AR_final file_2018-19

A the second part of ACE, which was also established during the past year, is the National Resource Centre (NRC) for A & A. Under this initiative of the MHRD, IUCAA coordinates all activities in the subject for University and College teachers. The first of these activities has been the production of the very first online course of 55 lectures on Introductory A & A, for the Swayam portal, which had an enrolment of over a thousand students. IUCAA is committed to support the teaching of A & A at Universities and Colleges in India. The Astronomy Centre for Educators (ACE) is a new initiative at IUCAA to establish and enhance pedagogic, and training activities in A & A in a wide variety of Universities and constituent Colleges. A part of this is the Teaching Learning Centre in A & A at IUCAA, under the Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching, an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). In January 2019, the Hon’ble Chairman of the UGC laid the foundation stone for the new building for ACE, which is set to be completed for use by the end of the year. We have helped several Universities already to take advantage of the new choice-based system of courses, being encouraged by the UGC, to initiate introductory A & A courses at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels in Physics, Science and Engineering departments of Universities, including IITs and IISERs. We continue to support the design and implementation of such teaching activities in any department at any Higher Education Institutions in India, and thus, help students get trained for the immense opportunities in A & A opening up in the country. IUCAA’s very substantial outreach activities for high school students and the general public The academic members of IUCAA continue to make significant contributions to research in A & A, and related subjects, and to organise and participate in meetings and workshops all over the country, and indeed all over the world. During the previous year, among the various academic honours bestowed upon members of IUCAA, Arvind Gupta, who had led parts of our public and school outreach programme for a decade, has been awarded the Padma Shri by the Hon’ble President of India, for his work done largely at IUCAA. Varun Sahni has been awarded the J. C. Bose Fellowship of the DST, the Homi Jehangir Bhabha medal from INSA, and has been made fellow of TWAS. Aseem Paranjape has been awarded an INSA medal for Young Scientists. Sanjeev V. Dhurandhar has been awarded the NASI Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellowship. Sanjit Mitra and Tarun Souradeep are part of the International Planck team for studying the Cosmic Microwave Background, that has been awarded the Gruber Cosmology prize 2018. Surhud More has been awarded the 2019 Marshak Lecturership of the American Physical Society. During this year, we have appointed the first two Adjunct Faculty members for a period of three year each: David Hilditch of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Ashish Mahabal of the California Institute of Technology, USA. as Instrumentation Scientists for LIGO - India: Suresh Doravari joined us from Albert-Einstein- Institut, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik, Hannover, Germany, Shivaraj Kandhasamy from LIGO-Livingston Laboratory, Louisiana, USA, and Manasadevi P Thirugnanasambandam from Kansas State University,USA. Anupreeta More joined as a Data Scientist from the Kavli IPMU, and Deepak Bankar joined as a Computer Officer from the Savitribhai Phule Pune University. ( 17 )