Other Drives/Programmes

JNCASR organized a blood donation camp in collaboration with the Sankalp India Foundation. Around 66 members of the JNCASR community including Students, Professors, and Staff members voluntarily came forward to participate in the drive.

A twelve-member team of officers from DST who were on a guided tour to Bangalore visited JNCASR on Monday 11th March 2024. An interactive meeting with Senior officers of the Centre with DST officers was held at Samvaada. Mr Joydeep Deb, Administrative officer made opening remarks and welcomed the DST officers, Prof. N.S. Vidhyadhiraja, Dean (F&E) gave a brief presentation of the research and academic activities of the Centre which was followed by a short presentation by each officer of the Centre. 

Prof G.U.Kulkarni, President of the Centre also welcomed the DST officers and briefly interacted with DST officers. There was a Photo session with the President and DST officers. Sri A.N. Jayachandra Coordinator (Special projects) moderated the session. The DST officers also interacted with a group of research students who highlighted the advanced Research being carried out at the Centre.

The DST officers were on a short campus tour and visited the Chemical Heritage Exposition, Prof. CNR Rao Hall of Science, research laboratories in ICMS and AMRL. 

1. Inter Institute Volleyball Tournament: An Inter Institute Volleyball Tournament was organized at JNCASR from March 08-10, 2024, to celebrate Women’s Day 2024. A total of 06 teams involving JNCASR, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Raman Research Institute (RRI), International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) participated in the event. Prof. G. U. Kulkarni, President, JNCASR inaugurated the event on March 08, 2024, in the presence of Prof. Sarit S. Agasti, Faculty In Charge (Sports), JNCASR and the Administrative Officer, JNCASR.

Symposium on “Nerve-storming: from molecules to behaviour” from March 08-09, 2024: A symposium was organised at the Centre from March 08-09, 2024, on the topic “Nerve-storming: from molecules to behaviour”. The symposium was organised by 02 Women Faculty Members of the Centre viz., Prof Sheeba Vasu and Dr Achira Roy. The symposium was attended by Faculty Members, Students & Researchers of the Centre. 40% of the speakers and 60% of the participants are women. Symposium Talks presented ideas drawn from diverse model systems, such as worm, insect, fish, bird, rodent, marsupial, monkey, cell, and organoid models.

“Nerve-storming: from molecules to behaviour” symposium will be held at JNCASR, Bangalore, India on 8-9 March 2024, at the AMRL auditorium. This event will cover a variety of themes in the field of neuroscience, ranging from neurodevelopment, behaviour, to brain disorders. The symposium will also dwell on diverse model systems (worm, insect, fish, bird, rodent, marsupial, monkey, cell and organoid models), challenges posed, and new techniques available to study neuronal systems in health and disease. A highlight of this meeting is a discussion and Q&A session with an eLife editor, on the nuances of peer review and publication.

The symposium brings a critical amalgamation of eminent scientists and clinicians across the country, encompassing fields of basic, translational, and clinical neurobiology, both in breadth and depth.

Symposium Website: https://nsu2024.wixsite.com/nerve-storming

The symposium announcement flyer and scientific program schedule are attached.

Conference Homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/md60/

About the Conference

Sixty years after the pioneering paper “Correlations in the Motions of Atoms in Liquid Argon” by A. Rahman, Physical Review A 136 (2): 405-411 (1964), 

Molecular Dynamics (MD) has become a ubiquitous and critical resource for research not only in the physical and life sciences, but also in engineering. 

Thanks to the foundational work of pioneers like Anees Rahman, plus the efforts of the subsequent generations of brilliant researchers, who have focused on algorithms and methodological developments, MD has evolved from the engine procuring the time evolution of simple model systems to the underlying tool yielding a mechanistic understanding of frontier problems in both fundamental and applied science, as well as in engineering.  

The breadth of research employing MD is astounding, ranging from modern approaches for tackling rare events, and systems out of equilibrium, to large-scale simulations employing increasingly sophisticated models for the interatomic interactions, which are now more and more based on Machine Learned potentials, rather than semi-empirical approaches. These modern developments concomitant with the ever-growing power of computational resources, means that MD is now routinely used to describe phenomena at size and time scales hardly imaginable in 1964. For example, milliseconds length simulations of biological systems containing literally millions of atoms have led to remarkable progress in understanding the structure and function of Nature’s nanoscale molecular machines, which in turn has greatly aided in designing drugs to fight diseases. Similarly, simulations at the scale of literally billions of atoms have advanced our understanding of processes occurring in solid-state mechanics. Such methodological and technological developments, along with key applications, have brought us to the point where MD has already had a concrete societal impact. Even more exciting is the prospect of future simulations leading the design of quantum materials, which are not only going to be vitally important for application in energy science, but also for the next generation of devices. The MD toolbox will also lead the synthesis of new generations of catalysts that will be needed to ensure the sustainability of our environment. 

At this conference, we shall celebrate Anees Rahman’s pioneering contribution to MD simulation 60 years ago by bringing together leading experts, along with the new generation of practitioners in the field, to showcase and explore not only the history of the field but also the latest methodological developments.