Conference Report

Namaskar

Innovation in chemistry teaching and research has crossed the boundaries of multiple branches,

emerging with new dimensions of understanding and applications. With this aim the department

of chemistry of the IIS University organized a three day national conference, from October 16th –

, 2014, on the “Emerging Areas in Chemical Education & Research and National Convention

of Chemistry Teachers (NCCT 2014)” supported by DST. National Convention of chemistry

teachers is an annual meeting of the association of chemistry teachers (ACT) which provides a

platform to bring together the chemical educators of the country particularly those engaged in

higher education sector. The focus of the conference was on emerging trends in all the branches

of chemistry including Chemical education, Computational chemistry, Bio-organic chemistry,

Synthetic Organic chemistry, Molecular modeling, Green and Medicinal chemistry.

The conference commenced at 10:00 a.m. on 16th

seeking the blessings of the almighty in the form of a prayer followed by lighting of the lamp by

all the dignitaries on the dais, after which the conference chairperson Dr. Ashok Gupta, Vice-
Chancellor, The IIS University, extended a warm welcome to all the resource persons, delegates

and students participants.

Prof Pradeep Bhatnagar, Dean, Faculty of science, presented an overview of the science

departments of The IIS University.

Prof. S. D. Samant, President, ACT, in his presidential remark highlighted the problems being

faced by chemstryl educators in terms of curriculum and delivery.

Prof. D. V. Prabhu, General Secretary, ACT in his address acquainted the audience with the

aims and objectives of the ACT and its annual convention.

As we are all aware, association of chemistry teachers has the tradition of honouring one

chemistry faculty every year in its convention with ACT Life Time Achievement Award.

The faculty has to be from the zone in which NCCT is being organized and should have made

exemplary contribution in the field of chemistry in terms of teaching and research. The central

zone committee nominated Prof. R. K. Bansal for this prestigious award. In the inauguration

ceremony, he was felicitated with a shawl, cash prize of Rs. 11000 and a citation.

In the series of awards Dr Bihari Singh, from A N University Patna was awarded the

“Anupam Sinha Best Chemistry Teacher Award” for his contribution in Chemical Sciences.

He was felicitated again with the shawl, cash prize and citation.

The second issue of the biannual magazine “Science Spectrum” of the chemical association of

the IIS University and third volume of the Journal of science and technology published by the

University were released by the dignitaries.

The conference co-convener Prof. R. K. Bansal, Emeritus Professor, The IIS University,

introduced the keynote speaker, Padma Vibhushan, Prof. M. M. Sharma and invited him

for his address. Prof Sharma delivered his talk on “Innovations in chemical industry”. He

emphasized that Chemistry is in everything and everywhere and marked Chemistry as a tool box

of the world. He acquainted the audience with various interesting innovations in chemistry like

discovery of polymers, artificial diamond, membranes and extraction of aluminum from its ore.

The inaugural session ended with a formal vote of thanks was proposed by conference convener

Dr. Raakhi Gupta.

The inaugural session was followed by 13 technical sessions spread over three days and chaired

by luminaries from the field of chemistry.

The first invited lecture was delivered by Prof. Udai Maitra, from IISC Bangalore. He

deliberated on the topic “Learning chemistry in the computer age”. He wonderfully highlighted

the fact that the teaching can be made interesting by incorporating learning material available on

website in the lectures.

Prof. Savita Ladage from Homi Bhabha institute, Mumbai, introduced chemistry education

research in her talk highlighted its significant contribution at the undergraduate and post graduate

Role of chemical sciences in environmental engineering research was discussed by Prof. A B

Gupta from MNIT, Jaipur in his talk. through different real life examples

The fourth invited lecture was delivered by Prof. S. Chandrasekaran, from IISC Bangalore,

on ethics in research and publishing. In his lecture he urged all active practitioners of scientific

research from academic /research institutions to write up their work in the form of manuscripts

and get them published in scientific journals of repute. He also retreated that young researchers

in particular, should be sensitized about various facets of ethics in research and publishing.

Challenges of old chemical technologies and possibilities of new innovations were discussed by

Prof. P. Pramanik, IIT Khargupur in his talk on the second day of the conference He informed

all members about the use of methylglyoxal to avoid cancer.

The principles and practices of green chemistry towards the construction of pharmaceutically

imperative heterocycles were elaborated by Prof. Anshu Dandiya, Head Department of

Chemistry, University of Rajasthan.

Prof R. T. Pardasani, from Central University of Rajasthan, Kishangarh deliberated on the

topic, application of computational chemistry in organic synthesis and discussed the mechanistic

and stereochemical aspects of cycloaddition and photocycloaddition reactions by computational

calculations.

Prof S. Kelkar, Univesity of Pune, discussed about the introduction of Microscale experiments

in chemistry curricula through interesting video clips. He also acquainted the audience that the

financial burden on institutes can be reduced with the use of easily accessible and inexpensive

new apparatus.

Prof P. S. Kalsi, from Ludhiana delivered his informative talk on how to teach organic

chemistry in 21st

K. Singh from IIT Bombay not only discussed the bioorganic chemistry of photoreceptors but

also focused his lecture on aspects of tertiary education in chemical sciences particularly with

regard to model curicullar structure, course contents and pedology.

ACT Lifetime Achievements Awardee Prof. R. K. Bansal delivered a lecture on the topic “A

symbiotic teaching-research relationship for healthy growth of higher education”.

 century in the first technical session of the third day of the conference. Prof A.

Last technical session was a Panel discussion on the topic “How teaching research linkage can

be strengthened in higher education”. Moderator of this session was Prof S. D. Samant panelists

Prof. Helen Kavitha, Prof. M. Swaminathan, Prof. Dalip Kumar, Prof. PVS Machi Raju, Prof.

D.C. Deka, and Prof. Radha V. Jairam were the panelist.

We are also delighted to share with you that we received very good response from delegates

in terms of research paper presentation. The presentations were divided into three categories

undergraduate students, teachers and research scholars. These presentations were interspersed

in the three day schedule of the conference. In all 17 students presented their posters in U. G.

category and 42 teachers and 60 research scholars shared their work through posters. Due to the

availability of limited slots 22 teachers and 9 students were able to present their research work

orally. We appreciate their contributions.

To encourage scientific research among students and teachers, The IIS University and ACT will

award to 3 Best Oral and 3 Best Poster Presentations in each category. The presentations were

evaluated by Hon’ble judges Prof. Sudha Jain, Dr. Neelima Gupta, Dr. Mira H. Uchil, Dr. U.C.

Jain, Dr. Shradha Sinha, Dr. S.P. Singh, Dr. D.V. Prabhu, Dr. M.R.R.Prasad, Dr. Raakhi Gupta,

Dr. Pragya Sinha and Dr. Varhsa Goyal. We thank them for their help and support.

A treat to the eyes and ears of all delegates was the wonderful cultural extravaganza put up by

the students of the IIS University on the first day of the conference. Thanks to them.

Executive council meeting and general body meeting of ACT were also held on the first and

second day of the conference respectively.

An overview to share with you is

• 270 delegates registered from all over India.

• one keynote lecture and 11 invited lectures by eminent scientists.

• 31 oral presentations and 118 poster presentations by young scientists and Ph. D students

in different technical sessions.

I hope, this conference must have provided excellent academic forum to the researchers,

scientists and industry personnel to understand the emerging trends in chemical educational

Thank you