Malgudi, RK Narayan’s idyllic setting for his stories, may have been inspired by the Mysore of a bygone era, but its name is a felicitous blend of two of Bangalore’s oldest suburbs – Malleswaram and Basavangudi. Even in the 1970s, when I first arrived in the city, these areas retained an old-worldly charm. Few could […]
Category: History
The Aerospace Department’s First Home
The old Aerospace Engineering building at IISc represents an architectural style that blends minimalism and functionality IISc is an institution with a history of more than 100 years. Not surprisingly, there are many stories here to be told. And not just about its people. There are also tales of its buildings waiting to be recounted. […]
Hans Liepmann: The Teacher Who Had a Lasting Influence on Satish Dhawan and Roddam Narasimha
In 1964, Hans Liepmann from Caltech arrived at IISc for a term. SM Deshpande, then doing his ME in the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, remembers the “glorious combination” that resulted. “Liepmann taught our batch,” says Deshpande, now at the Engineering Mechanics Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. “We were very lucky. […]
Remembering Rajeswari Chatterjee, IISc’s First Woman Engineer
Rajeswari Chatterjee was the first woman engineer to be appointed on the faculty of IISc. Read on to learn more about her research and legacy It was the year 1953, and IISc had just appointed Rajeswari Chatterjee – who had arrived in India from the US after her PhD from the University of Michigan – […]
Kanishka Crash, 1985: How Metallurgy Helped Expose a Terrorist Attack
Former IISc metallurgist V Ramachandran helped establish that a mid-air explosion brought down the plane V Ramachandran recognised the fragment from a stantion, one of the structural elements used to support the fuselage of the aeroplane. But it didn’t look normal: the aluminium tube had fractured and curled inwards by almost a full circle. […]
Morris Travers Autobiography Excerpt: Laying the Foundations of IISc
Morris Travers was the first Director of IISc from 1906 to 1914. Before he died (in 1961), he left behind a typescript of his memoirs, notes and diaries at the archives of University College London. These writings have been meticulously compiled and edited by his grandsons, David MW Travers and John R Ainslie, and was […]
Book Launched on the Life and Times of IISc’s First Director
The autobiography of IISc’s first Director Morris W Travers, published by IIScPress, was released by historian Ramachandra Guha and IISc’s former Director P Balaram The autobiography of IISc’s first Director Morris W Travers, published by IIScPress, was released on 20 February 2017 by historian Ramachandra Guha and IISc’s former Director P Balaram. The current Director, […]