Reported on: 2023-12-21

The postgraduate and research department of chemistry organized a 3-day international conference on Emerging Frontiers in Chemical Sciences (EFCS 2023) from December 19 to 21, 2023.

The conference was inaugurated by Professor Francesco Stellaacci, Institute of Materials, Inder Faculty Bioengineering Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland, on December 19, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. The EFCS Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Prof. K Koyatty, and the EFCS Young Scientist Award was awarded to Dr. Nygil Thomas.

There were nine technical sessions with 18 speakers from various premier institutions all over the world. In the first technical session, Professor T. Pradeep from IIT Madras delivered a talk on atomically precise matter.

Francesco Stellacci of the Institute of Materials, Inder Faculty Bioengineering Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland, delivered a wonderful lecture on nature-inspired circular recycling for soft materials. The session was followed by another one by Professor R. Murugavel from IIT Bombay.

A talk on inorganic materials for energy storage was given by Professor G Ranga Rao, IIT Madras, and this session was chaired by Dr. P Rafeeque. 
After the lunch break, there was a session on alumni engagement for strengthening higher education chaired by Professor VM Abdul Mujeeb, vice chairman of EFCS. Four alumni members participated in this programme sharing their experiences and suggesting their opinions for strengthening higher education. Professor Mohammad Abdul Basheer Ummathur, Principal, KAHM Unity Women's College, Manjeri; Mr. E. K Abdul Latheef, Quality Assurance Manager, Al Wahat Drinking Water Industry, Qatar; Dr. PK Hashim, Assistant Professor, Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Japan; and Mr. Thabassum Nattikallugal, Research Scholar, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, participated in the discussions.

Technical session 3 was chaired by Prof. Rajiv Menon, Head, Department of Chemistry, University of Calicut. There were two lectures: one by Professor Rahul Ravindran Nair from the University of Manchester and another by Professor Sebastian Peter from JNCASR Bangalore. It was followed by oral presentations by various scholars from different institutions, like the University of Calicut, CUST, and the IIT Bombay and University of Hyderabad. This session was chaired by Mr. Midhun Shah, head of the Department of Physics at Farook College, Calicut.

On the second day of the conference, on December 20, 2023, the first session was chaired by Dr. Reji Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Farook College, and there were 3 lectures: Professor G. U. Kulkarni, President, JNCASR Bangalore, Professor Tomas Base, Academy of Sciences Czech Republic, and Dr. Shibu Siddharth, University of Calicut, delivered their lectures in the session. Technical session 6 was shared by Mrs. Sumayya K., Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Farook College. Sukendhu Mandal from IISER Thiruvananthapuram delivered a talk on structural design in atomically precise silver and copper nanoclusters. Dr. Bini George from the Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, delivered a lecture on the synthesis of biogenic nanoparticles incorporated bio nano composites and its application. It was followed by a poster presentation session.

Technical session 7 was started by Dr. Sajith PK, assistant professor of chemistry at Farook College Calicut. Professor G. Anilkumar from MG University delivered an attack on transition metal catalysis for heterocycle synthesis, and then Professor N. Nonappa from Tampere University, Finland, talked about seeing nanospace assemblies in 3D. It was followed by another lecture by Dr. Debashree Chakraborty from NITK Surathkal on exploring the multiple confirmational states of the RNA genome through network analysis.

There was a cultural programme organised by the students of the department of chemistry at the college. On the 3rd day of the event, the first session was chaired by Dr. Sr. Asha Thomas, Head Department of Chemistry, Providence Women's College, Calicut. Dr. Indranath Chakraborty from IIT Kharagpur delivered a lecture on Ligand Engineering in Atomically Precise Metal Nano Clusters. Dr. Minimol Menamparambath from NIT Calicut delivered attack on interfacial tension-induced morphology tuning of polymer nanomaterial composites at the liquid-liquid interface.

Technical session 9 was chaired by Dr. Mohammad Yoosuf, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Farook College. Dr. Nyjil Thomas from Nirmalagiri College, Kuthuparamba handled the session on heterogeneous catalysis: challenges and opportunities in methanol synthesis, oxygen evolution reactions, and oxygen reduction reactions. There was a talk from industry handled by Dr. Nitin Raj, manager of R&D PK Steel Casting Pvt. Ltd., on the advanced technologies of secondary refining and 3D printing technology in high-quality casting manufacturing. It was followed by a valedictory session.