The Lucknow University (LU) will be hosting the 109th Indian Science Congress (ISC) for a sixth time next year.
Scientists from across the country will gather in the city to advance and promote the cause of science in the country,
LU Vice Chancellor Prof Alok Rai said” “It is a historic moment for us. At a time when we are striving to make it at an international level, hosting ISC will be a milestone. Incidentally, we received the letter on Tuesday, the day when the chancellor met our Prime Minister. She has even extended our invitation to inaugurate the mega scientific event.”
LU has previously hosted the ISC in 1916, 1923, 1953, 1985, and 2002.
Varsity officials said that LU is related to the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) since its origin.
In fact, ISCA owes its creation to the foresight and initiative of a British chemist Prof P.S. Macmohan who was also the founder of the department of chemistry at LU and even taught here for 26 years.
Prof Macmohan along with Prof J.L. Simonsen floated the idea that scientific research in India might be stimulated if an annual meeting of research workers, on the lines of the British Association for Advancement of Science, could be arranged.
As a result, ISCA took birth with the objective to hold an annual congress every year to publish proceedings, journals, and transactions and to popularise science.
The largest gathering of scientists and students in the country, the ISC is an annual five-day event from January 3 to 7, a permanent fixture on the Prime Minister’s calendar and usually his/her first public engagement in the new year.
The first meeting of the ISC was held from January 15-17, 1914 at Calcutta with Ashutosh Mookherji, the VC Calcutta University as its president.
Since then, it is held every year but the dates have been changed to January 3 to 7.
Around 105 scientists from India and abroad attended the first meeting and around 35 papers divided into six sections were presented.
In the following years, prominent personalities such as Prof CV Raman, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. HJ Homi Bhabha, and Dr. MS Swaminathan also graced the office of the general president of ISC.
This time over 20,000 scientists and research scholars from all over the world are expected to attend the ISC.
