Harvard professor Venkatesh N. Murthy , one of the foremost neuroscientists in the world, was amazed by the state of-the-art laboratory at Bengaluru’s National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). The place seemed better than his own lab at Harvard. “Bengaluru has the best critical mass of neuroscientists in India,” he said.
Harvard will offer many courses in the upcoming semester with content related to South Asia, covering topics such as Himalayan art, Asian diasporas, capitalism and cosmology, Ismaili history and culture, and much more.
SAI recently ran a 2-week course in Bangalore which introduced 25 Indian undergraduate and graduate students to the excitement of brain science.
A recent paper co-authored by SAI Steering Committee Member Jennifer Leaning explores the Myanmar government’s poor treatment of the group and suggest steps that can be taken to address the health and human rights crisis.
Most of what software engineers do today, such as coding, will be automated, but the likelihood of engineers becoming redundant is far from remote possibility. There are many untapped avenues that engineering students can get into, like Neuroscience. To help students explore their options, a knowledge exchange platform was organised for students to connect with government representatives, industry executives, and scientists.
Jinah Kim, SAI faculty grant recipient, recently visited an exhibition in Beijing featuring Indian art. “The exhibition reminds us of the age old connections between the two countries, notably activated and solidified through the transmission of Buddhism.”
“It takes a greater-than-normal effort of the imagination to travel from a manor house library on a Scottish island to a desert outpost in the Deccan,” writes Joshua Ehrlich, PhD candidate in history, who conducted archival research over the summer in the UK for his dissertation on the East India Company.
On Dec. 22, SAI hosted a workshop in New Delhi in collaboration with Tata Trusts on women’s rights, with Dr. Ela Bhatt, Founder of SEWA, delivering the keynote address.
The 3-year program will focus on a different faculty-led topic of interest each year, and engage with scholars and practitioners both on the ground in Nepal and in Cambridge.