Indo-German Grand Science Slam gets its finalists

The German Embassy New Delhi and the German Research Foundation (DFG) have announced the six finalists who would present at the Indo-German Grand Science Slam. The slam is scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 27, 2012 at the Millennium Indraprastha Park, Sarai Kale Khan.

Participation was invited in early September. Entries were open for diverse fields like medicine/physiology, “green” life sciences, physics/mathematics, geo sciences, chemistry and process engineering, informatics and social sciences.

A total of 46 applications were received from leading young researchers in top institutions across India. These institutions included the following, among others:

• University of Delhi 
• Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Tata Institute of Social Sciences
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Hyderabad
• IIT Patna
• IIT Roorkee
• IIT Kharagpur
• IIT Madras
• Manipal University
• Anna University Chennai
• Bangalore University
• University of Hyderabad

Applicants also included Indian researchers of prominent universities abroad such as Technical University Darmstadt, University of Oxford, University of Hohenheim-Stuttgart, Rheinische Friedrich -Wilhelms -Universität Bonn and Cluster of Excellence-South Asia Institute Heidelberg.

Out of all the 46 entries received, the Jury in Germany picked the best six who would present their slam topics at the Grand Science Slam.

Each slammer will get five minutes to present their research in a simple, fun and creative format. This will be followed by a five minute Q&A session with the jury and the audience. Thereafter, two winners decided by a jury collectively with the audience will be awarded a fully paid learning opportunity to work in the research group of an eminent researcher in Germany.

Names of the young finalists with their institute’s name & the research topics they will present are as follows:

• Japleen Kaur Pasricha (Jawaharlal Nehru University) - Contemporary German Pop literature: Christian Krachts “Faserland”
• Dr Sajad H. Ahanger (Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad) - Uniting Boundaries and Dividing the Empire
• Ahan Dalal (University of Hyderabad) - Can a Plant Biologist make a Farmer smile?
• Bidus Kanti Das (Indian Institute Of Technology Kharagpur) - Don’t waste a ‘waste’
• Vikas Shabadi (Technische Universität Darmstadt) - Nano-electronics, Spintronics, Multiferroics
• Debdoot Sheet (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur) - Ultrasonic Histology, respectively

A highlight of the occasion will be the inauguration of German House for Research and Innovation in New Delhi (DWIH New Delhi). The house will be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for students, researchers and potential partner institutions on higher education, research landscape and funding sources in Germany.

An initiative of the German government, the German House for Research and Innovation in New Delhi (DWIH New Delhi) has been established with support of the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt - AA) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – BMBF). The initiative is expected to increase cooperation between German and Indian academic and scientific communities. Till now, four DWIH have already been established in Sao Paolo (Brazil), Moscow (Russia), New York (USA) and Tokyo (Japan).

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