First Convocation
  • First batch of students were enrolled at AcSIR (interim AcSIR) from Jan 2011 session onwards.
  • First convocation of the Interim AcSIR held on September 15, 2011 at Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Auditorium, CSIR Headquarters.

Fifteenth September, 2011 marked a day of great achievement and satisfaction for the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR). This was the day on which the academic aspiration of 52 young graduates of Post Graduate Research Programme in Engineering (PGRPE) 2009-11 batch, culminated in their holding degrees, realizing ambitions and efforts of a very young institute. The convocation was held at Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Auditorium at CSIR HQ,New Delhi. It was a momentous occasion for AcSIR and graduating students.

The function was presided over by Acting Chairman, AcSIR and DG-CSIR, Prof Samir K. Brahmachari. The PGRPE Convocation lecture was delivered by Dr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to PM and Chairman, National Knowledge Commission. It was attended by Chairman and MD, Avra Synthesis and former Director, CSIR-IICT, Dr. A. V. Rama Rao, Dr. T. Balganesh, Head of Research, AstraZeneca, Directors of concerned CSIR labs, Deans & Associate Deans of AcSIR and the PGRPE coordinators.

Mr. Zakir Thomas, Director, OSDD Program initiated the proceedings by welcoming the members on the day of awarding PGRPE Degrees, which coincided with the 3 Foundation Day of the prestigious Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) program. He mentioned with great pride that OSDD program is dedicated to poor man’s disease at the base of pyramid, which has led to emergence of a new way of doing science.

Acting Director, AcSIR Prof. Gautam Biswas expressed happiness on the first Degree awarding ceremony and remarked that, “Today marks a great day for graduating students of PGRPE as well as AcSIR”. He emphasized the role of scientists and professionals in technology in placing India at its deserving place.

Acting Chairman, AcSIR and Director General, CSIR Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari congratulated the graduating students and gave Presidential address “Affordable Healthcare: Carrying the baton from Chemists to Engineers”. He explained that we have reached a horizon, where different disciplines need to work simultaneously. He mentioned that Affordable Healthcare will now be a model, which can be termed as Engineering Biosystems or Biosystems Engineering. He touched upon some technical points to demonstrate the need of multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary scientists to solve current day problems. He emphasized the uniqueness and novelty of the very concept of OSDD and AcSIR by saying that, “We are what we are and where we are because we first imagined it.”

Excerpts of Convocation Day Lecture by Dr. Sam Pitroda Dr. Sam Pitroda expressed the gratitude to CSIR for the invitation and congratulated the graduating PGRPE Students. He emphasized that science is the only way to create new future and without science there will be no future. Science and technology has contributed by offering numerous interesting benefits such as longevity, drop in infant mortality rate, instant communication, which are only a few of many achievements attained. Nothing other than the pursuit of science has given us hope to continuously go forwarded. He felt that India with 1.2 billion people, out of which 400 million were below poverty line, is in great need of new and innovative ideas, which are low cost, affordable and scalable to solve problems of Base of Pyramid. He added that one should not underestimate the value of an idea as ideas rule the world.

Second Convocation
  • Second convocation held on September 26, 2012 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
  • Prof. Samir. K. Brahmachari, FNA,  Director General, CSIR, Honoured as Chief Guest.

The Second Annual Convocation of the AcSIR was held on 26 September, 2012 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Seventy one participants of PGRPE 2010-batch received their M.Tech. degree. The function was held in conjunction with CSIR’s 70th Foundation Day celebrations.

It was presided over by the Chairman and Chancellor, AcSIR Prof. R.A. Mashelkar and the Vice-Chairman, AcSIR and DG-CSIR, Prof Samir K. Brahmachari. Prof. Gautam Biswas, Acting Director, AcSIR and Prof. Nagesh R. Iyer, Acting Associate Director (Academics), AcSIR initiated the Convocation and admitted the 71 graduating students in the M.Tech. programme of 2010-12 batch. Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Vice-Chairman, AcSIR, in his welcome address said that the passing out students had just qualified to hold the passport to enter to the world of Science. He urged that along with developing skill set through hard work, one should develop sensitivity to others’ need, to the people who are less fortunate and to the people, who can make a difference. He added that we wanted in AcSIR those students of high intellect and scientific capability, who also have highest level of sensitivity.

Prof. R.A. Mashelkar, Chairman and Chancellor, AcSIR addressing the gathering spoke about uniqueness of AcSIR, because it is creating new paradigm shifts by weaving Science and Innovation together. He added that engineering is future and engineering of future means India’s future. He said that there are three parts that are critical in human development. Firstly, innovation, which comes from the mind; secondly, passion (passion in the belly as they say) and the third is compassion beckoning to one’s heart. The students graduating from AcSIR should consciously develop the attributes of innovation, compassion and passion. Other keywords for AcSIR were ‟excellence“ and ‟relevance”. He emphasized that the objective of furtherance of excellence as well as doing something relevant is the hallmark of AcSIR. The function was followed by scientific presentations by CSIR Young Scientists Awardees and the vision of tomorrow presented by the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardees.

Third Convocation
  • Third Convocation held on March 24, 2014 at Vigyan Auditorium, CSIR Campus, Chennai.
  • Prof. M.M. Sharma, FREng Honoured as Convocation Lecture.

The Third Annual Convocation of the AcSIR was held on 28th March, 2014 at Vigyan Auditorium, CSIR Campus, Chennai. The Convocation was webcasted live across India. Eighty one participants of M.Tech 2011-13 batch received their M.Tech. degree and Five doctoral students completing the requirements of their program were awarded Ph.D degree. The function was held in conjunction with the felicitation ceremony of Academy Professors. A Science Exhibition was organized as a preconvocation function, where M.Tech students at CSIR-SERC presented project on display for dignitaries and students. The ceremony was presided over by the Chairman and Chancellor, AcSIR Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, FRS, Chief Guest Prof. M.M. Sharma, FRS, Former Director, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (formerly, University Department of Technology, University of Mumbai) and the Ex-Vice-Chairman, BoG, AcSIR and DG-CSIR, Prof Samir K. Brahmachari. Prof. Nagesh R. Iyer, Director, AcSIR welcomed all the dignitaries, students & the family members, faculty members of AcSIR, staff of CSIR-SERC and viewers watching the live webcast across India among others. He mentioned that 81 M.Tech 2011-13 will be awarded their M.Tech degree and emphasized that PhD in Science degree of AcSIR is being awarded for the first time to 5 doctoral students.

Prof. Iyer and Prof. Kunal Ray, Associate Director, AcSIR admitted the graduating M.Tech and PhD students to their respective degrees. Excerpts of the Address by Prof. M.M. Sharma, Chief Guest Prof. Man Mohan Sharma expressed his delight at being present at the momentous occasion of third Convocation. He said that the creation of AcSIR was a true landmark in the glorious history of CSIR. CSIR has made many valuable contributions to the industry and society at large and has assisted in an all-inclusive growth of the nation. He mentioned that CSIR Labs have had a long and meaningful association with Universities and also ushered undergraduate and Post Graduate courses along with the local and other Universities. In view of the extensive and intensive work done by the CSIR Labs over an impressive and very wide range of subjects, it was prudent to usher in an academic institution like AcSIR.

In his address to the graduating students he said that “innovations cannot be scheduled as research itself is inspirational and often sporadic, and the results can seldom be predicted in advance. Research is a very different kind of activity and unless you are doing repetitive things, research is an endeavor by itself”. He further said that “quantum jump occurs through discontinuities and not through a linear path. Scientists/ technologists in AcSIR ought to work in this way and change fundamentals of business in their respective areas”. He encouraged students to work with a sharp focus in applied sciences since the application enhances the rigors of fundamental work. He emphasized that it was essential to have publication in the best of learned journals and simultaneously demonstrate the utility of the study in the market place. He suggested that AcSIR students can make unique contributions of great scientific and practical value using the strength of diverse sectors in which CSIR laboratories have core competence. Some of the research topics could be a model for water harvesting and distribution, valorization of coal ash, upgradation of rejects of coal washeries, valorization red mud from almuina plants, valorization of rare earths including cerium, lanthanum pigments replacing toxic Cadmium and lead pigments, energy sector may also need major technological inputs, exploration of natural gas hydrates and coal gasification of unmineable coal at depths of more than a kilometer etc. are challenging areas. He suggested that the Academy should start a course on technology-based economic forecasting because, he argued, at least 50% of economic growth is dependent on technology. He concluded his address by wishing the graduating MTechs and Ph.Ds a very bright future and hoped that they would contribute in different ways to their alma mater in future as they rise in their own profession.

Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Chairman and Chancellor, AcSIR addressing the gathering mentioned that Prof. MM Sharma, the Chief Guest of the Convocation has been his guru, guide, friend and mentor. He mentioned that Prof. Sharma single handedly championed CSIR all through his life. He asked the graduating students to draw inspiration from the life and work of Prof. Sharma. He also applauded presence of Prof. Brahmachari (ex-DG, CSIR), the main architect of AcSIR, and described him as a great visionary and a great thinker. Drawing from the values taught by his mentor Prof. M.M. Sharma, he told the students that power of ideas was far greater than the power of the budget. He said that he did not believe that a scientist could not conduct an impactful research to even win a Nobel Prize because of lack of funds. He cited the example of the research on graphene that led to a Nobel Prize. This material has remarkable physical properties and potential applications. A simple but innovative technique using a scotch tape and a piece of graphite created graphene. He said, a piece of graphite and scotch tape would probably cost Rs 20 only. He said that the ‘I’ in India should stand for innovation and not imitation or inhibition. “Your research should aim at being first in the world, not first in India. AcSIR students should crack the toughest problems. They should not think of incremental research but disruptive research. People should not say ‘so what’ when a research paper is published by an AcSIR research student. It should be game changing said Dr. Mashelkar. He asked the students to stay committed to their work, focus on innovation and have a high level of ethics. Finally, he reemphasized that we need to do cutting edge, leading edge research and we must do science and engineering that leads and not follows. He reminded the audience that there is no limit to human imagination and achievement, excepting the limit that we put on ourselves.

Dr. S.K. Brahmachari, former Director General, CSIR addressed the gathering mentioning specifically to the young graduating students that they have the right to dream and Academy is there to nurture their dreams. He reminded Swami Vivekananda’s saying that education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in man. We need to nurture it. Towards the goal of reaching perfection he urged the graduating student to dedicate a quarter of ‘awakeful’ time for others for betterment of lives of these people with limited capacity and means. AcSIR’s goal is to develop sensitivity in the students and urged the students to be different in their outlook from others. He emphasized that students should work on disruptive projects/work and not incremental works. He also recommended consider developing a corpus with donation from the AcSIR graduates with the intent to help subsidize the education of children of people associated with this Academy who have limited means to support their family. The Convocation Ceremony concluded with vote of thanks by Prof. Kunal Ray, Associate Director, AcSIR.

Fourth Convocation
Fifth Convocation
  • Fifth convocation held on November 12, 2019. Prof Samir. K. Brahmachari , Honoured as Convocation Lecture, at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.
  • Awards & Investiture Function held on November 13, 2019 at CSIR- Headquarters, New Delhi, Honoured by Former Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India as Chief Guest
  • Totally 10 Ph.D. Best Ph.D. thesis awards combined of all faculty of studies distributed to AcSIR students who awarded in 2018, organized by AcSIR Academy Professorship honored in the same function.

The Fifth Convocation of AcSIR was held at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi on November 12, 2019, which was a momentous occasion for AcSIR and its graduating students. This was the day on which the academic aspiration of 758 young graduates of AcSIR (645: Ph.D. graduands; 59 graduands of Master of Science program of 2017-19 batch, 24 graduands of Master of Technology program of 2017-19 batch, and 30 graduands of Post Graduate Diploma program of 2019 batch) culminated in their holding degrees as 5th Convocation of AcSIR was held after a long gap. It was a day when the graduates of AcSIR received their degrees and diploma in a formal academic event and had the collective celebrations as the collegiate of AcSIR. The Chief Guest for this convocation was Hon’ble Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Dr . Harsh Vardhan. However, Dr . Harsh Vardhan could not be present for the Convocation, due to his sudden preoccupation with another event of his priority .

The function was presided over by the Hon’ble Chancellor, AcSIR, Prof. Chandra Shekhar. The Convocation Address was delivered by Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Academy Professor, AcSIR and Prof. Shekhar C. Mande, Director General of CSIR graced the Convocation as the Guest of Honour .
The Convocation commenced with the entrance of the Academic Procession, led by Prof. Chandra Shekhar, Chancellor, AcSIR who was accompanied by Prof. Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR; Prof. Rajender S. Sangwan, Director AcSIR and Chairman, Senate AcSIR; Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Academy Professor, AcSIR; Prof. Suresh Bhargava, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, RMIT University, Australia and Academy Professor, AcSIR; Prof. Anjan Ray, Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun; Prof. GN Sastry, Director, CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat; Prof. Sanjay Kumar, Director, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur; Prof. DK Aswal, Director, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi; Prof. Kunal Ray, former Acting Director, AcSIR, members of AcSIR Senate, Associate Directors of AcSIR as well as Deans, Associate Deans and many of the Coordinators of AcSIR.

Following the declaration of the 5th Convocation of AcSIR open by the Hon’ble Chancellor, AcSIR (Prof . Chandra Shekhar), Prof. Rajender Singh Sangwan, Director, AcSIR and Chairman Senate AcSIR, extended a warm welcome to the invited dignitaries & guests as well as the graduands of AcSIR. Prof. Sangwan presented a brief overview of the activities and significant achievements of AcSIR. He mentioned that AcSIR had become one of the most attractive institution for students to pursue their Ph.D., and had recently met the set target of enrolling more than 1000 students per year. This strength of Ph.D. Students at AcSIR accounts for more than 5% of total PhD students in the country in Science and Engineering. AcSIR is the largest educational institution in India, in this regard. Prof. Sangwan also emphasized that there is growing interest of R&D institutions outside CSIR for academic affiliation with AcSIR. As well, AcSIR has a sound industry sponsored PhD program where currently more than 100 students from various industrial organizations are pursuing their PhD. The AcSIR at present has a gender ratio of 44:55 Female to Male PhD students, which is probably one of best in the higher education institutes in India. AcSIR has occupied a very significant position in Nature Index, an index of publication in select sector of 92 journals of world repute, reflecting the quality of research. Financially, AcSIR is 100% self sustainable and currently deploys about 60% of its financial resources at CSIR laboratories for carrying out the AcSIR-related academic activities. Prof. Sangwan expressed his gratitude to Dr . Harsh Vardhan for his patronage and acceptance to be the Chief Guest at the 5th Convocation. Prof. Sangwan recorded his heartiest appreciation to Prof. Chandra Shekhar, Prof. Samir K Brahmachari, Prof. Shekar C Mande for gracing the occasion. He also thanked Prof. D.K. Aswal, Director CSIR- NPL for his whole hearted support as well as active involvement in hosting the Convocation. He extended his best wishes to the graduands for achieving great success in their life. He added that AcSIR will always feel proud of their best acts of service for the cause of Science, Society and Humanity.

Prof. Samir K. Bramhachari expressed his gratitude for the invitation and congratulated the graduating students. He took the audience down the memory lane about the events that led to the creation of the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR). He expressed his happiness that AcSIR is on an accelerated path to achieve its targets and is striving commendably to meet the set objectives and expectations. He mentioned that there were four strong pillars of education – excellence, inclusiveness, employability and value. However, among them the most important virtue is to have values. He quoted Swami Vivekanand “Those who live for others only live a better life. ” Prof. Bramhachari reminded the graduating students that they will be deciding the destiny of this nation and reminded that there are more than 800 million unprivileged people in the country who need help and support. Thus, there is a need to transform the puzzle-solving PhD students to be problem-solving Scientists. He also emphasized that tomorrow’s science would be based on Sustainable Development Goals.

Prof. Shekhar C. Mande expressed his great pleasure to be present at the 5th Convocation of the AcSIR. He exalted the graduands by mentioning that data is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom and wisdom is the one that you have to acquire yourself. Education in AcSIR essentially imparts you all the data and knowledge, and it expects you to become wise in coming years to make AcSIR and the nation as well as yourself feel satisfied. He reminded the graduands to be always beware of and recollect the seven sins, told by Mahatma Gandhi – Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Science without humanity, Knowledge without character, Politics without principle, Commerce without morality, Worship without sacrifice. He mentioned that among them, Science without humanity and Knowledge without character is the most relevant for a researcher or scientist. Therefore, while working in the Laboratories, a researcher or scientist should be aware that there are people in our country who require technological and scientific help for betterment of their lives.

Prof. Chandra Shekhar mentioned that this was a very special day in the life of all graduands and he wished that they would always stay happy and also make the world a happier place to live. He also added that it takes a lot of effort and patience for students to pass through failures and disappointments while they pursue their practical vocation. He also emphasized that it takes a steady effort, imagination, analytics, experimentation, patience, support from supervisor, co-supervisor and friends for the student to make it through to be graduate and serve the nation in testimony of this testamur.This responsibility can be briefly stated in Hindi syntax ‘mansa vacha karma’ meaning through your thinking, through your attendances and through your work, you would be worthy of the place that AcSIR has given you the degree based not only on successful completion of your scientific or technological exploration but also the faith AcSIR has put on you that you will grow worthy of it in your path of life to come. It really means that your examination or viva-voce does not end here, it would be there at every step, every time you speak, every time you act, every time you think. While you would be working professionally and pursuing for general goals you would also be working for academic family i.e., AcSIR.He mentioned that AcSIR is a unique ‘University’ in many respects among the community of universities that have been created in India over the years prior to and after independence of India. This uniqueness includes its purpose, scale of operations, close synergy with high-end research ecosystems of CSIR and addressing societal and national needs, besides blue-sky research. Prof. Chandra Shekhar mentioned that the CSIR. (which ranks among the top 10 Public Funded Research Institution globally) and AcSIR are like a family . AcSIR, being the younger sibling in the family, in terms of its academic orientation, compliments CSIR. So, the part of product development and its going to the prototype level is something that our elder sibling CSIR is mandated and for this we have the state-of-the-art CSIR laboratories, where the exploratory work carried out during PhD, can be further refined, optimized, converted into a prototype, stabilized and demonstrated, That is something which is very unique to this family of CSIR and AcSIR. He further said that there is a saying that, if you want to go fast go alone, but if you travel far then goin a group, that is extreme important. There are times you can run fast alone if you have a bright idea you can go ahead, develop, publish But then if a value is to be realize from that idea, for society, then you have to travel far and it is better to travel in group. So, we need to build the ability to know when to travel fast and when to run alone, and when to stick with the group because we need to go far. Science has its genesis in curiosity and Engineering has its genesis in necessity . Engineering says necessity is the mother of invention. The most important necessity today doesn’t only add versing mean lack of food for many of us, but necessity means to continually improve the quality of life.Prof. Chandra Shekhar exalted graduates for creating good environment around themselves, and bringing glory to AcSIR, to families and to the Nation. He concluded his address by wishing each graduate a great future ahead.

Following this, Prof. Sangwan, Director, AcSIR announced awardees of AcSIR Best Thesis Awards for the year 2018 and the names of the recipients of AcSIR Academy Professor, an honorary lifetime position, on the recommendation of the AcSIR Senate and with the approval of the Chairman, Board of Governors, AcSIR. The Awards and citations for the Academy Professor positions were conferred by the Hon’ble Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India, Dr . Harsh Vardhan, in an award function organized next day (November 13, 2019). To mark the conclusion of the AcSIR Convocation ceremony, the National Anthem was sung.

 

Sixth Convocation
  • Sixth Convocation held on May 12, 2022 at CSIR – National Physical Laboratory Auditorium, New Delhi
  • Prof. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Honourable member of NITI Aayog honoured as Chief Guest.
  • Link to view photos
  • Link to view video
Seventh Convocation
  • Seventh Convocation held on November 7, 2023 at Dr. Ambedkar International Hall, New Delhi
  • Prof. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for S & T, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space (Vice President, CSIR)
  • Link to view photos
  • Link to view video
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