The year was 1989. The day, the second Saturday of the rain-soaked month of July. The Council members of the Indian Academy of Sciences were assembled in the Council Room of the Raman Research Institute. Prof. C N R Rao, as the president of the Academy, was chairing the meeting. The members of the Council felt that one Annual Meeting was not sufficient to accommodate all the newly elected Fellows of the Academy to present their work to the Fellowship and the general community. The necessity for a second meeting was deliberated. The following year, on Friday, the 27th of July, the Indian Academy of Sciences hosted its first Mid-Year Meeting at the Indian Institute of Science.
Known for its diversity in scientific content delivered by highly acclaimed researchers, the Mid-Year meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences is an eventful celebration of scientific accomplishments from across India. The Mid-Year Meetings – shorter and more intense than the Annual Meetings, but of the same ‘status’– continue to serve as a platform for the newly elected Fellows and Associates to present their inaugural talk covering the most recent of their scientific achievements.
The 28th Mid-Year meeting was held on the 30th of June and the 1st of July, 2017, at the Faculty Hall of the Indian Institute of Science. Fellows of the Academy as well as Associates, invited teachers and students came together for a day and a half, participating in an exchange of knowledge and ideas. With talks on subjects ranging from caretaker tumour suppressors to quantum matter and nanomaterials-based light-harvesting systems to the unique properties of DNA replication in pathogens, the 28th Mid-Year was indeed an exciting occasion of learning exchange.
The highlights of this meeting were the special lectures: Gagandeep Kang spoke on ‘Vaccines and Public Health in India’, highlighting the challenges India faces in the development and implementation of vaccines. Ullas Karanth, using examples from his three decades of ecological research on India’s national animal – the tiger, explored possible solutions for the challenges that ‘Conservation Science at Macro-Ecological Scales’ face in India.
The public lecture, held in the evening of the 30th June, focussed on ‘C. Subramania Bharati: Nationalism and Creativity’ by A.R. Venkatachalapathy. The symposium on Molecular Machines held on the 1st, provided insights into this fascinating field from the perspectives of physics, cell biology, structural biology and chemistry.
Read the Current Science report of the 28th mid-year meeting here.