DIBRUGARH, Sept 6 - The Department of Physics, Dibrugarh University (DU) in association with the DU authorities organised Professor HL Das and Professor SB Singh memorial lectures on the occasion of Teachers� Day yesterday.
This lecture series was held in memory of two of the department�s former faculty members: experimental condensed matter physicist, Late Professor HL Das and theoretical physicist Late Professor SB Singh.
Two noted researchers in their own fields, both Prof. Das and Prof. Singh are considered in the league of most influential teachers who had managed to inspire generations of students with their extraordinary teaching and down to earth personalities.
It may be mentioned that the Prof. Das Memorial Lecture has been organised by the department since 2017. This is the first time that the department organised the Prof. Singh Memorial Lecture.
This time around, because of the prevailing COVID-19 situation, the department decided to organise the event on Google Meet with live streaming on YouTube.
The department had two of the leading scientific figures of the country: Prof. Sobhana Narasimhan of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre of Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR, Bengaluru) and Professor Mandar M Deshmukh from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR, Mumbai) as the two speakers for the event. Professor Narasimhan works in the field of Computational Material Science while Professor Desmukh is an experimental condensed matter physicist.
Hosted by Dr Bulumoni Kalita, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, the event commenced at 9.45 am with an inaugural speech by Professor Dipak Chetia, Dean of Research and Development, Dibrugarh University. Prof. Chetia fondly recollected his personal association with Late Prof. SB Singh and paid tributes to Late Prof. HL Das. He also emphasised on the ever-increasing role of digital movement in improving the accessibility and quality of higher education and research.
Prof. Chetia�s speech was followed by a welcome address by Dr Pankaj Dutta, Head, Department of Physics. In his brief speech, he introduced the organising department and highlighted the lives and works of Prof HL Das and Prof SB Singh.
Prof Sobhana Narasimhan delivered her talk titled: �Computing the Properties of Materials from First Principle�. Beginning with a historical perspective of material science research, Prof Narasimhan highlighted the importance of rational material design in the context of current status of the field.
She presented a very elementary introduction to the density functional theory and went on to point out some of the important research works currently taking place in this regard.
Prof Mandar M Deshmukh�s talk was entitled: �Electronic properties of 2D crystals�. Commencing with the idea of two dimensional material in the context of electronic properties, he moved on to the specific example of graphene and elaborated on its interesting properties and aspects.
Prof Deshmukh talked about a number of recent developments in the direction of synthesis and characterisation of graphene. Towards the end of his talk, he also drew the attention of the audience to the idea of two dimensional superconducting material.
The lecture series eventually concluded with a vote of thanks offered by Dr Pankaj Dutta.
In addition to the programme organised by the Department of Physics, the Community Radio Station, Gyanmalinee of Dibrugarh University transmitted a live phone-in interview programme with various teachers from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, a release stated.
