Science Circle Newsletter
Science Circle Newsletter – November 2008
Index
Visit of the German Federal Minister for Education and Research
Schavan to India,
September 2008
Inauguration of the Indo German Science and
Technology Centre
12th
Science Circle Lecture by Prof. K. Muellen, Max Planck Institute
for Polymer
Research, Germany, October 24th, 2008
Oct -2nd Nov, 2008
medicine for his discovery of viruses causing cervical cancer
Visit of the German Federal Minister for
Education and Research Schavan to India, September 2008
The German Federal Minister for Education and Research, Dr.
Annette Schavan, visited India from September 7-10, 2008. The
Minister, accompanied by a high ranking delegation of scientists
visited Chennai and Delhi and participated at the 50 years
celebration of Indo German Cooperation in Higher Education at IIT
Chennai. In Delhi, along with the Indian Minister for Science and
Technology and Earth Sciences, Mr. Kapil Sibal, she launched the
“BMBF Campaign of Strategic Partnership with India”.
Indo German Science and Technology Centre
inaugurated
The two Ministers also inaugurated the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre on September 9. The Centre was announced during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Germany in April 2006 and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up of the Centre was signed by Schavan and Sibal in October 2007, during the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to India. The Centre will provide links to research, academia and Industry and support flagship projects between India and Germany in the areas of common interest. Both governments will each be contributing €2 million each year for the initial five years.
12th Science Circle Lecture by Prof. K. Muellen,
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, October 24th, 2008,
New Delhi
The German Embassy, New Delhi organised its 12th Science Circle
Lecture at India Habitat Centre on October 24th, 2008. Prof. K.
Muellen from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research,
Germany, delivered a talk on "Nano – Hype or Hope?". The Lecture
was followed by an informal discussion and get-together. Prof.
Muellen was on a visit to India for a week and met scientists
from premier institutes in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.
Visit of the President of the German Research
Foundation DFG to India, October 2008
Dr. Matthias Kleiner, President of DFG visited India from October
13 – 19, 2008. On the Agenda were visits to premier Indian
scientific institutes in Hyderabad and Delhi and participation at
the 2nd Indo-German Deliberations on Research Policy.
Colloquium for Humboldt Fellows and Awardees in
Engineering Sciences in India, 31st Oct -2nd Nov, 2008
The Humboldt Foundation organised a Colloquium for Humboldt
Fellows and Awardees in the Engineering Sciences in India titled
„ Engineering Sciences in India and Germany : University versus
Industry – Cooperation or Competition“ in New Delhi. The
President of the Humboldt Foundation, Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarz
accompanied by six renowned scientists and a journalist visited
India to take part in the Colloquium. Prof. Dr. Klaus Mandela,
Head of Asia Division at the Humboldt Foundation also visited
Varanasi to participate in the International Conference and
"Humboldt Kolleg", "Structural Characterization and Spectroscopy
of Materials relevant to Nanotechnology, Biomedical and
Geobiology" organised at the Benaras Hindu University from
November 7-9, 2008.
Programme
of the Colloquium
2nd European Higher Education Fair in India,
November 12-14, 2008, Delhi
The 2nd European Higher Education Fair , an initiative of the
European Commission, will be organised on November 13th and 14th
in New Delhi. Official representatives from higher education
institutions and their national representations from the EU
Member States will provide detailed information about their study
programmes, enrolment procedures, language requirements, living
conditions and other related issues. The European Commission
booth will provide information on the European Union as well as
on funding opportunities for individuals and cooperation
initiatives in the field of higher education.
German Science Journalists visit India, November
18 -30, 2008
A delegation of German Science Journalists, accompanied by the
Vice President of the German Research Foundation, will be
visiting India in November 2008. The team of journalists will
visit universities and premier scientific institutes in Delhi,
Hyderabad and Bangalore and meet senior government officials,
academicians and policy makers in these cities.
7th Indo-German Winter Academy, December 13-19,
2008, IIT Madras
The 7th Indo-German Winter Academy will be organized by IIT
Madras and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany from
December 13-19, 2008 in Chennai. The Indo-German Winter Academy
is an annual academic event in India established in 2002, which
is organized by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and
the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Talented students
from the premier technological institutions of India and the FAU
are brought together in a collaborative learning environment,
being sensitized to the challenging problems in science and
engineering and the excitement of innovation. The Winter Academy
2008 will focus on the subjects "Fluid Flow, Heat Transfer, and
Energy Conversion", "High Performance Computing for Engineering
Problems" and "Semiconductor Processes, Devices, and Systems",
which are of high scientific and industrial relevance.
Students from the departments of Mechanical, Chemical, Civil,
Electronics, Electrical, Aerospace, Metallurgy and Materials
Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics
from each of the IITs (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT
Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, and IIT Roorkee) are eligible
for the Winter Academy, joined by FAU diploma students. The
students prepare and present lectures on specific topics within
the broad areas of the courses and interact with participating
professors over various aspects of research and exchange their
ideas in an unconstrained atmosphere.
New Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad
IIT Kharagpur (1950), IIT Bombay (1958), IIT Madras (1959), IIT
Kanpur (1959), IIT Delhi (1961), IIT Guwahati (1994), IIT Roorkee
(2001), and now IIT Hyderabad (IITH) in 2008. Like the other IITs,
IITH is dedicated to excellence in research and teaching. As of
2008, IITH is located in the quiet residential campus of Ordnance
Factory Medak (OFMK) at Yeddumailaram, about 40 km from the heart
of Hyderabad city and will move (in 2010) to the new
state-of-the-art campus, about 6km from OFMK on the
Hyderabad-Pune National Highway 9.
Website of IITH
Harald zur Hausen of Germany along with two
French scientists wins the Nobel Prize for medicine for his
discovery of viruses causing cervical cancer
This year's Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded to one
German and two French scientists, for their discoveries of two
viruses causing severe human diseases. The Nobel jury said in
Stockholm that Harald zur Hausen of Germany won the prize for his
discovery of viruses causing cervical cancer. Francoise
Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France received the award
for their discovery of the virus that causes AIDS.
More Details
This newsletter has been prepared by the Science Section of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi.
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