] 1 year, 2 months and 19 days
Sisir Kumar Mitra 19 June 1934–November 1935[22] 1 year, 5 months
Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee November 1935–31 December 1943[22][48] 8 years, 1 month
Meghnad Saha 31 December 1943–October 1944[48][49] 9 months
Priyadaranjan Ray (acting) October–31 December 1944[48][50] 2 months
Priyadaranjan Ray 1 January 1945 – 1 October 1947[51][52] 2 years and 9 months

Honorary Directors of the IACS (1947-1953)

Name Period in office Duration in office
Priyadaranjan Ray 1 October 1947 – 1 January 1953[52][18] 5 years and 3 months

Directors of the IACS (1953-present)

Name Period in office Duration in office
Meghnad Saha 1 January 1953 – 16 February 1956[18][53] 3 years, 1 month and 15 days
Priyadaranjan Ray (officiating) 4 March 1956 – 2 December 1958[53][54] 2 years, 8 months and 28 days
Sukumar Chandra Sirkar (acting) 8 December 1958 – 10 December 1959[54][55] 1 year and 2 days
Kedareswar Banerjee 11 December 1959 – 1 October 1965[55][56] 5 years, 9 months and 20 days
Bishwambhar Nath Srivastava (acting) 1 October 1965 – 31 December 1968[56][57] 3 years, 2 months and 30 days
Debidas Basu 1 January 1969 – 31 August 1980[57][58] 11 years, 7 months and 30 days
G. S. Banerjee IAS (acting) 19 September 1980 – 8 March 1981[58] 5 months and 17 days
Sadhan Basu 9 March 1981 – 14 July 1982[note 3][58][59] 1 year, 4 months and 5 days
G. S. Banerjee IAS (acting) 14 July–8 December 1982[58][59] 4 months and 24 days
Asok Kumar Barua (acting) 9–30 December 1982[59] 21 days
Asok Kumar Barua 31 December 1982 – 1989[59][60] 6 years
Usha Ranjan Ghatak 1989–1993[60] 4 years
Dipankar Chakravorty 1993–9 September 1999[61][62] 6 years
Debashis Mukherjee 10 September 1999 – 31 March 2009[62] 9 years, 6 months and 21 days
Kankan Bhattacharyya 1 April 2009 – 10 February 2013[63][64] 3 years, 10 months and 9 days
Subhas Chandra Roy (acting) 10 February–11 September 2013[64][65] 7 months and 1 day
Deb Shankar Ray (acting) 11 September 2013 – 21 April 2015[65][66] 1 year, 7 months and 10 days
Santanu Bhattacharya 22 April 2015 – 23 April 2021[66] 6 years and 1 day
Tapas Chakraborty (acting, additional charge) 24 April 2021–6 April 2023[67] 1 year, 11 months and 14 days
Ranjan Sen 6 April 2023 – present 11 months and 21 days

Notable alumni and associates[68]

Nobel Laureate[69]

Bharat Ratna (Highest Civil Honor in India)

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), London

Padma Vibhushan (Civil Honor in India)

  • C. N. R. Rao, former Chairman of the Review Committee of IACS and IACS Fellow
  • M. M. Sharma, former Chairman of the IACS Governing Council and IACS Fellow

Padma Bhusan (Civil Honor in India)

Padma Shri (Civil Honor in India)

TWAS Prize[70]

Alexander von Humboldt Research Award

Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS)

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize

Notable research works

Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman conducted his work on the Raman effect in this institute.[72] His work was first published in the Indian Journal of Physics, which is published by IACS.[73]

At the university, Debashis Mukherjee developed the Mk-MRCC method to account for electron correlations in molecular systems.[citation needed] Another important discovery has been in the area of solvation dynamics of molecules and in particular the dynamics of water molecules around the surfaces of membranes. These experiments performed by Professor Kankan Bhattacharyya provided an insight into the behavior of water near biological surfaces and led to his coining of the phrase "biological water".[citation needed]

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.
  3. ^ On medical leave from 14 July 1982, resigned with effect from 24 August.

References

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