The Institute of Physics (IoP) has proposed to increase its funding for its outreach programme from the next financial year. The step has been taken to increase its reach, IoP officials said on the occasion of 39th Foundation Day celebrations on Wednesday.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research’s (IISER) particle physicist Sunil Mukhi was the chief guest for the event and delivered the Foundation Day lecture on ‘Windows into Nature’. He spoke on elementary particles and the fundamental structure of the universe. “Physics does not care about human beings. The proposal of a theory and achieving the results sometimes takes more than a lifetime,” Mukhi said.
He also added that the beauty of experimental physics was that failure was more probable than success. He gave an example of Higgs particle theory, which was proposed in 1960s. The existence of Higgs Bosson was confirmed only last year.
IoP has been reaching out to school students and to rural areas. The faculty members deliver special lectures to the villagers.
Other than the trips to the villages, the institute is planning to collaborate with the Institute of Mathematics and Applications (IMA) to broaden the scope of IMA’s ‘nurturing programme’.
Every year, IMA brings a few selected students from different parts of the State to the institute to train them. IoP is planning to collaborate with IMA to bring students to their institute too.