INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON NEUTRON SCATTERING |
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre had organized an International Symposium on Neutron Scattering during
15th to 18th January 2008. The venue for it was the Nabhakiya Urja Bhavan building in Anushaktinagar, Mumbai, which was kindly made available by CMD, NPCIL. Neutron Scattering is an advanced technique used in the study of structure and dynamics of solids and liquids as well as for engineering applications. About 250 scientists attended the symposium, of which over 50 were from overseas laboratories that included those from US, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Australia etc
In his inaugural address, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India, complimented the BARC physicists for their self reliant approach and pioneering efforts at building neutron instruments. He emphasized the need to maintain cutting edge research facilities in our labs and the efforts being made by BARC and RRCAT in this direction through linkages with other scientific centres abroad. He touched upon DAE facilities being made available to University students and researchers in India, as well as DAE’s plans to develop new world class research reactor and advanced neutron sources in the country.
Dr. S. Banerjee, Director, BARC mentioned the unique features of neutron as a microscopic probe. He touched upon a variety of studies made accessible by neutrons involving lengths of nanometer (billionth of a meter) to dynamical studies over time scale of trillionth
(10-12 ) of a second. He gave examples where neutrons can be exploited like in the study of clustering/ ordering in alloys.
Dr. G. Venkatraman, Former Vice-Chancellor, Sri Sathya Sai University, the Chief Guest of the function, reminded the audience about the modest research facilities that were available in the post independence period when Dr. Bhabha and DAE were started and there was little professional guidance available, except for some books. He then went on to describe the progress made in the past five decades. He lauded the private sector for its contributions to country’s technological progress and shared his thoughts about the need to enthuse students and researchers into upcoming areas that will pave the way for progress of the country. He emphasized creating an Advanced Centre for Inter-disciplinary Studies with best of supercomputing facilities so that Afro-Asian students could be trained there.
Dr. V.C. Sahni, Director, Physics Group, BARC and Director, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology surveyed the growth of neutron scattering activity in India and how from a humble start with APSARA reactor things have evolved over the past fifty years.
Dr. J.V. Yakhmi, Associate Director, Physics Group had welcomed the participants and Dr. S.L. Chaplot, Head, Solid State Physics Division proposed the vote of thanks.