The two-day India-Israel Meeting on Material Science and Nanoscience began at the School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University on Thursday.
Inaugurating the programme, Vice-Chancellor A.V. George expressed concern over lack of funds at their disposal for supporting research in nanoscience that requires state-of-the-art laboratories, equipment and manpower. Collaboration on a global scale would reduce such technical difficulties, he said. International meetings had immense relevance in this context, he said. Dr. George released the conference proceedings and handed the first copy to Prof. Gary Hodes. He also launched a book, titled ‘Natural Polymers, Bio Polymers, Biomaterials and their composites, Blends and IPNs’, authored by Sabu Thomas, Director, Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CNN), and handed the first copy to Prof. Uri Banin.
Prof. K.S. Narayanan, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Prof. Hodes, Prof. Thomas and Nandakumar. K., Joint Director, CNN, also spoke during the inaugural session. Later, there were talks on related topics including synthesis, structure, properties and applications of nanomaterials and a discussion on new advances in the field of material sciences.
Prof. Ernesto Joselevich, Prof. Narayanan, Prof. K. George Thomas, Prof. Hodes, Dr. Mahesh Hariharan, Prof. Yehiam Prior and Prof. M.R. Anantharaman presented their research works that dealt with various topics revolving around the central theme of the event. The proceedings of the day came to an end with a poster presentation session in which nearly 90 researchers participated.