National Science Day was celebrated on 28th February, 2022 virtually. The keynote speaker for the webinar was Bhupati Chakrabarti. Father Principal graced the occasion and delivered the inaugural address.
On 4th February,2022 at Dr Ranjan Ray Commemoration, Dr Tirtha Pratim Das, Director of Science Programme Office, ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore, ISRO, delivered a lecture on “Space Science Exploration Programme in ISRO”.The students of St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, as well as students from various colleges from all over India attended the webinar.
13th Annual Departmental Fest “Spectrum: Beyond the Monochrome” was held on ZOOM and streamed on YouTube on 26th March, 2022. It was viewed by many ex-students of the department from different corners of the world.
1st offline post-pandemic event, 1st Father Eugene Lafont Memorial Lecture was held on 17th of August, 2022, in association with DBT Star College Programme.The lecture was organised in memory of Fr. Eugene Lafont, the pioneer of experimental science in pre-independent India and a missionary assigned to set up St. Xavier’s College in 1860. The guest lecturers were Ms. Madhuri Katti, teacher of Physics and Global Perspectives, Modern High School, Kolkata, and Prof. Puragra Guha Thakurata, Astronomer and Departmental Chairperson of The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz. The title of their lectures were“Father Eugene Lafont: A Priest, An Experimentalist and a Pioneering Science Mentor”, and “The Universe of Galaxies, James Webb Space Telescope, and STEM Research Opportunities for the Young” respectively.
“Teachers’ Day 2022”, a colourful and exuberant cultural programme was organized by the students on 5th September, 2022 to pay respects and gratitude to their Professors and Laboratory Staff.
On 16th September, 2022 a special seminar was organized on the topic “Quantum Materials by Computation: Challenges & Opportunities”, which was delivered by Dr.Tanusri Saha-Dasgupta, Director, Department of Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Thematic Unit of Computational Materials Science, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata.
On 25th November, 2022 a Faculty Development Programme was organized on the topic “Application of Density Functional Theory in Condensed Matter Physics”, which was delivered by Dr.Debnarayan Jana, Professor, Calcutta University and Dr.Bhimaleengam Chittari, Assistant Professor, IISER, Kolkata.
On 7th December, 2022, a special lecture was organized where Dr. Marie-Gabrielle MEDICI delivered a talk on “Dew condensation and Harvesting – Potential source of drinking water. New challenge for some arid countries.”
Departmental Scholarship to students:Pradeep P. V. (from UG)and Avijit Sen Majumder (from PG) received the scholarship.
Departmental Scholarship to students:Pradeep P. V. (from UG)and Avijit Sen Majumder (from PG) received the scholarship.
Students Webinar/Seminar Organized by the Department:
Samarjit Chakraborty, a PhD student, gave a talk on “Gravity and Thermodynamics” on 25th February 2022.
Ashadul Halder, after getting his Ph.D degree gave a talk on “Dark Matter and Global 21-cm Signal” on 1st April 2022.
Ruhul Amin Ibne Haque, a PhD student, gave a talk on “Combinatorial Topology and Geometry of Fracture networks” on 13th May 2022.
Sourav Chowdhury, a PhD student, gave a talk on “A Study of the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases” on 18th November 2022.
Workshops and Faculty Development Programmes
A one-day international workshop on coarse geometry was organized on 16th August 2019 by the department of Physics in collaboration with Department of Mathematics of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. The speaker was Dr. Atish J. Mitra of Department of Mathematics, Montana Tech (University of Montana), USA.
On 29th August 2019 Department of Physics conducted national workshop on “Role of DFT in predicting electronic structures and reaction pathway” in collaboration with Department of Chemistry. Prof. Swapan K. Pati of JNCASR and Dr. Anoop Ayyappan of Dept. of Chemistry, IIT Kharagpur delivered lectures in the workshop.
In 16th and 17th December 2019 Department of Physics along with Department of Statistics in collaboration with IUCAA centre for astronomy research and development organized a two-day national seminar on “Application of Statistics in Natural Sciences”. The invited speakers who delivered talk in the seminar were Prof. Mihir Arjunwadkar of Pune University, Prof. Saurabh Ghosh of ISI Kolkata, Prof. Supratik Pal of ISI Kolkata, Prof. Rajesh Kumble Naik of IISER Kolkata and Prof. Ayanendranath Basu of ISI Kolkata.
A two-day DBT sponsored Faculty Development Programme was organized on 10th and 11th January 2020 on Experimental Physics at Graduate Level: Scopes and Challenges.