Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2021
Volume 66, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 17–20, 2021; Virtual; Time Zone: Central Daylight Time, USA
Session G07: Physics In IndiaInvited On Demand Undergrad Friendly
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Sponsoring Units: FHP |
Sunday, April 18, 2021 8:30AM - 9:06AM On Demand |
G07.00001: Bimla Buti, the first female Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. Invited Speaker: Indianara Silva Bimla Buti is the first Indian woman Physicist Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and The Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS). Her contributions to physical sciences have been celebrated with awards, such as INSA-Vainu Bappu Award, Vikram Sarabhai Award, and Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lectureship Award. Buti received her scientific recognitions with surprise as, using her own words, ``it was almost impossible for me, a woman scientist in a man-dominated field, to get nominated for prestigious awards like the Bhatnagar award'' (Buti, 2008, p. 38). The man-dominated field was plasma physics. To Indian physical sciences, besides writing papers and books, she contributed to developing a research program on plasma physics at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) and founded The Plasma Science Society in India. ``We managed to establish a very strong group in plasma physics, both theoretical and experimental, at PRL'' (Buti, 2008, p. 39). This talk will trace her contributions to physical sciences, struggles to become a female physicist, and efforts to build a career and community in plasma physics, contributing to the History of Science in India. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 18, 2021 9:06AM - 9:42AM Not Participating |
G07.00002: Trustworthiness, Theft and Class Identity in Reading the Domestic Electric Meter in Early Twentieth-century Calcutta Invited Speaker: Animesh Chatterjee Of all the devices used in early electric supply projects in early twentieth century Calcutta, the domestic meter was perhaps the most controversial. Introduced as a reliable billing method to measure consumption by customers connected to the newly introduced electric supply system, the electric meter was also at the centre of cases of ``improper use'' of electricity supply. The term ``improper use'' is used broadly here to refer to a variety of consumer practices that the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation believed to be interferences to their property and operations. These included theft of electricity by bypassing or breaking seals on electric meters, or using electricity for purposes other than that for which it was supplied to the customer. This paper examines some of the disputes between customers, and engineers and inspectors of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation on the deployment and use of electric supply and meters in early twentieth century Calcutta. Following recent works on users and non-users of technologies, and trust and the morality of measurements, this paper examines how electric meters became central to concerns over issues of quantities measures by meters, the class identity of customers, and trust between the supplier, consumers and the electric meter. In doing so, this paper will focus on both the design of measurements instruments, and the agency and discretion of the electrical consumer, thereby providing new perspectives on how consumers, suppliers and electrical measurement technologies interacted during the early days of electricity supply in colonial Calcutta. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 18, 2021 9:42AM - 10:18AM On Demand |
G07.00003: Physics in Colonial India through the lens of C.V. Raman and S.N. Bose Invited Speaker: Somaditya Banerjee How did modern physics establish itself in India—a British colony—in the 19th and 20th century? Who were the key actors and why did they facilitate this process of scientific development in a colonized country far away from a European metropole? By using the case studies of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman and Satyendranath Bose, this talk will explore their physics, nationalism and social identity as “well-mannered intelligentsia” (bhadraloks) who played a key role in the making of modern physics in a country still under colonial domination. Finally, it will be argued how the local and the global were entangled in the worldview of these South Asian colonial intellectuals and one needs an approach from physics and history to engage with the history of Indian physics in early twentieth century. [Preview Abstract] |
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