Indore: Indian Institute of Technology Indore celebrated the 12th Foundation Day of the Institute through online mode on Wednesday. Series of events were planned during the day. Professor William Daniel Phillips, Nobel Laureate in Physics (1997) was the chief guest. He has pioneering contribution to Physics in laser-cooling and ion trapping. Prof Deepak B Phatak, Chairman, Board of Governors was the Guest of Honour and Prof Neelesh Kumar Jain, Director (Officiating) inaugurated the event.
Prof William D Phillips delivered a talk on 'A new measure: The revolutionary quantum reform of the international metric system'. The talk provided information on new reforms of international metric system of measurement. He said “The history of the metric system began during the Age of Enlightenment with measures of length and weight derived from nature, along with their decimal multiples and fractions. The system became the standard of France and Europe within half a century. But we wanted a standard of measurement which was constant and reliable. Hence, rotating earth was changed from being the timekeeper to better atomic clocks.” He further said, “In 1960, the year when the laser was invented, the meter was re-defined as a certain number of wavelengths of light from a krypton lamp. But soon, the purity of that light from krypton was found to be insufficient for the accuracy of measurements, people were making with laser light. Hence, other measures with unity ratios were added, and the system went on to be adopted across the world.”
Prof N K Ganguly, Padma Bhushan and Former Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of India also delivered a talk on 'The current Challenges in the COVID vaccination and how do we choose a vaccine'. He is elected fellow of FISC, Indian Science Congress Association, 2019. He is also a visiting Professor of Eminence, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad; President of the Gut Microbiota and Probiotic Science Foundation and President, Indian Society of Translational Research. Also, he is Chairman of Immunology Foundation, Asian Institute of Public Health.
As part of the growing infrastructure, two new additions were made on this day by Prof Neelesh Kumar Jain. Kshipra Residential Complex comprising of 27 nos each 3 and 2 BHK residences for faculty and staff of the Institute. This will lead to the shifting of the faculty members and staff inside the campus thus saving the time and efforts for commuting. Heating, Ventilation, and Airconditioning (HVAC) plant, with 2 nos water cooled centrifugal chillers, each having 650 TR capacity, will facilitate air conditioning to Abhinandan Bhavan, Takshashila Lecture Hall Complex and Learning Resource Center was also inaugurated. This facility will reduce the requirement of individual ACs.
A faculty handbook, comprising of abridged version of rules and regulations, was released by Prof. Jain. Welcome kit was also given to the Deans, Associate Deans and faculty members who joined during the pandemic time.
