GUWAHATI, Jan 31 - The first Cotton University Symposium as a space for presenting and discussing results across the boundaries of disciplines, from the natural to social sciences and languages and literature, was held on January 27-28 with about 120 registered participants, said a statement issued by Cotton College State University Vice Chancellor Dhruba Saikia today. A large number of students registered for the event.
The symposium was coordinated by Anjana Singha Naorem of the Department of Zoology and Preetee Sharma of the Department of History, Cotton University. In all, 24 papers were presented, including five plenary papers, by 45 authors from 18 different institutions. These included four Indian ones from outside the North East, including Nature Conservation Foundation of Mysore, National Institute of Advanced Studies of Bengaluru, Jamia Millia Islamia of New Delhi and Delhi University, and also three international ones, viz. Columbia University, Kyoto University and Laboratoire de Dynamique de l�Evolution Humaine of Paris.
The plenary speakers on the first day were Nandini Velho from Columbia University who contrasted community-managed and protected lands in Arunachal Pradesh, Probodh Borah of Assam Agricultural University who presented the highlights of research in his laboratory on biotechnological intervention in animal production, and Anil M Limaye from IIT Guwahati who gave a comprehensive review on green tea in health and chemoprevention.
On the second day, the two plenary talks were presented by Dhiraj Bora, Vice Chancellor of ASTU and former Director of IPR who spoke on fusion as a clean source of energy for the future, and Joydeep Baruah from the OKD Institute of Social Change and Development, who presented their detailed studies on diversities and human development in Assam.
The remaining 19 papers, of which a dozen were from Cotton University, covered natural, earth and social sciences as well as literature. The symposium was partially supported by UTI Mutual Fund with Amarjyoti Printers as publicity partners.
