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OST Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 10:
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Eminent physicist Prof KL Chopra on Saturday said higher education should be given equal importance with primary education and the objective should be to ensure that the purpose of learning was to grasp the nuances of how to live with each other in the society.
“Universities, which only teach, are dead or dying”, he said while emphasizing the need to modify the education system so that people could relate to physics.
Chopra was speaking as the chief guest at the two-day national seminar on “Recent trends in condensed matter physics” organized by the department of Physics of the ITER, the faculty of engineering of the SOA University.
The seminar also coincided with the 31st annual convention of the Odisha Physical Society, which attracted physicists from all over the country and abroad.
Prof Pratibha Jolly, principal of Miranda House, New Delhi, who spoke as the guest of honour, underscored the need for sustainable changes for education as the learning process had to be more collaborative enabling the students to take charge of their own destiny.
Pointing out that the gap between what was being taught and what was being learnt was large, she said there was need for class room transformation.
A number of eminent scientists including Prof SD Mahanti of Michigan State University, USA, Prof S Shankar of Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Prof C Jacob of IIT, Kharagpur, Prof SM Bhattacharjee of Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, Prof VRK Murthy of IIT, Chennai and Dr Chandana Rath of IIT, Bhubaneswar participated in different sessions during the seminar.
Prof PC Dash, convener of the seminar, said that 93 research articles were presented at the event.
Six prominent teachers were felicitated by OPS for their contribution to physics on the occasion. Besides, two young teachers were presented with the young scientist award.
Prof Kalpana Manjari Das, president of OPS, presided over the program which was also addressed by Prof RP Mohanty, vice-chancellor of SOA University, Prof BK Sarap, deputy chairman of SOA University, Prof RK Mishra, dean of ITER, Dr Shaikh Iqbal Hossain, secretary of OPS and Dr SK Kamilla, organizing secretary of the event.
