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The Periodic Table is in Us!
150 years of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table.
In collaboration with Royal Society of Chemistry.
Speakers
Russian Chemist Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, published in 1869, was the most important organization of chemical elements. This work demonstrated a beautiful periodicity in the properties of the elements. The periodic table also allowed Mendeleev to make some predictions which were found to be true after the discovery of several new elements (which were unknown in 1869). In the past one hundred and fifty years the periodic table has undergone some re-organization as more and more natural elements were discovered, and the addition of man-made trans-uranic elements. However, the basic organization of the periodic table has not changed very much.
The lecture will discuss some of the history on the discovery of elements, identification of periodic properties, and finally show the latest version of the periodic table. The use of isotopes of elements for various real-life applications will be shown. Additionally, a few chemical experiments for ‘edutainment’ will be demonstrated! This will include an experiment using two isotopes of a common element.
Chemistry is FUN!
Chemistry is considered as the central, useful and creative science. Chemistry plays significant roles in our health, clothing, transportation, food supply, quality of life, environment etc. Unfortunately, the importance of chemistry in our daily life is often taken for granted.
Since chemistry is an experimental science, an important aspect in chemistry teaching is to carry out appropriate experiments. Some experiments usually selected for demonstration are often unsafe experiments, which produce toxic fumes and/or toxic wastes. This issue of safety is often ignored in high school and college laboratories. In the present day scenario, we have the advantage of demonstrating videos of experiments done under safe conditions.
We will show that understanding chemistry can be a lot of fun!
Speakers
Dr. Uday Maitra
After his BSc from Presidency College, Calcutta and MSc from IIT Kanpur, Uday Maitra received his M. Phil and PhD from Columbia University in 1986 working with Prof. Ronald Breslow. Following a postdoctoral stay at the University of California at Berkeley with Prof. Paul Bartlett, he returned to India, and after a year at IIT Kanpur moved to IISc Bangalore in 1989.
His research interests are in the Chemistry of Bile acids; Hydrogels, Metallohydrogels and Organogels; Organic-inorganic hybrid materials; Enzyme sensing, etc. He is among the first in India to initiate detailed studies on small molecule derived gels, which are an important class of soft materials. His group has recently developed a general strategy for low cost, paper-based photo-luminescent enzyme sensors.
He is also greatly interested in Chemistry Education and is a regular participant in a variety of outreach programmes for high school and undergraduate students. He has received a number of awards and honours including the S.S. Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Sciences in 2001, and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy.
