The Ohio State University and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay recently reunited on the Columbus campus for IIT Bombay’s 2022 Faculty Alumni Network (FAN) Meeting. The symposium convened faculty, alumni and delegates of industry and academia from both the U.S. and India to discuss emerging areas of research and develop new collaborations.
This was Ohio State’s first time hosting the annual event. This year’s FAN symposium offered an opportunity for the two partnering universities to reaffirm their collective commitment to advancing collaborative, cutting-edge research and affecting societal change.
The event also brought together researchers from Ohio State’s first research center shared outside the U.S., the IIT Bombay-Ohio State Frontier Center. So far, the Frontier Center has awarded funding to 13 research teams that have brought together investigators and students with complementary expertise from both universities. The Frontier Center is operated by Ohio State’s Institute for Materials Research, which also supported this year’s FAN meeting.
University President Kristina M. Johnson joined Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri, the director of IIT Bombay, to open the event and share their insights about trends in science and engineering research and education.
.@OhioState & @iitbombay reunited to host the 2022 Faculty Alumni Network meeting, which convened #IITB faculty & alumni, as well as researchers & scholars from our @IITB_OSU_FC to explore new areas of research & reaffirm our collective commitment to affecting societal change. pic.twitter.com/GrR1gmtyYe
— Kristina M. Johnson (@PresKMJohnson) May 17, 2022
Frontier Center co-leader Ardeshir Contractor gave the symposium’s welcoming address. Contractor is a clinical professor in Ohio State’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Fisher College of Business. Joining virtually, renowned nuclear physicist Dr. Anil Kakodkar, chancellor of the Homi Bhabha National Institute and member of the Atomic Energy Commission, rounded out the opening panel.
Moderating the second panel, which focused on fostering new collaborations between the U.S. and India, Professor Anurag Mairal, an adjunct professor of Medicine at Stanford University and director of Global Outreach Programs at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, welcomed Dr. Nandini Kannan, Executive Director of the Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and Prof. Pramod Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor Research at the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Om Nalamasu, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Applied Materials, Inc., offered insights into the emerging materials landscape and industry, as the event’s invited speaker. Other featured guests included representatives from academia, industry and government from around the globe.
Breakout session topics at the May 14 event included Materials and Advanced Manufacturing, Nanofabrication and Characterization, Health Sciences and Engineering, Data and Information Science, and Sustainable Chemical Sciences. These topics align with the “Institute of Eminence” theme of IIT Bombay, which strives to be among the top 50 institutions of higher education in the world within the next decade.
IIT Bombay established the FAN network with the objective of attracting researchers from across the globe to develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in science and technology.
Story by Mike Huson, Communications Coordinator for the Institute for Materials Research and IIT Bombay-Ohio State Frontier Science and Engineering Research Center
Contact: huson.4@osu.edu
Follow: @OhioStateIMR