A Quiet(er) Place

A closer look at how industrial acoustics and noise control research began at the Institute   In 1896, Henry Ford drove his first experimental automobile down the streets of Detroit in the United States. “My gasoline buggy … was considered something of a nuisance, for it made a racket and scared horses,” he wrote in […]

Engines at IISc

The erstwhile ICE Department contributed to indigenous engine technology in the early years of India’s industrial development   There once was a particularly popular department at IISc called the Department of Internal Combustion Engineering (ICE), and for close to a quarter of a century, the engineers there designed, constructed and tested a plethora of engines […]

Dancing with Cells, Surfing the Laminar Flow

Ahead of Satish Dhawan’s birth anniversary on 25 September, his daughter Jyotsna writes about her childhood on the IISc campus, life beyond, and her father’s indelible presence In the 1960s, while our parents (mostly fathers) worked away in labs and offices, libraries and classrooms, the children of IISc staff (mostly barefoot and unsupervised) explored that […]

My Father, Joseph

A contemporary of B Ramiah, Joseph Aroikiaswamy Doss was also a technician at the Department of Aerospace Engineering for many decades. Here, his son John remembers his father’s work ethic and his commitment to family and faith     My favourite memories of my father are from the time when I was a young boy […]

Memories of a Lost Art

Before computers and CAD design, depicting scientific concepts and results in graphs and sketches was challenging. CONNECT spoke to two retired draughtsmen from IISc, Sathyanarayana and Ramesh Babu, who translated these into detailed hand drawings.     How did you come to join IISc? Sathyanarayana: I was an apprenticeship trainee in Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) […]

How Biochemistry Research Evolved Over A Century

From studying indigenous dyes to developing cancer therapies, a look at the changing priorities of IISc’s Department of Biochemistry   The Department of Biochemistry at IISc turns 100 next year. It holds the distinction of being the first department dedicated to the studies of biological chemistry in India. In the century since it was established, […]

The Science of Gilbert Fowler

The first head of the Department of Biochemistry was one of the most consequential researchers of his time   Gilbert John Fowler wore many scientific hats: he was a chemist, a biologist and an environmental scientist – decades before environmental science became an active field of scientific investigation. He even fancied himself as an economist. […]