30th Annual Report 2017-18

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 30 th 16 Somak Raychaudhury Director Colleges and Universities in India. During the past year, several Universities taking the opportunity of the new choice-based system of courses, being encouraged by the UGC, to initiate introductory A & A courses at the under-graduate level in Physics and Science departments. This is in addition to the teaching of A & A at the Masters' level in Physics departments, which continues to flourish. We will continue to support the design and implementation of such tailor-made teaching activities in any College/University department, and at any HE Institution in India, and in the process help students get trained for the immense opportunities in A & A opening up in the country. The academic members of IUCAAcontinue to make significant contributions to research inA&A, and related subjects, and to organise and participate in conferences and workshops all over the country, and indeed all over the world. We have been at the forefront of fundamental research, and the development of teaching pedagogy, in almost all branches ofA&A, Cosmology and Theoretical Physics at the national and international level, for three decades. The world-leading research at IUCAA, and at Indian Colleges/Universities through the network of IUCAA's Visiting Associates, owes a great deal to the hard-working and talented staff (both core and contractual) working at IUCAA. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to every one of them, and to our mentors, our Governing Board with Dr Srikumar Banerjee as Chair, and our Council, with Professor Dhirendra P. Singh (and until recently Dr Virander S. Chauhan) as Chair. We sincerely acknowledge the help, advice and support from the University Grants Commission, and its officers and staff, in particular, Dr Manju Singh, Joint Secretary.