February 25 turned out to be a red letter day for Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh and Chandigarh Region Innovation and Knowledge Cluster (CRICK) institutions as five Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar awardees delivered lectures at the University during the first day of the 9^th Chandigarh Science Congress (CHASCON-2015).

During the Congress, Bhatnagar awardee and former Director of Indian Institute of Sciences (IISC), Bengaluru Prof Padmanabhan Balram inaugurated the event, while four other eminent Scientists of the country who have recently been awarded Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award 2014  delivered their talks  on multidisciplinary  aspects of science.

Prof Souvik Maiti, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar awardee from CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology New Delhi, spoke on ‘interfering with interference’.  He discussed the novel aspect of his research on developing novel anticancer agent.

Prof Sachida Nand Tripathi, a Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Awardee 2014, from Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur, talked on ‘Aerosols Impact on Climate Health and Agriculture’. He discussed on the impact of aerosol on discolouration of Taj Mahal and discussed on the specific recommendations for the future studies.

In the post lunch session, three talks were held. Prof Anurag Agrawal a Prestigious Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Awardee 2014 from CSIR Institute of Genomics & integrative Biology New Delhi, talked on novel aspect of stem cell role in treatment of lung diseases. He discussed on the importance of organelle transfer from mesenchymal stem cell for the treatment of lung disease. 

Prof Sadiq Rangawala, also prestigious Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Awardee 2014 from Light & Matter Physics, Raman Research Institute Bengaluru talked on studying on the importance of two and many particle interactions.

Dr. Ashok K Vijh and Professor at National Institute of scientific research, Quebec, Canada spoke on “Spectrum of Creativity in Science: Some psycho-social factors”.

The first day ended with the special evening lecture by Prof Amod Gupta, Professor, Advanced Eye Center, PGIMER, Chandigarh emphasised on “Achieving Excellence”. He listed some hand rules of achieving excellence which can be followed by one and all.