Dr Ambedkar College is ACS’ Outstanding Student Chapter
| Date :13-Jan-2020 |
Dr Deepa Panhekar, N R Sute, Prof. R V Patil, Vilas Gajghate,
Dr Ratnnadeep Sawant and ACS International Student Chapter team.
Staff Reporter :
The most prestigious American Chemical Society (ACS), Washington, USA has selected Dr Ambedkar College, Deekshabhoomi, for the award of Outstanding ACS International Student Chapter for the year 2019. ACS had, earlier, awarded International Student Chapter to the college in February 2019. Based on the evaluation of activities conducted by the college during 2018-2019, ACS panel of experts have chosen the institution for this coveted award. Founded in 1876 and chartered by the US Congress, American Chemical Society is the world’s largest scientific society. Its mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people.
Its vision is to improve people’s lives using Chemistry as an excellent branch of knowledge. India has 14 ACS International Student Chapters. ACS International Student Chapter at Dr Ambedkar College has the honour of being the only one in Maharashtra. The other chapters mostly belong to premier institutes like IITs, autonomous universities, deemed universities etc. Based on the activities conducted by Dr Ambedkar College during the academic session 2018-2019, ACS panel of experts have chosen the Institution for this coveted award.
Evaluation of the work was based on student chapter’s activities, goals and challenges. Experts appreciated the idea, planning and execution of ‘Chem Hunt’ competition which was organised by Dr Ambedkar Student Chapter to celebrate International Year of Periodic Table 2019. The chapter had participated in digital poster competition on element “Praseodymium” at the ACS national meeting at Orlando, USA. Chapter had successfully organised a presentation seminar on “Developing laboratory safety skills in undergraduate students.” ACS had appreciated the laboratory safety skill activity and in order to develop similar modules across the world, they invited Dr Ambedkar College chapter to write an article in American Chemical Society’s ‘In Chemistry’ magazine.
The article was published and well received across the globe. Dr Deepa Panhekar, Head, Department of Chemistry is ACS member with good standing and she is also Faculty Advisor of the international student chapter at Dr Ambedkar College; Dr Rakeshwar Bandichhor, Director, API-P, R and D Dr Reddy’s Laboratory, Hyderabad is the professional advisor of the chapter. The award will be presented in a ceremony to be held at ACS national meet at Philadelphia, USA during March 22 to 26, 2020. Faculty Advisor, Dr Deepa Panhekar and Manashree Dongre (Chapter Secretary) have received the invitation from ACS, Washington for the event. ACS has sanctioned a travel grant of USD 2,500 towards attending the event.
Rev. Bhante Nagarjun Shurei Sasai, President, P P Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, Deekshabhoomi; S J Fulzele, Secretary; N R Sute, Dr Sudhir Fulzele, Vilas Gajgahte, Anand Fulzele, members of Smarak Samiti; and Prof R V Patil, Principal, have lauded the efforts by Dr Deepa Panhekar and student members of the chapter for this prestigious moment. The ACS International Student Chapter at Dr Ambedkar College has Pravin Deharkar, Neha Guntapeliwar, Manashree Dongre, Luv Gupta, Richa Jaiswal, Shibona Jangale, Layashree Dhargave, Nikita Patle, Snehal Apturkar, Sharvari Kulkarni, Ankita Kuchhua, Prerana Bhoyar and Aarti Gupta as student members.