Report 2012-14, 2012 - 2014

A new programme in chemical ecology was begun in order to study venoms of native cone shell species. Shannon Olsson, P. Shivaprasad, Ranabir Das and Varada Sundaramurthy joined the NCBS research teams. Professor K.S. Krishnan passed away. Deepak Nair, Madhusudhan Venkadesan and Yamuna Krishnan left the facility. Apurva Sarin was appointed as the new dean at the InStem facility. A new research facility for InStem was in the process of being built. The Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines was started in 2013, partnered by NCBS and the Simons Foundation. The Centre was then made of five research groups. The science and society programme initiated a German Film Festival and an art history lecture series along with hosting its usual activities. Four science journalism workshops had been conducted since the first of its kind in 2011. NCBS had 32 groups and six research areas (htpp://www.ncbs.res.in/research_areas.htm). A new Centre for Brain Development and Repair was started within InStem through funds from the Wadhwani Foundation. Jayashree Ratnam joined the MSc Wildlife program as deputy course director. The Wildlife program was then in its sixth batch. The Southern Laboratories were constructed. They contained a supercomputer centre, a transgenic mouse facility and imaging and spectroscopy devices. A new housing complex was also built. Satyajit Mayor was appointed as the Director and Upinder Bhalla as the Dean of NCBS after the previous director, K. VijayRaghavan, was appointed the secretary of the Department of Biotechnology.