India’s Chief Advisor for Science and Technology to Speak at Colorado State on Wednesday

Professor C.N.R. Rao, chief advisor to the Prime Minister of India for science and technology, will present a talk at Colorado State University on Wednesday as part of a delegation of top Indian scientists visiting campus.

Rao will speak on the chemistry of nanomaterials from 4-5 p.m. Wednesday at Yates 104.

Rao is also honorary president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, and immediate past president of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He is a member of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and chairman of the Indo-Japan Science Council. He was chairman of the prestigious Indian Institute of Science for 10 years.

V. "Mani" Manivannan, a CSU mechanical engineering professor, has worked closely with Rao, and he and Professor Allan Kirkpatrick, mechanical engineering department head, have helped bring faculty members in both countries together particularly in such fields as engineering mechanics, biology and genetics and solid state lighting.

"India is an important partner for Colorado State as we globalize the campus," said Jim Cooney, associate provost for International Programs, who will help host the Indian delegation with President Larry Edward Penley and Provost Tony Frank in two days of meetings. "This trip sets the stage for additional partnerships and underscores the importance of our faculty connections to the Nehru Centre."

The visit is part of Colorado State’s ongoing efforts to encourage the internationalization of its research and education efforts. Several of CSU’s senior administrators and faculty have visited various institutions of higher learning around the world, including China, India, South America, Europe, New Zealand and Russia. The emphasis of these visits has been to foster research relationships with select institutions, matching potential research collaborations to CSU’s University Strategic Plan. In India, the primary institution for engineering and science research and education is the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, located in Bangalore.

Several of CSU’s faculty and administrators visited JNC over a period of two years. Frank led a delegation of CSU faculty to India in November 2006 in part to sign a formal agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization in Bangalore. The agreement calls for interaction between ISRO’s Radar Development Unit and Colorado State relating to dual polarized Doppler Weather Radar and to the Virtual CHILL concept for Doppler Weather Radar Systems.

Vice Provost for Graduate Studies Peter Dorhout made a follow-up trip to the Nehru Centre in 2007, and seven faculty members from the College of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences visited JNC in January 2008.

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