Science Circle Newsletter

Index

German Chancellor’s visit to India – S&T in the Limelight, October 2007

The German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel visited India from October 29th to November 1st, 2007. Accompanied by the Federal Minister for Education and Research, Dr. Annette Schavan, and a high ranking Political, Business, Science and Press Delegation, Dr. Merkel visited Delhi and Mumbai and had various political and scientific meetings on the agenda. Science and Technology was amongst the highlights of the visit with the launch of the Science Express and signing of eight MoUs in this field, amongst others the MoU for setting up an Indo German S&T Centre.

Picture Gallery of the visit

Launch of the Science Express

German Chancellor Merkel and Indian PM Singh jointly flagged off the Science Express on October 30th, 2007. Science Express is a first of its kind joint Indo German exhibition on wheels developed on the model of the Max Planck Society’s exhibition “Science Tunnel”. To attract young minds to science, the Science Express will over a period of 7 months stop at various stations in 56 Indian cities and cover a distance of approx 15,000 kilometres.

Picture gallery of Flagging off ceremony
Website of the Science Express
To know when the Science Express will be in your city, click here

MoU for establishment of Indo-German S&T Centre in Delhi

A MoU for establishing an Indo-German S&T Centre was signed by the Science Ministers of both countries in the presence of the heads of governments during Chancellor Merkel’s visit to India. India and Germany have agreed to set-up this S&T Centre in Delhi with the two sides committing 10 million euros each for a period of 5 years. The Centre will focus on the promotion of joint R&D projects in collaboration between research institutions and industry partners.

Some other MoUs signed during the visit:

DST and DAAD for exchange of senior and young researchers.

IIT Delhi and TU Darmstadt for implementing a joint research project on Lean manufacturing processes.

Anna University and Helmholtz Association on energy research

JNU-ICMR-Helmholtz Association on Medical research.

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Prof. Gerhard Ertl, Emeritus Professor at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

German researcher Gerhard Ertl of the Max Planck Society’s Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin has been awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry”. Ertl’s studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces are important for the chemical industry and can help explain why iron rusts, how fuel cells function and how catalytic converters in cars work, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

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Nobel Prize for German, French Physicists for Technology Used in Hard Drives

Germany’s Peter Grünberg of the Research Centre Jülich and Albert Fert of France have been awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance” or the GMR effect, the technology that is used to read data on hard drives. Both professors working independently from one another, discovered the GMR effect in 1988. The Research Centre Jülich holds the “Grünberg patent” of the GMR effect. Jülich is a part of the Helmholtz Association, Germany’s largest scientific research organisation, funded primarily by federal and state governments.

Research Minister Annette Schavan said that the two Nobel prizes for German researchers this year strengthen the atmosphere of transformation of Science in Germany, something that is also evident internationally.

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16th POLYCHAR World Forum on Advanced Materials, 17-21 February 2008, Lucknow, India

The POLYCHAR 16 - World Forum on Advanced Materials is one of the prestigious annual international conferences. The earlier conferences in this series were held in USA (2003), Portugal (2004), Singapore (2005), Japan (2006) and Brazil (2007). The 16th POLYCHAR World Forum on Advanced Materials will be held during 17-21 February 2008 at World Unity Convention Centre, Lucknow, India. POLYCHAR 16 will be preceded by a one day Workshop / Course on "Polymer Characterization" (14th February, 2008: At Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi) and a one day pre conference 'Mini Symposium on Greener Routes to Polymer Synthesis' (15th February 2008: At University of Delhi, Delhi)

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DST Call for Applications for participation of Students and Young Scientists at the 58th Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students at Lindau, 29 June - 4July, 2008

Each year since 1951, Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine have been meeting in Lindau, Germany, to discuss major issues of importance to their fields with students from around the world. The meetings include lectures by the Nobel Laureates, roundtable discussions and informal small-group meetings with the Nobel Prize winners. DST has been sending a group of students / young researchers to these meetings, since 2001.
Applications are invited from bright and young students and researchers of Physics and closely related areas for participation at the 58th Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students at Lindau, 29 June – 4 July, 2008. After the Lindau meeting, the Indian group also visits premier German scientific institutions for one week. Deadline for Application: 31 December, 2007

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Sofja Kovalevskaja Award of the Humboldt Foundation - new application round

The Sofja Kovalevskaja Award is for younger outstanding scientists from all countries and from all disciplines. The Award allows young scientists to spend five years building up working groups and working on a high-profile, innovative research project of their choice at a research institution of their choice in Germany and is valued at 1.65 million EUR. Deadline for Application: 4 January 2008.

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DST-MPG Workshop on “Modern Science Management”, 27-28 Nov, 2007

The Department of Science and Technology India and Max Planck Society of Germany jointly organised a two day workshop on “Modern Science Management” on 27-28 Nov, 2007 in New Delhi. A five member delegation headed by the Secretary General of the Max Planck Society, Dr. Barbara Bludau, participated from the German side and were key speakers at the workshop. Talks and discussions were held on various topics like Philosophy of Indian Science: Past, Present & Future, Frontiers of Science & Engineering Research: Indian perspective, The Max Planck Society: Research at the Frontiers of knowledge, Technology Transfer at the Max Planck Society and Science Outreach for Capacity Building in Society.

Programme of the workshop

Indo-German Symposium "Frontiers of Chemistry" at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 26-28 Oct, 2007

The first Indo-German symposium entitled "Frontiers of Chemistry" was organized by the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur , October 26-28, 2007. IITs have a relationship with many top-class universities in the world, including Germany. This relationship spreads over collaborative research projects, exchange of graduate students and faculty as well as joint workshops. This meeting brought together 30 top Indian and German Chemists actively working in frontier research areas. The aim of the symposium was to foster and reinforce mutually beneficial scientific relationships in Chemistry.

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Six More German Universities Get "Elite" Status

A panel in Germany has bestowed the label "elite university" on six institutions which will now receive hundreds of millions in extra research funds. This international panel of researchers and political representatives in Bonn selected six German institutions - Berlin's Free University, RWTH Aachen University and universities in Freiburg, Göttingen, Heidelberg and Constance - to join an elite list that already includes two universities in Munich and one in Karlsruhe. A total of nine universities have made the cut and can be considered elite institutions, the German government said. Its so-called "excellence initiative" was developed in 2005. The initiative is intended to boost the country's colleges by encouraging high-level research and competition.

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This newsletter has been prepared by the Science Section of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi.