India-born scientist Dr. Thomas John Colacot has won the American Chemical Society’s ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry , one of the top honours in the field.
He studied at St. Berchman’s College, Changanacherry, Kerala and IIT, Chennai, and is the first Indian to get the award in industrial chemistry. He also holds an MBA degree and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The award is sponsored by the ACS Division of Business Development and Management and the ACS Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.
Currently Global R&D manager in the homogenous catalysis area at Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals company, Mr. Colacot directs research in US, UK and in Indian labs.
“The ACS is proud to recognize your outstanding contributions to the development and commercialization of ligands and precatalysts for metal-catalyzed organic synthesis, particularly cross-couplings, for industrial and academic use and applications,” a letter from Tom Barton, president of ACS noted.
The 2015 national awards recipients will be honoured at the awards ceremony in conjunction with the 249th ACS national meeting in Denver, Colorado in March next year.
Mr. Colacot had received Royal Society of Chemistry’s RSC Applied Catalysis Award in 2012 for his contributions to the area of catalysis. His work on ‘cross-coupling’ is particularly acclaimed.
Mr. Colacot joined Johnson Matthey, USA in 1995 and started working in the area of palladium catalyzed cross-coupling.
The catalysts developed in his labs are currently used to make new drugs for Hepatitis C, a deadly disease with no cure, one pill per week for type II diabetics, and many hypertension drugs.
His work involves developing and commercializing ligands and catalysts for applications in metal-catalyzed synthetic organic chemistry.
His book on ‘New Trends in Cross-Coupling: Theory and Applications’ is scheduled to be published in October, 2014 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
He is also PhD thesis examiner to many IITs and visiting faculty at Rutgers University.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> S&T> Science / by IANS / Washington – September 03rd, 2014
Alisha Abdullah is one of India’s very few women bike racers. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Champion racer Alisha Abdullah is in top gear as she dons new roles
“The guys, after every race, used to put me down. I would be one among the last. They would tell me that I am a girl and that I couldn’t do it, say things like girls should get married. I took it up as a challenge. And with every race I worked hard and I improved my position,” says Alisha Abdullah. She went on to prove the ‘guys’ wrong.
One of India’s very few professional women bike racers Alisha inched her way up, competing with men, to be one among the best in the circuit. “Today guys come up to me asking me for tips for the track.” She is also a car racer. She recently won the Toyota Vios Cup, a street car race held in Thailand, where she competed with the best women racers in Asia. “These women are much stronger and tougher racers and I won competing against them.” She says over phone from Chennai where she is based. She said she is scheduled to visit the city for the inauguration of Lap 47, a performance studio for vehicles.
At a time when little girls dreamt of becoming princesses or at least a Miss Universe, Alisha was on the race track wanting to be a biker like her father, R.A. Abdullah, a seven-time national biking champion. Go-karting, bikes and car racing…the petite Alisha has done it all – won prizes and broken records. At 13 she won the national go-karting championship and the best Novice Award in the open class of Formula car racing. She was all of 15 when she got to bike racing.
It is not easy being a professional car or bike racer ‘irrespective of gender’, she says. “As a racer you have to extremely alert. There are many things you need to monitor – check if the RPM is going down or if there is some other suspicious blip and this at speeds exceeding 160 kmph.” A profession which demands physical and mental strength, it keeps her on her toes constantly. She works out intensely, “focussing on strength training than cardio. I never do any cardio. The physical demands of car and bike racing are different. For the former, neck and lower back are the areas of focus. And I train only with men because, I mean no offense, but their workouts are much more intense when compared to how women workout. I can do between 50 to 60 push-ups in a minute.”
With all talk of RPM, bikes, cars and racing tracks one would think this is all the 25 year-old does. She is consumed by it but there is more to her. She is a model and an actor too. She debuted in the recently released Tamil film Irumbu Kuthirai. She plays the villain’s (a biker) girlfriend. “The story was based on bike-racing and, like everything else in my life; I wanted to do a role different from the usual run-of-the-mill characters.” This was a guest role, soon she is to start shooting for a yet-to-be named project she is the lead actor, “I play a psycho.”
Any offers from the Malayalam film industry? “None yet!”
Films and racing, isn’t the plate loaded? “No. My role model is Danica Patrick, she is an actor and a car racer. She is married, has a family and multi-tasks. It’s not that I am doing a 100 things. Just two things and that’s fine.”
She is a car racer, model and actor, too. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Films and modelling are an aside, her focus is racing. She plans to start an academy for racing for women at Chennai. Her dream is fuelled by a desire to see more women competing in motor sport. “There are so many talented sportswomen, but almost none in motorsport. I want to change that trend. And if a man wants to come he can come wearing a wig!” she signs off.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Shilpa Nair Anand / August 31st, 2014
Historian S Muthaiah (extreme left) at an event during the Madras Week celebrations in Chennai.
Chennai :
Madras may have been founded by the British but it also has a long association with America, which historian S Muthaiah brought out in his talk about the city’s American connection at Women’s Christian College, during the Madras Week celebrations.
“You are here because of the Rockerfellers,” he told the students — the college was founded with a grant by the Rockerfeller Foundation.
The college functioned in a rented building before moving to the current 19-acre campus with the Doveton House building in 1916, using the donation money of `63,000. “The chapel too, was the gift of an unknown American. WCC still maintains connections with America through exchange programmes,” says Ridling Margaret Waller, Principal of the school.
Apart from more modern associations like Dreamflower Talc that used to be manufactured in India and was taken over by Pond’s, Muthaiah spoke about the connections of people like Elihu Yale, Colonel Olcott and John Scudder.
Elihu Yale’s connection to America is indirect — he came to India as a clerk with the East India Company and rose to the position of a governor in a mere 15 years. He returned to England an extremely wealthy man. He was approached by a representative of a small institution of learning in Connecticut for a grant. “Yale donated to the school, textiles, books and portraits worth 1,200 pounds. This may not seem like much money even for those days, but Harvard too was started with a similar sum,” Muthaiah says. And the college became what is today Yale University.
Some more interesting connections with America involve textiles – the handkerchiefs of ‘Madras Checks’ can be seen in the bandannas of the cowboys of the Wild West. “It was even used as a turban in some places in the South,” says Muthaiah.
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who was from New Jersey, founded the Theosophical Society along with Madam Blavatsy, with its headquarters in Madras, and John Scudder, who was also from New Jersey, was the first American medical missionary in India. Scudder has a whole family tree of missionaries, including the third generation Ida Scudder who founded the Christian Medical College, Vellore.
The film industry too is not to be missed, with famous films like Meera and Sakuntalai being directed by the Ohio-born Ellis Dungan. “He never spoke a word of Tamil but contributed so many great films to the industry,” says Muthaiah.
Representatives from the Indo-American Association and American expats also attended the talk that ended with the anthems of both countries.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Student / by Express News Service / August 28th, 2014
A class 10 student from remote Krishnagiri district conceived an “artificial, imaginary” planet where human beings can live, and won a free trip to the National Aeronautics Space Administration in the United States. Kiruthika, the 14-year-old girl, student of a private school in Hosur, came up with the idea of imaginary planet, ‘Aparana Basaraya’, named after the great astronomers of India, Aryabhatta and Bhaskaracharya.
The ‘Aparana Basaraya’ concept was sent as an entry for the space settlement design contest conducted annually by Nasa-Ames Research Centre for School Students. As many as 1,567 students in 18 countries, including Bulgaria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, UAE, India, the United Kingdom and USA, sent in over 562 entries. Kiruthika’s entry did not make it to the top 10 in the contest but her idea recevied appreciation and she was offered a free trip to Nasa. Six students from Jalandhar in Punjab won the grand prize for conceiving ‘Vona’, a settlement in Mars.
“My passion is biology but I decided to take part in the competition after my neighbour informed me about it,” says Kiruthika. Her project is about an artificial planet which can be positioned in space. It is cylindrical at the bottom and doughnut-shaped at the top. Humans can occupy the cylindrical shaped bottom area and the doughnut-shaped area can be used by cattle and others. Oxygen, water and other essentials reache the planet through less expensive sources. The project failed to impress but the jury accepted the idea and gave Kiruthika a chance to visit
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Education / DC / Sanjeevi Anandan / August 27th, 2014
Around 130 cars and 40 bikes, dating between 1926 and 1975, participated in the 10th edition of the annual heritage car and bike rally — Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu
At MyTVS Heritage Rally on Sunday, one did not have to imagine what it would have been like back then.
Vintage vehicles, which are the stuff of quaint black-and-white archives, motored down Egmore roads, before arranging themselves on the grounds of Don Bosco School.
The road show of the 10th edition of the annual heritage car and bike rally, organised by Madras Heritage Motoring Club (MHMC), a vintage and classic car and bike club, drew both new entries as well as those participating for years.
V.S. Kylas, founder-secretary of MHMC, said they received the highest number of entries in this year’s edition, with around 127 cars and 40 bikes, dating between 1926 and 1975, participating.
“The response from the public was overwhelming and the footfall was around 20,000,” he said. The new entries included a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, Jaguar Mark II and an Austin London Taxicab, among others.
However, among the sparkling vintage vehicles, the ones that drew some of the largest crowds were those with photographs of the famous personalities who owned them.
Lined up were noted industrialist (late) A. Sivasailam’s 1956 Dodge Kingsway-Delux, A.V. Meiyappan’s 1938 Vauxhall 14, and Gemini Ganesan’s 1952 Ford Prefect Saloon, among others.
The road show was flagged off by Vinod Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland. The guest of honour was R. Dinesh, joint managing Director, TVS and Sons. Sudhir Rao, managing director, Skoda India, gave away the prizes in various categories.
S. Srivardhan’s 1938 Mercedes Benz, Naresh Bangara’s 1959 Ambassador, and Arjun Ananth’s 1966 MGB, won in the Concours D’ Elegance upto 1940, 1941-1960, and 1961-1975 categories, respectively.
Sumanth Shaganti’s 1936 Royal Enfield was the winner in the ‘best maintained bike up to 1940’ category; Sumanth’s 1943 James won in the 1941-1960 category; and R. Srinivas’ 1959 Java won in the 1961-75 category. The winners were judged by experts Raja Mookerjee and Partha Banik from Kolkata. MHMC has organised close to 60 events in the past 12 years and has 120 members now, said Mr. Kylas.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Events / by Asha Sridhar / Chennai – August 25th, 2014
In 1802, the port city of Madras, for all official purposes, was gifted with the knowledge of its ‘place’ in the world.
John Goldingham, working from the Madras Observatory in Nungambakkam, identified the longitude of the city as 80°18’30” east of the Greenwich Meridian, five hours and 30 minutes ahead of the mean time.
With the newly-instituted coordinates, days officially began at midnight, as opposed to sunrise. For the first time in the subcontinent, an official local time zone could be used.
For the mercantile British rulers, for whom the adage ‘time is money’ struck close to home, it was imperative that Madras Time remain consistent and accurate.
At Fort St. George, a time gun was shot at noon and 8 p.m., every day. The dropping of the semaphore near the marine office at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. further kept tabs on the ticking clock.
In 1884, with the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C, Bombay and Calcutta were declared British India’s two official time zones.
Threatening to severely complicate the functioning of the railways, the government was compelled to adopt a standard time that could function as an intermediary between the two time zones. Madras, by virtue of its equidistant positioning, lent itself to exactly this.
Madras Time thus became ‘railway time’. By the late 19 century, the entire subcontinent (except Madras) was straddling two time zones — local time and ‘railway (Madras) time’.
Jim Masseoles, an Australian historian, in his essay ‘Bombay Time’, notes that all train schedules had Madras Time printed beside the local time from then on.
Madras, in effect, clocked time for the entire country. In 1881, Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay Presidency, created quite a stir when he unilaterally passed a government resolution to shift to Madras Time, which was quickly rescinded, consequently.
In many ways, Madras Time was the precursor to the Indian Standard Time (IST), established in 1906. Interestingly, even when Madras had to shift to IST, the city lucked out by resetting its clocks merely nine minutes in advance.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Nitya Menon / Chennai – August 22nd, 2014
Ratnam Pillai, a Hyderabad-based doctor, worked as medical assistant to Sir Ronald Ross who linked mosquito bite to malaria in 1897. The proud possession for the four grandchildren of Dr. Pillai – Shela, Shirley, Franklin and Samuel – are the medals.
The whole world remembers the contribution of Sir Ronald Ross, the doctor who linked mosquito bite to malaria on August 20, 1897 and won a Nobel Prize for the discovery. A very few, however, know that there was a Hyderabad-based doctor, Ratnam Pillai, who was a medical assistant to Dr. Ross at the military hospital for Indian soldiers in Begumpet during the epochal discovery.
While the contribution of Dr. Pillai was largely left unsung, his grandchildren still cherish his priceless memorabilia, which they could salvage from getting lost in time. Staying in a modest house in West Marredpally, Secunderabad, Dr. Pillai’s grandchildren have been fighting for due recognition to their grandfather’s work for quite some time.
“He did his medicine from Royapuram Medical School in Madras and joined Indian Medical Service as hospital assistant at Military Hospital, Bolaram and later at Begumpet hospital with Dr. Ross. He has served Indian soldiers in the Burmese war and was promoted as Subedar Major,” says his granddaughter, Shela Paupens.
The proud possession for the four grandchildren of Dr. Pillai – Shela, Shirley, Franklin and Samuel – are the medals.
“My grandfather was awarded silver medals by the British Government for his meritorious service. In fact, he also has received an honorary sword for his work. You can clearly see his name written on the edges of these medals,” says a proud Samuel.
‘Contribution has gone unnoticed’
Historians point out that the contribution of Indian soldiers and the doctor in malaria research has largely gone unnoticed.
“The hospital was meant for Indian soldiers, who had malaria and the research was done on them. In fact, Dr. Pillai had played a vital role in malaria research, but his contribution was not acknowledged,” says historian Anuradha Reddy.
Interestingly, a large number of members from Tamil-speaking community had migrated to Secunderabad in the early 1800s after the signing of subsidiary alliance between Nizams and the British. “We believe that Dr. Pillai too migrated from Madras to Secunderabad during this period,” she says.
Family memebers of Rathna Pillai, who worked as a deputy under Ronald Ross, showing his medals and Sword of Honour in Hyderabad on Tuesday. Photo: D. Chakravarthy
The family members too lament lack of recognition.
“When he died in 1943, we were told by our relatives that he was draped in the British flag and laid to rest in Bhoiguda cemetery. We have tried to find the grave, but unfortunately could not succeed. All we have are his medals and accounts of his work with Dr. Ross. The government should commemorate Dr. Pillai’s contribution too,” the grandchildren demand.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by M. Sai Gopal / Hyderabad – August 09th, 2014
Why is genetic diversity important for the survival of organism? This was one of the themes that was discussed at a three-day workshop on ‘Genetic diversity, molecular evolution and genomics’ held by the VIT University recently.
Professor S S Khora, Dean in-charge, School of Bio Science and Technology, VIT University said, the last few decades had seen rapid progress in understanding diversity at the molecular-level, thanks to the development of range of molecular tools. These tools had allowed scientists measure genetic diversity at various levels of population and address broad issues related to molecular evolution. Several laboratories in the country including VIT University were engaged in research in these areas, he pointed out. Professor R Uma Shanker from the University of Agricultural Science, Bengaluru, who was the convenor of the workshop, discussed a topic related to forest genetic resources. Dr G Ravikanth from ATREE, Bengaluru, delivered a lecture on DNA bar-coding.
Topics such as ‘Genomic tools in genetic diversity’ by Dr Nataraj Karaba, USA, ‘Molecular Evolution’ by Dr H A Ranganath and ‘Comparative Genomics’ by Dr R Siva of VIT University evoked good response.
The workshop provided an opportunity to students to get a hands-on feel of some of the software used in population genetics.
Around 200 students, research scholars and faculty members from in and around Vellore were present at the workshop, sponsored by the Indian Academy of Science, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Science.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 20th, 2014
FINDING HER SPACE Akemi loves the temples of Mylapore and tamarind rice Photo: R. Ragu / The Hindu
August 22 is Madras Day. Raveena Joseph profiles Akemi Yoshii Purushotham who grew up near Hiroshima but is happy to make Chennai her home
It’s 1995 and superstar Rajinikanth, with lustrous leading lady Meena at his side, is riding a horse carriage. He is being chased, of course, by a group of no less than 20 men with carriages of their own. When they chance upon a gorge, Superstar’s super horses rise to the occasion and fly across, leaving the chasers defeated.
In a small town called Yamaguchi near Hiroshima, as this scene from the movie Muthu unfolds on screen, an otherwise stoic Japanese audience breaks into applause. A young Akemi Yoshii, sits among them, clapping along.
Today, Akemi Yoshii Purushotham, a Chennai resident, remains a fan of Rajinikanth movies. In fact, she watches Chandramukhi everyday to pick up a few Tamil words. Her mother-in-law now converses to her in Tamil, so that she can practise the words she is learning. She also watches Tamil television channels in the evenings, even though the jokes still elude her.
“Naan Tamil padikirane,” she giggles, after taking a few minutes to come up with something clever to say. Having lived here for over six years now, she feels that knowing the language helps her understand the city, its people and culture, better. It’s definitely earned her a few fans, one among them an auto driver, who insisted on shaking her hand for her negotiation skills.
“When I first arrived in Chennai, I thought there were many people here. I also thought there were many animals on the road. It was crazy and at the same time, it felt like I’d come back home,” says Akemi.
While studying Gastronomy in Australia, Akemi met some Indians who spiked her interest in visiting India. She made the shift to Chennai in 2008 when she heard about a job opening for a Japanese translator, wanting to continue her research into ancient Indian food. In a couple of months, she met Purushotham Bhasker, a software engineer in the company she worked for, who was interested in learning Japanese. A year later, she married him, even though he only managed to pick up a few odd words of the language.
Five years hence, Akemi has a routine and a rhythm to her life in Chennai. Out of bed by 7 a.m., she starts her day with yoga. She heads to the kitchen to make breakfast right after and has to choose between the usual suspects — idli, dosa, upma or toast. Then, she makes and packs lunch for her husband — rice, kozhambu, koottu. She works as a freelance translator from home and when she has to leave the house, she doesn’t set out without a pottu on her forehead. She often makes a Japanese dinner for herself and when her husband returns from work at 10 p.m., she practises her Tamil and asks to have her doubts cleared.
An expat who has completely taken on the culture of the city, she’s finds her bliss in the finer things that Chennai offers. A lover of Mylapore temples and a fan of prasadam, Akemi particularly likespuliyodarai and sakkarai pongal. She’s been lured by the sound of Carnatic music that takes over the Madhya Kailash Temple during Navratri. She’s tasted sukku kapi while sitting barefeet at Besant Nagar beach. She has woken up early in the mornings to watch women drawing kolams during Margazhi and has abandoned cutlery to indulge her hands during meal times. When her friends visit, she takes them to shop at Nalli Silks and follows it up with masala dosa at Murguan Idli or sandwiches at Amethyst.
Akemi notices the nuances of Chennai and in turn, celebrates its culture. She complains about the heat and the mosquitoes and gets rather amused by serious looking men who stack buckets on their head, hoping to sell them on the road. She has found the simple pleasures of living in Chennai.
Patrick Martinent and Chong Bee Bee / The Hindu
Patrick Martinent and Chong Bee Bee
French-born Patrick Martinent met Malaysian of Chinese origin Chong Bee Bee in Singapore. He proposed to her in Jaipur. They decided to settle down in Chennai. 17 years later, they’ve picked up a bit of the language, met many warm-hearted Chennaiites and made the city their own. Accompanied by their two teenage daughters, it’s become tradition to eat South Indian food every Sunday. Their usual haunts include Saravana Bhavan, Murugan Idli Kadai, Apoorva Sangeeta and Hot Chips. Because even though Bee Bee likes her spicy south Indian prawn curry, Patrick’s favourite is the clichéd idli-sambar.
Dominique Lopez
Dominique Lopez
“I had to move to Chennai if I wanted to live with my husband, I had no other option,” says Dominique Lopez. Born and raised in Paris, she came to Chennai to find that it had a different way of living and thinking. There was a lot of adapting to do because the city demanded that she become more accommodating and shed her European mindset. Three-and-half years later, Chennai has grown on her and she makes the most of it. The trees, the sea, the colours at the Koyambedu flower market, the life at Marina beach, women with jasmine in their hair and drives along East Coast Road. There’s an undeniable charm to a city that offers all that.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / Madras 375 / by Raveena Joseph / Chennai – August 21st, 2014
There’s a little known story about Sir C P Ramaswami Aiyar, corroborated by a piece of furniture. It stands plain and tall, so tall in fact that it keeps the writer on his feet and denies him the luxury of a chair. “So he wouldn’t nap,” explains Nanditha Krishna, Sir CP’s greatgranddaughter, “It had been predicted that the child, CP, would never pass an exam in his life, and it was to counter that forecast that his father had the table built.”
It continues to stand long after its prodigious student’s passing, preserved in a corner of a suite on the first floor of The Grove, CP’s house on Eldams Road. Arranged alongside are a day bed, a writing desk and a few of his personal effects. The house itself is a monument to his life — of professional ambition, political fervour and common domesticity. Built in 1885-86 by CP’s maternal and paternal grandfathers, it was erected on a plot of land that was part of an expansive property called The Baobab, after an eponymous tree. The land had belonged to John Bruce Norton, whose son Barrister Eardley Norton was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress.
Norton sold part of his property in 1875 to P Chentsal Rao Pantulu (first Registrar General of Madras), who in turn offloaded part of it to Conjeevaram Venkatasubbaiyar, CP’s maternal grandpa. He had the house built in the colonial style with a colonnaded front porch, but suitably adapted within to house the practical and cultural exigencies of south Indian living, like a ‘kalyanakoodam’, a hall reserved for marriages.
The house structurally is as it was, even though it has lately been put to alternate use — as the office of the C P Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, lecture hall, research centre, library and art gallery. Although old rooms have found new purpose — the C P Art Centre was originally a cowshed; the Venirul Art Gallery once housed a boiler, saunas and massage rooms; the kalyanakoodam made for a convenient lecture hall; three big suites upstairs have been absorbed into the Indological Research Centre, and a bathroom is now part of the library.
The foundation has adopted a ‘use as is’ approach, fitting in modern amenities without compromising the original form and material. “I refused to put in a false ceiling in the kalyanakoodam just to accommodate a few split ACs, so I had about eight split ACs installed around the hall, kept the old ceiling fans and added a few new ones and replaced the CFLs with LEDs to keep the place from overheating…,” says Krishna, director of the foundation, walking us past Burma teak pillars, Belgian ceilings, and Venetian floors still in impeccable condition.
The foundation spends `2-3 lakh every year on maintenance. To save the couple of hundred photographs and prized art collection (including an 8-ft Roerich portrait of CP), it has sheathed the backs and sides of the frames in transparent plastic. It’s a historic house that has welcomed all rank and file of man and beast — from Ramsay MacDonald, to Mahatma Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Annie Besant, Indira Gandhi and “any dog in Madras that wished to make it their house”. Political visitors apart, little else has changed.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Joeanna Rebello Fernandes , TNN / August 22nd, 2014
