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Observatory with museum at varsity soon

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

ON RESEARCH PROGRAMME: Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University J.A.K. Tareen (left) exchanging documents with the Director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, S. Hassan, in Puducherry on Tuesday.

PUDUCHERRY: With the help of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, Pondicherry University will soon establish an observatory with a museum. The entire concept and road map will be ready in the next six months and in another year, the telescope, observatory and museum should be in place, Vice-Chancellor of the university J.A.K. Tareen said on Tuesday.

At the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIA to start a joint Ph.D programme in astrophysics, Mr. Tareen said the director of IIA and his team have agreed to help the university establish a good observatory with a museum attached to educate the children of the area.

The pact facilitated a mutually beneficial relationship and the faculty, students of the university would get opportunities to embark on research in challenging areas of astrophysics to unravel mysteries regarding formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and universe.

“The students enrolled under the programme would receive scholarship and get opportunities to work under the supervision of experts,” Mr. Tareen said.

Admission to the programme would be on all India basis selection and scholarships to the tune of Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 14,000 would be given to selected students.

Director of IIA S. Hassan said that even though the institute specialised in astrophysics, there was a need for a lot of supporting disciplines.

For example, constructing telescopes needed the support of electronics and engineering disciplines.

“We do not have the full range of disciplines which you have in universities. To run an institution, we need good minds and good minds come from universities. Until, we find good students, we will not be able to sustain research,” he said.

Noting that the selection of students would be done jointly by the staff of the university and IIA, he said, “In the first year, the students will do course and project work. There will be visits to field stations. We have five field stations. There is one at Kavalur where we have a 2.3-metre telescope, one-metre telescope and a new 1.3-metre telescope coming up next year.”

Deans from IIA Saha and Bhat, registrar of the university S. Loganathan and dean of School of Physical, Chemical and Applied Sciences S. Balakrishnan spoke.

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