DST INSPIRE internship camp

A DST INSPIRE internship camp was organized for about 200 students during January 2-6, 2016. The highlight of the camp was the lecture by Nobel Laureate Professor V. Ramakrishnan. A unique feature of the camp was that the participating students conducted 20 experiments over 06 days. Elaborate experiment kiosks were setup in the Lecture Hall Complex of IISER Mohali.

Open Day

Open Day was celebrated on September 27, 2015, the Foundation Day of IISER Mohali. The program was organized by IISER Mohali students for the school students of the region and was co-ordinated by Dr. N. G. Prasad and Dr. Vinayak Sinha on behalf of the Institute Outreach Committee. More than 200 school children from 18 schools in the tricity region and places as distant  as Yamunanagar participated in the program. The Institute declared an Open Day to provide an opportunity  for city residents and school students alike to visit the institute research facilities and interact with IISER Mohali faculty and students. A variety of events were held  including science quizzes, group discussions and a treasure hunt. In addition, several non-competitive events such as science and maths demonstrations, documentary screening, superstition busting chemical demonstrations and poster presentations were also organized for the visitors. In the evening, prize winning school students were awarded prizes by the Chief Guest of the Foundation Day, Professor M. M. Sharma in the institute auditorium.

Rashtriya Avishkar Abhyan

IISER Mohali is acting as the mentor Institution for UT Chandigarh and the state of Punjab for the RAA (Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan). In this context a program for 500 rural school students was organized on February 28, 2016 where school teachers trained by IISER Mohali showcased their demonstration experiments. This program is likely to continue in the coming years and IISER Mohali will continue to provide mentorship to UT and Punjab.  The program was organized as part of the outreach activities of IISER Mohali.

DST Child Scientists Camp

A science camp was organized during June 22-July 4,  2015 for Child Scientists selected by DST in the Children Science Congresses held in the previous two years.
This was the first camp of its type, where each Child  Scientist undertook a two-week long research project with an IISER scientist. The camp was very well received by the Child Scientists as well as IISER faculty.   These Child Scientists came from all over the country and stayed at IISER Mohali. Apart from the research projects, they attended lectures by scientists and science demonstration sessions by IISER students.  The program was organized as part of the outreach activities of IISER Mohali.

Ishan Vikas camp

A camp was organized under the Ishan Vikas program of the MHRD for 30 students from the North-East during July 4-16, 2015.  The camp was organized as part of the outreach activities of IISER Mohali. During this camp, the students from the North-East attended lectures by scientists from IISER Mohali and the region. They participated in science demonstration sessions by IISER students and faculty. For their cultural integration, a trip to important historical and cultural sites in Punjab was organized. The cultural activities included them producing a play and IISER Mohali students organizing a National Integration session with them everyday.

International Workshop and Meeting on Biosphere

This workshop and meeting on Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions and its Impacts on Climate and Air Quality was organized at IISER Mohali by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (ILEAPS) and Future Earth and World Climate Research Program (WCRP) on March 21, 2016. The topics covered during the workshop included:

• Scientific research and capacity building efforts in the area of Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions and its Impacts on Climate and Air Quality.

• Global change and sustainability science.

• Engagement of Indian community with top global scientists in ecosystem research to cultivate the next generation of international researchers in India.

• Promote networking between national and international scientists. The inaugural address was given by Dr. Thorsten Kiefer (Director of Future Earths Paris Hub) while the key note address was delivered by Professor Alex Guenther from the University of California , Irvine, USA. A total of 24 invited experts from India and abroad delivered lectures and chaired the sessions.

Advanced Techniques in Protein Design and Engineering

The Center for Protein Science, Design and Engineering (CPSDE), a center of excellence under Frontier Areas of Science and Technology (COE-FAST) MHRD, conducted its first national workshop on "Advanced Techniques in Protein Design and Engineering" at IISER Mohali during March 15–19, 2016. The aim of this workshop was to provide basic knowledge as well as exposure to advanced techniques used in rational protein design and protein characterization. The workshop had lectures on computational aspect of protein design and structural studies. There were both lectures and demonstrations showing advanced protein characterization techniques such as x-ray crystallography, small-angle x-ray scattering, surface plasmon resonance, fluorescence spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry and atomic force microscopy. The workshop had 38 participants from all over India.

National Conference on Ethology and Evolution 2015

A national conference on Ethology and Evolution was organized during October 30 – November 01, 2015. The conference was open to faculty, post-docs and students who are interested in ethology and evolution. However, given that IISERs were set-up with a mandate towards undergraduate research and education, we encouraged undergraduate and graduate students’ participation in the meet to showcase their research work and get feedback from the scientific community. A total of 120 participants attended the conference which included 3 invited plenary speakers, 6 invited young scientist and 90 students (PhDs and undergraduate) and the remaining were early career researchers. The participants were from institutes all over the country. These include: all 5 IISERs (Mohali, Kolkata, Pune, Trivandrum and Bhopal), NCBS, IISc, WII, JNCASR, KFRI, Periyar University, BHU, Gurukul Kangri University, Delhi University, Bangalore University, University of Hyderabad and Madurai Kamaraj University.

Three plenary speakers were invited for the conference who were experts in the field of Ethology and Evolutionary Biology, namely, Professor Mewa Singh, Life-Long Distinguished Professor, University of Mysore, Professor Uma Shankar, Professor, University of Agricultural Sciences and Professor Amitabh Joshi, Professor, JNCASR. Apart from this, six invited lectures were delivered by young scientists including Dr. Praveen Karanth, IISc Bangalore, Dr. Ullasa Kodandaramaiah, IISER TVM, Dr. Anuradha Bhat, IISER Kolkata, Dr. Sutirth Dey, IISER Pune, Dr. TNC Vdya, JNCASR, Dr. Bodhisatta Nandy, BHU, Varanasi.