Varanasi: The Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, will collaborate with Australian National University (ANU) for research.
According to the IIT (BHU) spokesperson, a high-level delegation led by Prof. Jagadish Chennupati, who is currently a professor of physics at Australian National University (ANU) Research School of Physics and Engineering, visited IIT-BHU. He was accompanied by Prof. Alexander Mikheyev and Jay Poria.
In a meeting chaired by IIT-BHU director Prof. Pramod Kumar Jain, various avenues of joint collaborations, student and faculty exchange between IIT(BHU) and ANU were discussed.
A long-term goal in terms of joint Ph.D degree was also discussed between both the institutes.
Prof. Jagadish spoke about the 'Chennupati and Vidya Jagadish Endowment Fund', a scheme through which researchers from IIT-BHU can visit and access the research facilities through internships and project fellowships.
A range of topics like the frontier areas of research in physics, including nanotechnology, photonics, healthcare and sustainable energy were discussed in great detail.
Prof. Alexander Mikheyev talked about the co-evolution of parasites/diseases with their hosts using honeybees as model organisms. He stressed that such an investigation would be helpful in predicting the severity of any future pandemic and India has a great role to play in this regard as a plethora of genetically diverse honeybee species are found in India as compared to Australia where only few such species are found.
Prof. Jain said that the long-term relationship and research collaboration between IIT-BHU and ANU can be achieved through this programme. He also added that it would give students and researchers the opportunity to study at ANU and pursue collaborative research for up to 12 weeks at first stage. Prof. Jain also stressed that this is high time to engage in a bilateral academic relationship between India and Australia. He also showed interest in inviting researchers and students to visit IIT-BHU for their academic activities and research. —IANS