January – Interactive chemistry lectures and chemistry demonstration

On January 21 2012, the RSC Deccan Section ran a collaborative event with St. Mary’s College, Hyderabad. Two popular lectures, given by Prof. V. Lakshmi Pathi and Prof. Ch. Krishna Kumar, were followed by a Chemistry demonstration given by Prof. V. Peesapati and Prof. V. Jayathirtha Rao.

Professor Lakshmi Pathi spoke about the transformation of cell to life and Professor Krishna Kumar spoke about the periodic table, involving A–Level students. The interactive demonstration was on natural products and their relevance in daily life, and students conducted some of the chemistry tests. Over 200 science students and staff from St Mary’s College attended the event and students had the opportunity to have their queries, questions and doubts answered and clarified by the speakers.
 
February - Professor T R Seshadri FRS Memorial Lecture

Dr. Ch. Mohan Rao, Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad, delivered the Professor T R Seshadri FRS Memorial Lecture on February 3 2012. The lecture on ‘Chemistry, Biology and Medicine’ covered Proteomics and Nucleomics, highlighting their relevance to medicine.
 
Over 250 delegates, comprising staff and students of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPER), the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), CCMB, Academic Institutions, and Local R&Ds in Hyderabad, attended the lecture and took part in interactive discussions with the speaker.
 
February - Chemistry Competition: Essay Writing, Elocution and Quiz

RSC-DS ran a one day programme, “Chemistry Competition: Essay Writing, Elocution and Quiz”, on February 25, 2012. The event was put together by RSC-DS members Prof. V. Peesapati, Prof. Dr. V. Jayathirtha Rao and Dr YVD Nageswar in association with Chaitanya PG College, (Autonomous) Warangal, AP, India.
 
“The overall aim of this programme is to provide cutting edge scientific talks, debates, quizzes etc. across broad topic areas. The RSC will work in partnership with Universities, Colleges and Higher Education providers in these regions to promote RSC Educational activities and to develop
valuable contacts to build educational networks. In this direction RSC-DS is happy to associate with Chaitanya PG College, one of the leading colleges in Warangal City (AP).”
 
The morning session, Essay writing and Elocution, saw 15 PG students of Chemistry from several colleges in different Andhra Pradesh districts compete on the subject of “Industrial Catalysis”. Three students were chosen for prizes based on the overall performance. For the evening session, the Quiz Programme, 39 Students belonging to 13 different PG Colleges participated in the Chemistry Quiz Competition, culminating with a prize giving. All the participants got RSC-DS participation certificates.
 
The event generated extremely positive feedback from the students who thought it was an excellent programme, very useful, and giving confidence to students. They requested that RSC-DS run more of this type of event in order to help them achieve their academic goals.