Two-day Chemistry Experiment Demonstrations by Prof. Uday Maitra and Prof. Samita Maitra

Mysuru: Bhramara Trust of Y.T. and Madhuri Thathachari has organised Chemistry Experiment Demonstrations by distinguished scientists Prof. Uday Maitra and Samita Maitra on Sept. 20 and 21 at three educational institutions in city to ‘Spark interest in Science and Research’ among students.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar will inaugurate the event on Sept. 20 at 2.30 pm in Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bogadi, Mysuru.

Professors Uday Maitra and Samita Maitra will conduct Chemistry Experiments Demonstrations.

On Sept. 21, the demo will be held at Sri Satya Sai PU College, Jayalakshmipuram, at 10.30 am and the same will be inaugurated by Prof. R. Srinivasan, former Director of UGC- DAE CSR. At 2 pm,  the demo will be held at Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala in Mysuru, with a valedictory function presided by Swami Yukteshanandaji, Correspondent, Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala.

Profile

Prof. Uday Maitra is currently an Honorary Professor at the IISc., Bengaluru. After his BSc., from Presidency College, Calcutta and MSc., from IIT Kanpur, Uday Maitra received his M. Phil and Ph.D from Columbia University in 1986 working with Prof. Ronald Breslow. Following a post-doctoral stay at the University of California at Berkeley with Prof. Paul Bartlett, he returned to India, and after a year at IIT Kanpur, moved to IISc., Bengaluru in 1989.

His research interests are in the Chemistry of Bile acids; Hydrogels, Metallohydrogels and Organogels; Organic-inorganic hybrid materials, photoluminescent sensors, etc.

His group has recently developed a general strategy for low cost, paper-based photoluminescent sensors for enzymes, certain drugs/natural products and bio-relevant small molecules.

Prof. Uday Maitra has also developed a small hand-held device for recording and quantifying the photoluminescence from such paper-discs.

He is greatly interested in Chemistry Education and is a regular participant in a variety of outreach programmes for high school and undergraduate students. He frequently runs a “Chemistry is Fun!” show in various locations in India and abroad.

He has received several awards and honours including the S.S. Bhatnagar Award (the highest Indian Science Award) in Chemical Sciences in 2001 and is an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. He is a Titular Member of the Committee on Chemistry Education of the IUPAC and is the current President of the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI).

Prof. Samita Maitra completed her B.Sc and B.Tech from the University of Calcutta. Then she joined Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, for M.Sc (Engg.) by Research and continued for Ph.D which was awarded in 2000. From May 2001, Samita is teaching in BMS College of Engineering in Bengaluru in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

During her teaching career, she has been the Head of the Department from 2006 to 2016 and the Dean of Academics from 2019 to 2022. Her research interests are Fuel Alternative, Soil Remediation and Interfacial Phenomena.  Prof. Samita  was Women Cell-BMSCE Chairperson from 2008 to 2022;  National Board of Accreditation, India  Evaluator;  Board of Governance invited member at BMSCE up to March 2019; Board of Studies member in VTU, Belagavi for Chemical Engineering; and  Conference Chair for IEEE Sponsored International Conference on MOOCs Innovation and Technology in Education [MITE] 2017 at BMSCE, Bengaluru.

Apart from that, outcome-based education is her major interest and she has published papers on  Engineering Education. She is keen on effective implementation of outcome-based education.