Mr Rahul Asthana, an IAS officer of 1978 batch, Maharashtra cadre has been appointed as the Metropolitan Commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Thursday. Mr Asthana took over the charge today and addressed the key officials of the Authority.

Mr Asthana said while taking over the charge, “I am familiar with the achievements of MMRDA and I am also aware of the challenges before it. I have already set my priorities at the office. Expediting the ongoing crucial mass transit projects like, Metro rail, Monorail and other road transport projects need urgent attention as most of the projects are near the completion stage. Besides, I also have to put other planned projects into implementation phase and focus at holistic growth and development of the region” No sooner Mr Asthana took charge of the office held a meeting with all top officials of MMRDA.

He also received brief on various aspects of projects, operation and administration from Mr S V R Srinivas, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner. Mr Srinivas was holding the charge following the last Metropolitan Commissioner Mr Ratnakar Gaikwad’s appointment as the Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, earlier this year. Ms Ashwini Bhide, Additional metropolitan Commissioner also greeted and briefed Mr Asthana along with other officials at the office.

Mr Asthana expressed, “It is my pleasure and privilege while holding this dynamic and challenging office which is responsible for the development of such a large region earmarked under special planning in the State. This is not one man’s job and along with all officials of MMRDA, I would need the kind support of people of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. We all envisage to turn this region into the most developed and fastest growing not only in country but globally.” Graduate of Aeronautics Engineer, Mr Asthana was holding the post of Chairman at Mumbai Port Trust, Department of Shipping, since October 2008 before joining MMRDA.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Sciences Earlier he also received several other awards & honours, including Fellow-INAE (2011) & IIChE-Herdillia Award (2010).

Professor De has the distinction of obtaining all the three degrees from IIT-Kanpur in Chemical Engineering (B.Tech.-1989, M.Tech.-1992 & Ph.D.-1996) and all his theses work (BTP, M.Tech. & Ph.D.) were carried out under the supervision of Prof. P.K. Bhattacharya, ChE.

Prof. De has been able to model, design and develop low cost novel membrane modules, hollow fiber membranes and domestic arsenic filter. Further, he has developed models to predict flux and its decline for various porous/non-porous membranes and provided deep understanding of fluid flow and mass transfer through microchannels.

Dr. Mahan Mitra (MSc5/Math/92) has been awarded S. S. Bhatnagar award in Mathematical Sciences for the year 2011. Dr. Mahan obtained his Integrated M.Sc degree from IIT Kanpur in Mathematics and Statistics in the year1992.

He obtained his Ph. D from Berkeley in 1997. At present he is working under the title Dr. Mahan Maharaj as an Associate Professor, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, P. O. Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal.

Prof. Shiraz Minwalla (MSc5/PHY/95) is honoured with Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Physical Sciences for the year 2011. He obtained was his Integrated Masters Degree of Science in physics from IIT Kanpur and he was a recipient of Presdent's Gold Medal.

Prof. Shiraz obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University. At present is a faculty member in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai working in the area of string theory. He served as an Assistant Professor at Harvard University. He was awarded Swarnajayanti Fellowship by DST in 2005 and the Fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore in 2011.

MS. Geetu Pathak is currently the CEO of Milo-FAIS — a food services and infrastructure company based in southern Ontario Canada. Prior to this and other entrepreneurial ventures, she was with the Mitchell Madison group in New York and Toronto in Business and Strategy Consulting.

Previous to her extensive North American experience, Ms. Pathak worked in India in industrial operations and manufacturing sector as a process and plant engineer with the Lupin Group and Davy Powergas (Kvaerner ASA). Additionally, Ms. Pathak is a member of the board of Directors at TVO - Ontario.

She was recently director of UNICEF Canada, actively driving the $3M HIV/AIDS program targeted towards the under privileged youth in Andhra Pradesh in India. She was also a member of the board of the Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Pathak also holds an MBA from India's prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmadabad.

< a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/tiff-prod/press_releases/50/TIFF%20Appoints%20Four%20New%20Members%20to%20Board_Sept2011_original.pdf?1317224621> Board_Sept2011_original.pdf

MILO-FAIS-News-Release-Sep1.pdf

Prof. Veena Sahajwalla (BT/MSE/86), whose research led to commercialisation of the world’s first “green steel” manufacturing process, was honoured with the Nokia Innovation Award at the 2011 Telstra NSW Business Women’s Awards on Friday.

Sahajwalla, director at the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology at The University of New South Wales, is helping the materials industries combat environmental challenges with a technology that reduces carbon emissions and uses recycled rubber tyres that would otherwise go to landfills in electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking.

She recalls IITK as one of the most technically challenging places. “The four years prepared me to face the world and provided a new perspective into engineering and life in general.”

Trinanjan Datta, assistant professor of physics, was recently awarded the Anacapa Scholar, which is only given to the best of the best.

In 2007, Datta came to Augusta State University to teach after being at Purdue University for six years, and during that time he received his Ph.D., in theoretical condensed matter physics. Before attending Purdue, he received his undergraduate degree in physics from St. Xavier’s College and his master’s from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

Datta chose to get his degree in physics because he always had an interest, especially in one particular area.

“Theoretical physics and condensed matter is one of those areas which has applications to real life because it’s related to material science,” Datta said. “To have any of the technologies that we have right now, material science is one of the biggest things and without the correct material, you wouldn’t have your iPods, iPhones, or any of that stuff.”

While pursuing his career, Datta said he decided to come to Augusta State because the school was also developing its undergraduate research program. After he was hired, one of his first jobs was to develop that program, and by doing this, he was given the opportunity to not only teach, but also showcase his research skills.

Datta said he usually teaches several core classes such as introductory physics and upper level classes such as thermal physics and theoretical mechanics, as well as special topics courses towards his research area.

Besides teaching, Datta is part of the science department’s public relations team and is in charge of the newsletters. Datta said he also does a large amount of research with faculty nationally and internationally, and with undergraduate students at Augusta State.

“Being in a teaching university, one of the biggest problems that faculties face is not having the time to do research and even if you can’t, it’s typical to be productive,” Datta said.

In addition to being named an Anacapa Scholar, he was also named a KITP Scholar. The Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California has an award called the KITP Scholar that they hand out to eight physicists across the country who are engaged in research at undergraduate institutions. Datta was named one of these scholars in 2010 and the Anacapa Scholar went to one out of the eight who stood out the most. Because of his contributions to undergraduate research, Datta managed to stand out among the other seven scholars and was named an Anacapa Scholar.

Being able to do undergraduate research and teach at Augusta State has given Datta the opportunity to work with a wide variety of students. “I like the diversity of the students that we have,” Datta said. “I like the fact that there are students over here that are really engaged in, not only the classes, but in undergraduate research, especially in our department.”

One student who has worked with Datta on his undergraduate research is Philip Javernick, senior physics and math major. He has worked with Datta for three years on theoretical and computational physics. “Working with Dr. Datta is great because he pushes you hard, expects results and gets results,” said Javernick. “He is really dedicated in everything he does and doing research, and working with him has helped me be more successful in college in general. I don’t believe I would have been successful as I am now if I hadn’t been provided the opportunity to work with him.” Datta is known to have a dedicated work ethic, which his students have learned from.

“I definitely put in a lot more work and try to work harder because of the personal research with him,” Javernick said. Robert Murrah, senior physics major, has worked with Datta for a year in theoretical physics, said he has also found inspiration in working with him. “His work ethic is incredible, I can’t really describe it,” said Murrah. “He does physics all the time and never gets tired of it; he loves it. He’s inspired me to get more into physics and to be more into physics for the love of physics, not just because it’s my major, but because I enjoy it.”

As for the future, Datta said he plans to keep on doing what he is doing at the moment. “I don’t have anything specifically planned out,” Datta said. “Just teach, have fun, and have fun with doing research with students.”