File photo of President Pranab Mukherjee. (Press Trust of India)
President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the Commonwealth Science Conference here tomorrow, which is being organised for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The four-day conference is being organised by the Royal Society in association with the Government of India and The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.
Britain's Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, will be present at the inaugural function tomorrow on behalf of the Queen of England, who is the patron of the Royal Society.
The conference will be attended by more than 300 specially invited scientists and 70 PhD students from across the Commonwealth, together with local delegates from Bengaluru. Representatives from over 30 countries are likely to attend the conference, organisers said.
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They said the topics covered will include physical sciences, life sciences, mathematics, engineering as well as science policy.
"In fact there was a small Commonwealth Science Conference in 1967 at Oxford in Merton College; about 80 people, half of them from Britain and other other half from rest of the Commonwealth attended it ....almost 50 years ago, that was the last Commonwealth Science Conference," Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society Prof Anthony Cheetham told reporters here.
"This particular event is the largest event that the Royal Society has held overseas in its history. It is quite a remarkable occasion," Cheetham said.
He said CSC aims to celebrate excellence in Commonwealth science, to provide opportunities for cooperation between researchers in different Commonwealth countries, to inspire young people, and to build scientific capability in developing nations within the Commonwealth.
Prof C N R Rao, who is co-chair of the steering committee of the conference, said "Based on the discussion that started couple of years ago it was decided that we must have the Commonwealth conference (Science) ....and first one should be in India because we are the largest Commonwealth country and also scientifically fairly advanced..."