Yuri Kivshar is among the foremost authorities in metamaterials as well as nonlinear physics and nonlinear photonics, having made several pioneering contributions to these fields. The award-winning scientist is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Optica, the American Physical Society, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, and the Institute of Physics. […]
Renugopal Murugesan first visited IISc in 1977, at the age of 14, when his father was employed as a construction worker at the old Physics department building. He joined his father as a daily wage labourer in 1981 and later worked as a mason. With the support of IISc faculty and staff, he learnt typing […]
Narayanaswamy Balakrishnan (“Balki”) has spent over five decades at IISc. Upon completing his BE (Hons) from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, he pursued his PhD from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, IISc, where he continued as a faculty member. He contributed to diverse areas, including aerospace electronics, computational electromagnetics, and information security. He also played […]
Mariadasan Anthony Decroos (known as MA Decroos) dedicated more than 40 years of service to the Institute from 1965. He worked with five Directors, handling sensitive, confidential, and strategic planning assignments that contributed significantly to the Institute’s growth. When CONNECT reached out for an interview, the 85-year-old promptly agreed to reflect on his life and […]
Faculty members in academia want more than what a lucrative corporate package following a conventional career path has to offer. The modest income compared to industry jobs is just a known feature of their decision to join academia and not a problem that they’re trying to solve. It’s the call to heed something bigger than […]
Nihar B Shah is Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, USA, where he leads a research group exploring how human-AI collaboration can lead to more trustworthy research publications and fairer evaluation systems. He completed his ME from the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering (ECE) at IISc in 2010, and also received the Young Alumnus Medal […]
A day in the life of Assistant Registrar Mithun Nair Mithun Nair’s day usually begins at 5.40 am. He goes for a morning walk, reads the newspaper, then gets ready and goes to work. On this day, Mithun arrives at his desk at 9 am. He is back after a weeklong vacation and has […]
Anindita Bhadra, Professor at the Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, does not believe in glorifying women as multitaskers. A former PhD student at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Anindita studied hierarchy in social wasps and later shifted to researching the behaviour of stray dogs in India. […]
Faculty member Arpita Patra is on a loft quest When Arpita Patra woke, it was pitch dark. It took her a minute to gather her senses. As she slowly realised where she was, excitement rushed through her. She jumped up, put on her gear, and ran out of the tent. It was D-day at […]
A day in the life of hostel warden Chikka Gangamma In the early morning hours, when most of the campus is still stirring from sleep, a familiar figure makes her way through the quiet streets of IISc. With a gentle smile that has become her trademark, Chikka Gangamma begins another day of guarding not […]
