Tag: Pune

Conversation with Chaitra Redkar

Chaitra is a political scientist, Associate Professor & Chair of Humanities at IISER Pune – https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/research/department/humanities-and-social-sciences/people/faculty/regular-faculty/chaitra-redkar/326

She explores modern Indian political thought through the lens of philosophy and history.

In this episode, we discuss her intellectual journey in capturing an interesting trinity.

References:

  1. “Chaitra Redkar – IISER Pune.” Accessed November 8, 2024. https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/research/department/humanities-and-social-sciences/people/faculty/regular-faculty/chaitra-redkar/326.
  2. Redkar, Chaitra. Gandhian Engagement with Capital. First Edition. New Dehli: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2019.
  3. X (formerly Twitter). “Chaitra Redkar (@R_Chaitra) / X,” April 9, 2023. https://x.com/r_chaitra.
  4. “Amazon.In.” Accessed November 8, 2024. https://www.amazon.in/Books-Chaitra-Redkar/s?rh=n%3A976389031%2Cp_27%3AChaitra+Redkar.
  5. “Chaitra (@my_historical_horizon) • Instagram Photos and Videos.” Accessed November 12, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/my_historical_horizon/.

Kumar Patel and CO2 laser- Baramati-Pune to Bell Labs

Happy Deepavali: let’s celebrate (laser) light! Did you know there is a connection b/w Baramati, Pune city & the first-ever CO2 lasers? Kumar Patel, the inventor of one of the most powerful lasers, was born in Baramati & did his BE at the College of Engineering, Pune!

Chandra Kumar Naranbhai Patel had an illustrious career. From Pune, he moved to Stanford University for his PhD and then worked at Bell Labs, where he created his CO2 laser. See him describe the invention:

In Nov 1964 (around the time of the Diwali festival :)), he published his invention: https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.136.A1187

Wikipedia has a good profile of his work, including a video :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Kumar_N._Patel

Kumar Patel went on to win many laurels, including US President’s National Medal of Science. https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=270

Kumar was a rare engineering scientist who also served as the president of the American Physical Society in 1995.

https://www.aps.org/about/governance/presidents.cfm

One of the reasons to celebrate Diwali is the move from darkness(ignorance) to light(knowledge). I hope humanity moves toward peace, knowledge and harmony with nature guided by compassion and science. Baramati-born Kumar Patel has shown us one of the ways.

Kannada – ನಿಮಗೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ದೀಪಾವಳಿಯ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

Marathi – तुम्हा सर्वांना दीपावलीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा

Sanskrit – सर्वेभ्यः दीपावली शुभकामना

Hindi – आप सभी को दीपावली की शुभकामनाएँ

I wish you all a happy Deepavali.