‘Chandrayaan-3 Showed What India is Capable of’

Sreedhara Panicker Somanath is the 10th Chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, in 1985. Soon after, he started his stint in ISRO as team leader of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). After 10 years of service, he […]

Living with Parkinson’s

Subramony Mahadevan, a former faculty member at the Department of Developmental Biology and Genetics, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2009. In this personal essay, he reflects on his experiences of coping with the condition. This essay was first published in the Deccan Herald on 9 September 2023 and is being republished in CONNECT with […]

Hi-Tech Healthcare

Digital technologies are changing research and treatment In 2018, Vijay Chandru was already thinking about pandemics.  He was back on the IISc campus, where he had co-founded India’s earliest genomics startup, Strand Life Sciences, nearly 20 years ago. Now a visiting faculty member at the Department of Bioengineering (BE), he started teaching a course on […]

Humanising Science

The importance of introducing traditional knowledge to young scientists   Can complex scientific concepts and mathematical theorems have a dialogue with Indian folk dance? This was the question I posed as the end-term assignment for the course on ‘Mapping India with Folk Art’ that I was offering to IISc’s undergraduate students in 2015. I asked […]

Growing a Forest of People

Student conference has been fostering India’s conservation community for 14 years   “How many of you have been chased by an elephant?” is not a typical question you’d expect to hear at a conference. But it seems to fit right in at this one; many people raise their hands, some laugh. Standing at the front […]