Mangaluru: St Aloysius College (Autonomous) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation with Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research (PPISR), Bengaluru on September 23, 2021. PPISR is a premier research institute, recognized by DSIR, Govt. of India, as an R&D center. Research at PPISR is pursued broadly under three divisions: Biological Sciences, Materials Sciences & Catalysis, Theoretical Sciences. It has successful industry partnership through innovation, designing and developing novel multifunctional materials that have wide-ranging applications in catalysis, nanotechnology.
The MoU was signed at the office of the Director of PPISR by the Principal of St Aloysius College, Rev Dr Praveen Martis SJ and the Director of PPISR, Dr A. B. Halgeri, in the presence of Dr Alwyn D’Sa Registrar, and Dr Ronald Nazareth, Dean, International Collaboration. St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangaluru.
The MoU is for the cooperation in academic, scientific and research with the specific objectives of organizing Student-exchange, Faculty exchange, collaborative research for scholars and students at all levels, social outreach programs, exchange of online lectures, exchange of academic information, material and programs, development and implementation of joint research programs, including the development of proposals for funding purposes, joint conferences, workshops and training programs and other cooperative activities.
Prior to the signing of the MoU, a visit to all the laboratories of PPISR was arranged wherein the research team explained the functioning of all high-end research equipment. After the laboratory visits a meeting was convened at the boardroom where the division head of Biological sciences Prof Udupi A. Ramagopal explained the research areas and progress of the biological science unit. He gave an overview of the facilities of Molecular biology for the cloning, recombinant expression, purification of proteins, characterization and crystallization of key biomolecules at ambient temperature and at 4°C. and also explained the facilities such as microbial isolation, identification of microorganisms, biochemical studies like anti-microbial and anti-oxidant assay systems, plant and microbial secondary metabolites extraction systems.,
In his presentation Prof Ganapati V. Shanbhag, Head of Material Science and catalysis division gave the overview of the research activities of the unit highlighting diverse backgrounds such as catalysis, industrial chemistry, polymer, nanomaterials etc. and progress of working on various thrust areas like heterogeneous catalysis, shape-selective acid-base catalysis, novel micro/mesoporous materials for green chemical processes, biomass conversion to value-added products, catalytic CO2 utilization by converting into useful chemicals, mesoporous polymers for catalysis and other applications, functional inorganic nanomaterials as applied to photoluminescence, hybrid nanomaterials, photocatalysis, gas sensing, H2 generation solar cells, 2D materials for optoelectronics, metal-organic-frameworks.
The progress of theoretical sciences was elaborated by Prof Sujit Sarkar wherein he highlighted the broad areas of research such as many-body and mesoscopic physics, nanoscience, quantum information theory, quantum communication, quantum cryptography, the foundations of quantum mechanics, astronomy and astrophysics.
