Chennai to host next science congress

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The 98th Indian Science Congress (ISC) will be held in Tamil Nadu capital Chennai from January 3 to 7, 2011.

"The next science congress will be hosted by SRM University, a deemed varsity, at its 240-acre green campus in Kattankulathur near Chennai," Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) president K.C. Pandey told reporters here on Thursday.

The 97th session of the five-day science congress concluded Thursday in the Kerala University campus here. Kolkata-based ISCA is the main organizer of the nation's premier science event.

2,000 papers presented

In this year's Science Congress, about 2,000 scientific and technical papers were presented said the organizers.

“I have not seen such a huge participation of scientists, technologists, research scholars, experts, policy-makers and students in the previous science congresses,” ISC general president and former chief of ISRO, G. Madhavan Nair told reporters on its concluding day.

About 7,000 delegates, including 2,000 students from across the country, participated in the five-day mega event, held for the first time in this picturesque coastal city and for the second time in the southern state after two decades at Kochi in 1990.

About 40 plenary sessions in various disciplines of science, public lectures, parallel scientific and technical sessions, a science and technology expo and a Children's Science Congress were the highlights of the mega event that was unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh January 3.

©IANS