IIT Guwahati Outreach Programs at University of Science & Technology Meghalaya

4th May, 2017, USTM, Meghalaya : A talk on “The Role of Symmetries in Fundamental Physics” was delivered by Dr. Saurabh Basu, Professor, Dept of Physics & Dean, Outreach Education Program, IIT Guwahati. The program was organized by the Department of Physics, University of Science & Technology Meghalaya which is in conformity with IIT Guwahati’s operational activities aiming to create scientific temper and spearhead the scientific awareness amongst common people and the new generation as well trough different outreach programs. And for that matter, University of Science & Technology Meghalaya had utilized its benefit so that students of the School of Applied Sciences at USTM get an opportunity to learn through IIT experts.
While welcoming the guest speaker Prof. Basu, Dr. P G Rao, Vice Chancellor, USTM had opened the dialogue with a reminder to the students of the School of Applied Sciences, USTM that academia of science must relate to the society so that even a common man can also understand the necessity of science in their day-to-day life. Dr. R K Sharma, Pro Vice Chancellor, USTM had asserted that we should learn the importance of symmetries in nature which keeps balancing and enhancing the beauty of the Nature. He further elaborated that all the natural objects possess some symmetry and if that symmetry gets disrupted, the entire nature will be affected.
Prof. Saurabh Basu, the guest speaker had his lecture segregated in two parts, one was about the outreach activities of IITs, RAA which includes spreading and creating scientific temper in school and college, students to be encouraged to opt for science as a career. He showed different future career prospects for the M.Sc students at IITs across the country. In the later part, Prof. Basu analyzed the importance of symmetry principles with respect to the laws of nature emphasizing how symmetry plays a vital role in defining invariance from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics. He also said that symmetry is such a property in the physical world which leaves the object invariant or unchanged. He had mentioned that 2016 Nobel Prize in physics was delivered for the discovery of topological phase transition which led to a new symmetry concept in Condensed Matter Physics.