Prof MR Anantharaman dedicated most of his life to Physics, and today with nearly 30 years of experience in the field, he is proud of having guided 17 PhD students, three post-doctoral students and more than 27 MPhil candidates of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT).
Anantharaman, who started off as an assistant manager (R&D) at Carbon and Chemicals (India) Ltd (presently Philips Carbon, Cochin), says he switched professions and entered the field of academics and joined the department of Physics at CUSAT and says that learning, researching and guiding young talented students is much more satisfying than his previous job.
With varied interests in fields such as nanomagnetic materials, magnetic nano composites, amorphous thin films, magnetic elastomers, ferrofluids and conducting polymers, Anantharaman has spearheaded the setting up of a Magnetic Laboratory in the University.
On the magnetic laboratory at CUSAT, he says, “Magnetism is synonymous with human civilisation. The discovery of lodestone in the present day Turkey is actually the foundation stone for modern magnetism. This only has lead to the adventurous expeditions of man and this lead to the discoveries of new continents. Magnetic materials are constantly contributing to make life more humane.”
Having been part of the department for three decades and focusing his research on nano materials and nano structure, he says, “We are fortunate that we started working on nano technology back in 1993 in the department.”
He is currently leading various sponsored research programmes in the Department of Physics in the area of Solid-state physics and material science. “We have collaborated nationally, internationally with various institutions and internally with our own university for various projects.” The department has collaborated internationally with University of Konstanz, Germany, Technical University of Eindhoven, University of Twente, Enschede both from The Netherlands, Nan Yang Technological University, Singapore and National University of Singapore, TOYO University, Japan and University of Krakov, Poland to name a few.
Nationally they have collaborated with National Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, IUC-Indore National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.
Speaking about the involvement of students in new projects here, he says, “There are plenty of students who shine when they end up in the right lab at the right time. There are amazing submissions of projects here in CUSAT, they are very proactive when it comes to this.”
“Three of our works that are pending Indian patents are Optical Limiting, Method to Synthesise carbon nano onions and Nickel nickel nano sponge,” he adds.
Anantharaman, who is currently guiding 11 students towards PhD degrees, says, “Earlier, students used to go to any lengths to get their PhDs; or they would come up with something new. Not that there are no passionate students nowadays, but students now think twice about the quality of the lab before joining for PhD or taking up research as this is a significant factor for them. There is also an obvious downward trend in the reading habit among of students.”
He also points out that there are plenty of women students coming forward for research these days.
— deepthi@ newindianexpress.com newindianexpress.com