National Science Day celebrated at Jamia Hamdard with focus on Women in Science
National Science Day was celebrated at Jamia Hamdard on February 28, 2020. The National Science Day Lecture was delivered by Prof. Sandeep Verma, Secretary, Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Govt of India on the topic “Women in Science – What can be done? and Powering Indian Research Landscape by SERB”.
The theme of 2020 is ‘Women in Science’ and Jamia Hamdard is proud of women power in all sciences on its campus. Vice Chancellor Dr. Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain presided over the event while the welcome address was given by the Pro Vice Chancellor Dr. Ahmed Kamal
National Science Day is celebrated on February 28 each year commemorating Indian physicist C V Raman’s discovery in 1928 of the Raman effect, the scattering of photons or light particles by matter. Raman received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. There is also an instance that CV Raman denied admission to Kamala Bhagvat, a promising woman biochemist, to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). She staged a satyagraha outside his office, after which he admitted her under the conditions that she will be on probation for a year and she shouldn’t be “a distraction” to male researchers.
As scientists, women are doing reasonably well in many fields, but there are many areas where both quality people and skills are limited or lacking,” said Prof. Sandeep Verma. He also stressed that “Universities should preferentially encourage women entrepreneurs and women startups”.
Vice Chancellor Dr. Seyed Ehtesham lauded the contributions of women in science and , believes that there is a lot of work to be done to build an understanding of the process and outputs of science — a spirit of inquiry, and a deep trust in science and scientists. He also spoke on how the coronavirus is spreading in all almost every part of the world and is the worst thing to have happened in 2020. Preparedness is the only way to avoid deaths during such calamities. He increasingly recommended that people try and avoid crowds and close contact with other people.
Teachers and scholars of Jamia Hamdard were felicitated for high impact and highly cited publications. 7 books were released by the dignitaries. All women Faculty members and scholars – Dr Aruna Nigam, Ms Saman Fatima, Ms. Dhara, Ms. Kavita Munjal were felicitated for their notable accomplishments in science including patent filing by Dr. A. Begum and Dr Farah Khan. Faculty who got UGC start-up grant in 2019 were presented with appreciation certificates.