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Indian Association
for the Cultivation of Science
However, despite Mahendra Lal Sircar's persistent efforts, no one came forward to undertake research at the Association till his death in 1904. After Dr. Sircar's death, his son Amrita Lal Sircar took over as Honorary Secretary. Three years later in 1907, aroused by curiosity at the nameplate, young Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, walked into the Association premises one August evening on his way back from work at the Accountant General's office, and changed the future of the Association and the pursuit of science in India. The basic research actually started at the Association with the enrollment of C. V. Raman as a member in 1907. He began carrying out researches in his spare time. The rest is history. Discovery of Raman effect in 1928 was followed by the Nobel Prize two years later. This firmly established a position for India in the scientific research map of the world. In 1933 Raman left Calcutta for Bangalore. In 1988 the American Chemical Society eulogized the discovery of Raman Effect by installing an International Historic Chemical Landmark plaque at IACS. Visitors can view this plaque on the first floor of the main building. Raman's celebrated disciple K. S. Krishnan, joined IACS as the first Mahendra Lal Sircar Professor and carried out his much acclaimed work on magnetic anisotropy. He was succeeded by K. Banerjee, a pioneer of the direct method in crystallography. In 1951, the Association moved to its present campus at Jadavpur and two years later started functioning as a full-fledged research institute under M. N. Saha, who became its first wholetime Director. This was in keeping with the growing activities of IACS. In less than a decade four departments each in physics and in chemistry were established and research activities began to flourish and make impact internationally. Some of the leading researchers of the time were S. C. Sircar, B. N. Srivastava, A. Bose, P. Ray, S. R. Palit, Sadhan Basu and P. C. Dutta. In the next two decades these departments had produced more than 2,000 research papers and more than 300 doctorates in science. The completion of a 100 years in 1976 marked the celebration of a heritage, heralding a new beginning into its next century. The centenary celebrations were inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi on July 29, 1976 and were marked by major national and international symposia and conferences. Raman's historic works setting the stage, the research activities during the first century of the Association spanned various fields in physics and chemistry. Some of the areas covered included magnetic anisotropy of graphite and rare earth compounds, early work on direct methods in crystallography, first electronic observation of dinuclear metal compounds, early work on liquefaction of air, structure phase transition at low temperatures, transport properties of gases in fractional distillation of petroleum, variational methods for ion-atom collision problems etc. The two decades old activities in chemical sciences also had made notable contributions, comprising kinetics and mechanism of free radical polymerization reactions, end group analysis of polymers by dye techniques, chemistry of rubber vulcanization, new strategies in reactions of general applicability, synthesis, stereochemistry and reactions of new species in coordination chemistry, new analytical reagents, isolation and chemistry of new carbohydrates from nature, immunochemistry of capsular and cell-free polysaccharides from pathogenic bacteria etc. The centenary celebrations brought about an upswing and improved visibility in the activities of IACS. The next 25 years have seen the Association diversifying into several frontier areas with technological potential. Availability of increased funding and the desire to instill a fresh scientific look induced IACS to search for scientists who were relatively young but already eminent and those who could provide leadership and open up new areas of research. This resulted in the appointment of a number of distinguished physicists and chemists and they along with other scientists contributed significantly in keeping IACS at the frontier of research, primarily basic but with forays into fields having technological and social relevance. National and international recognition, major prizes and medals, fellowships of distinguished scientific academies subsequently followed. In the very early years, activities at the Association were supported by generous public donations. But with the tools of research becoming increasingly expensive, such support alone proved insufficient. Today the Association receives aid from the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. A matching grant is provided by the Govt. of West Bengal. Individual scientists also receive grants from funding agencies like CSIR, DAE, DNES, ICMR, NSF, UNDP etc. for specific projects. Currently there are eight departments comprising the physical and chemical sciences. These are 1. Materials Science 2. Solid State Physics 3. Spectroscopy 4. Theoretical Physics 5. Biological Chemistry 6. Inorganic Chemistry 7. Organic Chemistry 8. Physical Chemistry. Three units which have taken shape during the last two decades are 1. Energy Research 2. Mahendra Lal Sircar Professor 3. Polymer Science. Many of the activities of the departments and units are interlinked and interdisciplinary in nature. Hence, the contributions from various fields can be broadly categorized into 1. Molecular Sciences 2. Physics and Chemistry of Solids 3. Biosciences and 4. Theoretical Sciences. The highlights of activities in these areas comprise development of a-Si solar cell leading to setting up of a pilot plant by BHEL, scientific and technological studies on glass-metal and glass semiconductor nanocamposites, preparation of thin films for fundamental studies and device fabrication, studies relating to atomic and molecular collision processes, immunochemistry of plant and bacterial sources, biochemistry of tumour cells, new and increased comprehension on the chemistry of transition metals, synthesis of bioactive natural products, new aspects of polymer blends, development of a microbial BOD sensor, theoretical studies on the structure and dynamics of molecules etc. A well appointed library is the heart and soul of any sustained research activity. The IACS library is the oldest research library in India, offering bibliographical facilities to a wide class of scholars. It has a vast collection of very old scientific journals of immense historical and archival value, a collection that has no parallel in any other library of a research institute. The first volume of the first scientific journal - The Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society, published in May 1665 is available in this library. The Association publishes the Indian Journal of Physics, the oldest journal in Physics from India which was founded by C. V. Raman. This year it will complete the 75th year of continuous publication. The Nobel Prize winning work of C. V. Raman was first published in this journal. Apart from C. V. Raman's contributions, the journal published many important papers of M. N. Saha, K. S. Krishnan, K. Banerjee, S. K. Mitra, S. Bhagvantam and others. The journal, with its uninterrupted publication, has grown into an international journal, publishing papers in two sections A and B covering almost all branches of physics. Special issues commemorating Golden Jubilee, birth centenaries of C. V. Raman, M. N. Saha and K. S. Krishnan have been published. The research activities pursued at the Association continue to receive national and international recognition. With the background experience of 125 years, IACS is in a fit position to scale new and emerging frontiers in research. The Association is poised to initiate research in the multidisciplinary areas such as advanced designed materials and biology-inspired sciences. We would like to thank Prof. Devashish Mukherjee, Director, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, for promptly providing the information we requested for preparing this write-up. Editor |
