4 Nobel laureates to attend Indian Science Congress at NU

Nagpur: Come January and the city would witness one of the biggest events in the form of Indian Science Congress. Over 20,000 delegates from India and abroad are expected to land in the city for the 108th edition of the prestigious event to be hosted by Nagpur University from January 3-7 on its campus. Four Nobel recipients are expected to attend the event — ‘Science and technology for sustainable development with women empowerment’.

The mega event to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being held in the city after an interval of 49 years. NU had hosted the 61st edition of the ISC in 1974 — ‘Mathematics – Queen or Handmaiden’ — when RS Mishra was the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) president. PM Indira Gandhi had attended the event.

Local secretary for the event GS Khadekar told TOI that among the four Nobel laureates -- Ada Yonath and Sir James Fraser Stoddart had confirmed their participation.

“The names of the other two would be revealed after their confirmation. We have also invited Nobel winners, including Kailash Satyarthi, who campaigned against child labour in India Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank founder, who pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance,” he said.

Yonath is an Israeli crystallographer known for her pioneering work on the structure of ribosomes. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Stoddart is a British-American chemist who is professor of Chemistry and head of the Stoddart Mechano-stereochemistry Group in the Department of Chemistry at North-western University in the United States. Both were conferred the Nobel for their pioneering works in chemistry.

ISC-2023 Schedule

Jan 3 | Inauguration & plenary, public & endowment lectures

Jan 4 | Children’s Science Congress opening & sectional, cultural programmes

Jan 5 | Women’s Science Congress opening & Science Communicators Meet

Jan 6 | Valedictory progs of children’s, women’s & science communicators events

Jan 7 | Indian Science Congress Association meetings & general body programme