The Senate of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee), accorded approval on the recommendation of 53rd Institute Research Committee to commemorate March 14 every year as the Institute Research Day. This day is also significant as the birthday of all-time great scientist Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879) and Pi(π)-Day (3.14).
Prof. Apurbba Kumar Sharma, Dean of Academic Affairs, explained the background and significance of theDay saying, “Research is no longer viewed as an activity of a group of people in isolation, rather it is now more open, and people’s perspective about research has changed significantly. Today, research is synonymous with every new work; people have now realized how to cherish the fruit of research and how to celebrate research. It is one of the significant decisions of IIT Roorkee that it has identified one particular day in a calendar year to celebrate as Institute Research Day. March 14 is the birthday of the greatest scientist the world has ever produced, Albert Einstein. Additionally, this day is known as pi-(π) Day owing to its value is close to 3.14. Thus, there could not have been a better day to celebrate the Institute Research Day.”
This year on March 14 marked the beginning of the day. Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee who inaugurated the Virtual Research Gallery (VRG) in a ceremony held in the campus said this day will become an important day in the Institute’s annual calendar of events. The Virtual Research Gallery show-cased selected researches of IIT Roorkee through a short (2-3 minutes) video and abstracts.
Marking this occasion, a research poster presentation competition was organized on March 13, 2022. A number of Researchers from the Institute participated in this competition. Further, in the evening prior to the Institute Research Day, the 3rd C.V. Raman Memorial Lecture was organized by the Department of Physics, IIT Roorkee and a virtual talk on “Black Hole Thermodynamics: Then and Now” was delivered by Prof. Edward Witten, Fields Medalist, Charles Simonyi Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
On The Institute’s Research Day, March 14, 2022, virtual talks by Prof. James Gates Jr., Brown Theoretical Physics Center Director, Ford Foundation Professor of Physics & Affiliate Professor of Mathematics, Watson Institute for International Studies & Public Affairs Faculty Fellow, Brown University gave a talk on “People no one can Imagine Anything of and Following S. Ramanujan’s Example” and another talk was delivered on “Gravity, Geometry and Quantum: Physics beyond Einstein” were delivered by Prof. Abhay Ashtekar, Evan Pugh Professor of Physics, holder of the Eberly Chair in Physics, the Founding Director Emeritus of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, Penn State.. .
