MRSI NEWS LETTER

MRSI Newsletter
A quareterly publication of the Materials Research Society of India
for circulation amongst its members

Volume B 01, Number 1 April 2001

From the Editors’ Desk

The Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) was founded in the year 1989 to promote interdisciplinary interaction amongst the scientists, technologists and practitioners of Materials Science and Technology.Over the last twelve years, it has grown in size and stature and is providing a vibrant framework for its members. In order to provide an interactive platform for exchange of information, the Newsletter of MRSI was brought out. The publication of the Newsletter was dormant for sometime. Like the Greek mythological bird Phoenix, it has taken a rebirth now to reinforce the interaction amongst the members. It will be hopefully published on a regular basis as a quarterly Newsletter. It will be brought out in the electronic as well as in printed formats. The newsletter will serve a useful purpose if members effectively contribute and nurture its growth. Editors solicit constructive suggestions and criticisms from MRSI members.

H L Bhat
R V Krishnan
EDditors

For more details about the activities of MRSI, members are advised to visit the society’s website at www.igcar.ernet.in/mrsi

In this issue

President's Message
From the Editor's Desk
MRSI Council (2001-2004)
Conference Report
Awards & Distinctions
Obituary
New Members
Forthcoming Conference
Calender of Enents 2001
News in Brief

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President’s Message

It is indeed a matter of great satisfaction that MRSI Newsletter is making its appearance after a considerable lapse of time. There have been difficulties, which have now been overcome. Dissemination of information regarding developments in materials research in the country is one of the important objectives of MRSI. With an increase in R & D activities in the materials field in academia, R & D organizations and industry MRSI Newsletter will fulfill albeit in a modest way the need of a resource base. I compliment Prof. H. L. Bhat and Dr. R. V. Krishnan - the Editors of this Newsletter and Prof. S. V. Subramanyam Vice-President General Secretary, MRSI for their untiring efforts in making this possible. I also wish all success to the members of materials community in the country in their future research efforts.

Dr. D Chakravorty
President, MRSI

During the Twelfth Annual General Meeting of the Materials Research Society of India its council was reconstituted.The Council of MRSI for the period 2001-2004 is as under

Chapter Chairmen		Subject Group Chairmen
Bangalore	Prof. T R N Kutty	Building Materials	Prof. T C Rao
Bhopal	Prof. T C Rao	Biomaterials	Dr. M Jayabalan
Mumbai	Dr. C K Gupta	Ceramics & Glasses	Dr. H S Maiti
Kolkata	Prof. S P Sengupta	Composites	Dr. O P Bahl
Delhi	Prof. A K Raychaudri	Computer Aided Design of Materials	Dr. G.P.Das
Gujurat	Prof. L M Manocha	Electronic Materials	Dr. Vikram Kumar
Hyderabad	Prof. S V Suryanarayana	Fracture	G Malakondaiah
Jamshedpur	Dr. C S Sivaramakrishnan	Magnetic Materials	Prof. K V S Rama Rao
Chennai	Prof. U V Varadaraju	Materials Characterization	Dr. Baldev Raj
Varanasi / Kanpur	Prof. V V P Kutumba Rao	Metals	Dr. P Rama Rao
Trivananthapuram	Dr. P N Subramaniam	Polymers	Dr. S Sivaram
Roorkee	Dr. A K Jain	Processing Technologies	Shri S L N Acharyulu
Kalpakkam	Dr. Baldev Raj	Surfaces & Interfaces	Prof. M.K.Sanyal
Kharagpur	Prof.R P Singh	Thin Films	Prof. K L Chopra

Conference Report

12^th AGM of MRSI
The Twelfth Annual General Meeting was held at Science city, Kolkata during January 31 to February 2, 2001. The meeting was organized by MRSI, Kolkata Chapter under the convenorship of Prof M K Sanyal. The following Awards were presented at the AGM.
Distinguished Materials Scientist of the year Award-Prof. S Ranganathan, IISc, Bangalore.
MRSI-ICSC Superconducitivity & Materials Science Annual Prize – Dr. S K Sikka, BARC, Mumbai & Dr. D Banerjee, DMRL, Hyderabad.
Distinguished Lecturership Award-Dr. P Rodriguez, DRDO, Delhi
A theme symposium on ‘Materials Research in Industries’ was held as a part of the AGM. Medal lectures were delivered by 15 eminent scientists and technologists. 92 Posters were presented. The AGM also had the business meeting of MRSI members. The Council of MRSI was reconstituted. Six Honorary members were elected. The AGM was successful both in the scientific content and organization.

APAM-India Chapter: 4^th Meeting

The Fourth Meeting of APAM India Chapter was held on the 30^th Jan 2001 afternoon at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. Prof. S K Joshi, President APAM India Chapter welcomed the participants. Prof. C N R Rao, Past President of APAM addressed the gathering highlighting the need to develop strong Materials Science base in the country. This was followed by two 30 minutes talks, one by Dr. S. Banerjee of BARC, Mumbai (Phase transformation in Zirconium based alloys) and the other by Dr. Vikram Kumar of SSPL Delhi (Current transport in organic light emitting diodes). There was lively discussion during and after the talks. In the end Prof. S V Subramanyam, Secretary General of APAM proposed the vote of thanks.

Awards & Distinctions Conferred on Members

We are happy to report that the following members of Materials Research Society of India have received awards and distinctions shown against their names by various bodies. MRSI congratulates them and wishes that many more will follow.

Prof. C N R Rao: Karnataka Ratna (2001)
Prof. P Rama Rao: Padma Bhushan (2001)
Dr. R A Mashelkar: Padma Bhushan(2001)
Dr. V K Aatre: Padma Vibhushan (2001)
Dr. Krishnadas Nair: Padmashree (2001)
Dr. T Ramasami: Padmashree (2001) &
Bhasin Award (2000)
Prof. P Ramachandra Rao: Bhasin Award
Dr. T Ratnaswamy: Padmashree (2001)

Obituary

We are sad to report that Prof. Jack W Christian died on February 27, 2001, at his desk at Oxford, fittingly working on the almost completed second volume of the second edition of his magnum opus, “Solid State Phase Transformations. In spite of a debilitating illness that began twenty years ago, he remained an active and committed scholar. Those who were fortunate to interact with him and be his friends will remember him as deeply knowledgeable, exceedingly kind, generous with his time and ideas, and fully involved. His fortitude was amazing. Prof. Christian was an Honorary Member of MRSI, He will be dearly missed. MRSI condoles the demise of Prof Christian.

Sharma M K (LMB490) Materials Technology Division Electrical Research & Development Association P B No. 760, GIDC, Makarpura Baroda 390 010	Prasad V (LMB491) Department of Physics Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 560 012	Ashok Kumar (LMB492) Department of Physics Tezpur University Napaam Assam 784028
Rajesh Ramchandra Patil (LMB493) Instittute of Science R T Road, Civil Lines Nagpur 440001	Amita Chandra (LMB494) Department of Physics University of Punjab Chandigarh	Chacko Jacob (LMB497) Materials Science Centre Indian Institute of Technology Khragpur 721 302
Ravikumar N V (LMB495) Max Plank Institut fuer Metallforschung (MPI) Heisenbergstrasse 5, D-70569 Stuttgart Germany	Dipankar Chakravorty (LMB498)Indian Association for theCultivation of Science Jadavpur Calcutta 700 032	Mahesh N S (LMB499) No. 42/81, "Bharadwaja' III Cross, Chelur Palya Magadi Road Bangalore 560 023
Subba Rao T (LMB501) Dept.of Physics Sri Krishnadevaraya University P G Centre Kurnool 518 002	Gurnam Singh (LMB502) Head, Beam Dynamics Section Centre for Advanced Technology Indore 452 013	Garimella Jagannath Prasad Alloy Fuels Section Nuclear Fuels Group RLG BARC Mumbai 400 085
Satpathy K K (LMB496) WSCL, BARC (F) IGCAR Campus Kalpakkam 603 102

Materials and Materials Technology are now recognized as the key areas for the development and growth of nations’ economies. In order to discuss recent advances made in science, engineering and technology of many of the newly invented solid state devices and related materials, the Materials Research Society (Singapore) is organizing the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT 2001). About 1500 participants are expected to attend this conference. It will be the first time that such an important interdisciplinary conference focusing on materials and advanced technologies is being organized in Singapore. The conference will consist of 10 plenary lectures of which 5 are from Nobel Laureates and 16 symposia on materials perspectives, future research directions and education. Each symposium will have invited, oral and poster presentations. In addition, 5 public lectures are planned for the benefit of conference participants and the community at large.

The organizers of ICMAT are offering considerable incentives to Indian participants attending the conference in terms of waiver of 50% of registration fee and in addition free accommodation to student participants. It is expected that a large contingent of Indian Materials scientists would be participating in this important meeting. For further details please contact :

DATES	EVENTS	CONTACT PERSON
April 11-12	Clean Room India	Dr. Harsh Solid-state Physics Laboratory Lucknow Road, Delhi 110 054 Phone : 3917314 , Fax: 011-3913609/3984285 E-mail : harsh/sspl@ssplnet.org
April 11-12	Short Course on- Fabrication and Packaging of MEMS and RELATED MICROSYSTEMS	Prof. S Mohan* &Prof. A Selvarajan+ Dept of Instrumentation, Dept. of ECE+, IISc Bangalore 560 012 Phone: 3601143/3092985 Phone: 3092852/3092283+ Fax: 080-3600683/3600085 Email: smohan@isu.iisc.ernet.in rajan@ece.iisc.ernet.in
April 26-27	National Workshop on Advances in Materials Processing	Dr. V Rao Convenor, AMPRO –2001 NML, Jamshedpur 831007 Phone: (0657) 271752. 271709-14 Ext. 2152 Fax : (0657) 270527, E-mail : veerao@usa.net
April 26-27	National Seminar on Challenges of the new IPR Regime and Need for new Strategies for R & D and Management	P.N Subramanian Convenor SEM- 2001, Replace, ISRO, Vattiyoorkavu P. O, Thiruvananthapuram – 695 013 Phone : 0471- 360051, Fax : 0471 – 361114
May 3-5	Fifth APAM Topical Seminar "Materials and processes for power electronics devices"	Prof. F.Kuznetsov, & Prof. Lasseev For correspondence: Marina Kosinova Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SB RAS 3 Acad, Lavrentjev Pr, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia Fax: 73832 34 4489, Email: marina@che.nsk.su
June 7-9	SixthAPAM Topical seminar on building materials	Prof. V.Fedorov For correspondence: Marina Kosinova Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SB RAS 3 Acad, Lavrentjev Pr, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia Fax: 73832 34 4489,Email: marina@che.nsk.su
June 19-22	XXXI National Seminar on Crystallography (NSC-2001)	M V Hosur Secretary, NCS-2001 Solid State Physics Division, BARC Trombay, Mumbai-400 085 Fax : (022) 5505151/5519613
July 1- 6	International Conference on ’Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT-2001)	Prof. BVR Chowdari Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119 260, Singapore Tel. (65) 874 2956/874 1975, Fax: (65) 777 6126/7772393 Email:chowdari@imre.org.sg
July 12-14	Perspectives of Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science	Prof. K Chattopadhyay Dept of Metallurgy , IISc, Bangalore 560 012 Phone: 3092678,Fax. 3600683/3600085 Email: kamanio@metalrg.iisc.ernet.in
August 5-11	ICCE/ TENERIFE, SPAIN Eighth International Conference on Composites Engineering	Dr. David Hui University of New Orleans, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, New Orleans LA 70148, USA Phone: (504) 280 6652,Fax: (504) 280 6192 Email: dhui@uno.edu/ http://www.uno.edu-engr/composite
August 27-29	Seventh APAM topical seminar "Semiconductor materials for thermoelectric and photovoltaic devices’	Prof. V.Zemskov & Prof. F.Kuznetsov For correspondence: Marina Kosinova Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SB RAS 3 Acad, Lavrentjev Pr, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia Fax: 73832 34 4489, Email: marina@che.nsk.su
August 26-30	Workshop on International Collaboration and Networking, IUMRS-ICAM 2001, Cancun, Mexico	Prof. R P H Chang or Kimberly Bartlett Materials Research Institute, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL, 60208. USA Phone: (847) 467-7613 Fax :(847) 467-6727
September 5-7	National Symposium on Science & Technology of Vacuum and Thin Films	Prof. S. Mohan Convenor Dept of Instrumentation, IISc Bangalore 560 012 Phone : 91-80-3601143/ 3092985 Fax: 91-80-3600683, E-mail: smohan@isu.iisc.ernet.in
September 12-14	Workshop on Complete Cycle Characterization of Materials	Dr. Baldev Raj, Convenor, Director, Materials, Chemical and Reprocessing Groups, IGCAR, Kalpakkam-603102 Phone : 0091-4114-88518/ 80234 E-mail: dmg@igcar.ernet.in
October 19-20	National Carbon Conference INDO-CARBON 2001	Prof. L M Manocha Department of Materials Science, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar 388120 Phone:02692-35183,Fax.02692-35183/36475 Email: lalitmanocha@vsnl.com
November 18-21	Asian Crystallograhhic Association IV Meeting (As CA’01)	Prof. M R N Murthy Secretary Ac Ca’01, Molecular Biophysics Unit IISc,Bangalore 560 012 Tel: 3092458, Email: mrn@mbu.iisc.ernet.in
November 29- 1 Dec	First Conference on Asian Consortium for Computational Materials Science (ACCMS-1)	Dr. G P Das Dr. U Waghmare Convenor, ACCMS-1 JNCASR, Jakkur, Bangalore 560 064 Fax: 91-22-8462766, E-mail : accms@jncasr.ac.in http://www.jncasr.ac.in/accms
December 11-15	X International Workshop on the Physics of Semi-conductor Devices	Mr. P. K. Basu Solidstate Physics Laboratory Lucknow Road, Delhi 110 054 Phone: 2942041/3968930, Fax: 011-3913609/3984285 Email. dir/sspl@ssplnet.org / vkmr@vsnl.com http://www.iwpsd.com/
December	Eighth Topical Seminar on Material Data Network	Prof. Hwang, Prof. L.J. Chen For correspondence: Marina Kosinova Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SB RAS 3 Acad, Lavrentjev Pr, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia Fax: 73832 34 4489. Email: marina@che.nsk.su
Date to be Finalized	Asian Academic Seminar	Dr. P Rama Rao Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad Central University P.O, Gachi Bowli Hyderabad 500 046 Phone: 040-3010121,Fax. 040-3010367 Email: prr@uohyd.ernet.in

Members are requested to give information about the Conference / symposia / workshops they are organizing well in advance so that they can be inserted in the “calendar of events

News in Brief

MRSI has a new Chapter in Kharagpur.The Chapter wasofficially inaugurated on 3.2.2001by Prof. S V Subramanyam, VicePresident-General Secretary of the Society. Prof. R P Singh of IIT, Kharagpur is the chapter President.
Devastatingearthquake thatstruck Bhuj and surrounding areas in Gujarat is unparalleled in terms of loss of human life and property.The MRSI was quick to rise to the occasion.A sum of Rs. 114500/- (Rs. One lakh as contribution from MRSI and Rs. 14500/- collected at Council and AGM at Kolkata) has been sent to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund, New Delhi.

MRSI Newsletter
Volume B 01, Number 1
April 2001

The MRSI Newsletter is a quarterly update published by the Materials Research Society of India.Members are requested to contribute information of interest to Materials Science community.Members can inform through the Newsletter, changes in address, forthcoming events, and any interesting scientific/technological developments in the area of materials. The releventmaterials should be sent to the following address

Editors
MRSI Newsletter
Materials Research Society of India
IISc Campus
Bangalore 560 012, India,
E-mail:svsmrsi@physics.iisc.ernet.in
hlbhat@physics.iisc.ernet.in
kishnan@css.cmmacs.ernet.in

Book post / Newsletter

From:
Editors
MRSI Newsletter
Materials Research Society of India
IISc Campus
Bangalore 560 012

Founder President	Prof. C N R Rao
President	Dr. D.Chakravorty
Past Presidents	Dr. P Rama Rao Prof. S K Joshi Dr. R Chidambaram
Vice Presidents	Prof. S Ranganathan Dr. P Rodriguez Dr. S K Sikka Dr. Ashok Misra Dr. A K Chatterjee
Vice Presidents-General Secretary	Prof. S V Subramanyam
Joint Secretaries	Prof. H L Bhat Dr.H S Maiti
Treasurer	Dr. D Banerjee
Joint Treasurer	Prof. S B Krupanidhi
Editor of Publications	Prof. K J Rao
Members
Dr. C Ganguly	Dr. R V Krishnan
Prof. A K Raychaudhuri	Prof. E S Raja Gopal
Dr. S Banerjee	Dr.G Sundararajan

Sunil K Sinha (H0139) Prof. Sunil Sinha Assoc. Div. Director Advanced Photon Source Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue Argonne, IL 60439 USA	Granquist C G (H0137) Department of Materials Science Uppsala Universitet Box No. 534, S-75121 Uppsala, Sweden	Jain S C (H0138) IMEC, Kapeldreef 75 3001 Leuven Belgium
Koichi Niihara (H0141) The Institute of Scientific & Indl Research (CSIR), Osaka University 8-1, Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047 Japan	Akihisa Inoue (H0140) Institute for Materials Research Tohuku University Sendai Japan	Chowdari BVR (H0142) Dept. of Physics National University of Singapore Singapore

From the Editors’ Desk

MRSI Newsletter Volume B 01, Number 1 April 2001

MRSI Newsletter
Volume B 01, Number 1
April 2001