Page 30 - CTB-1 10 May

30 PIONEERING A NEW FUTURE
Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences
Materials Laboratory, Arkavathi, CeNS
The Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences was established in 1991 by the eminent liquid crystal scientist, Prof. S Chandrasekhar, FRS, as the
Centre for Liquid Crystal Research to carry out scientific research activities focusing on liquid crystal science. Subsequently in
1995, the Government of India gave
its administrative approval for the
formation of an autonomous institution
under Department of Energy. In the
year 2003, it was decided to transfer
the administrative control to the
Department of Science & Technology.
Keeping abreast of the international trends
in the field of scientific research, in 2010, the Centre was given the mandate to carry out basic and applied research programme on nanoscience and technology in addition to soft materials, and was named ‘Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS)’.
CeNS is engaged in materials research and its activities are focused on a variety of metal and semiconductor nanostructures, liquid crystals, gels, membranes and hybrid materials. It has close interactions with many institutions and industry in India and abroad. The Centre has now moved
to its own sprawling campus ‘Arkavathi’ which houses the Materials Laboratory, Technology Laboratory, ‘Greenhouse’,
the Technology Business Incubator Project, Prototype Gallery and so on.
THE CAMPUS
Materials Laboratory: The Materials Laboratory that houses the ‘Central
Research Facilities (CRF)’, is divided into seven different units, namely, ‘Fabrication lab’, ‘Energy lab’, TEM lab’, ‘Gas Sensor lab’, ‘TSAMRC lab’, ‘Micro/Spectroscopy lab’ and ‘XRD/Thermo lab’, with each of these housing state-of-the-
art equipment to cater to nano-/soft material characterization, fabrication and testing of devices.