‘Governments must encourage scale-up of ICTS’

BENGALURU: Ten years after its inception, the

International Centre for Theoretical Sciences

(

ICTS

) has urged the Centre and the state governments to enable its scale-up. At an event to mark its completion of 10 years on Thursday, Spenta Wadia, founder of the institute, said more land is needed to develop better infrastructure and enhance the number of collaborations.

“We’ve been in talks with the state government for five acres of land in another part of the city. We found the right academic ecosystem in Bengaluru to set up an institution like ICTS. With the help of institutes like Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (

NCBS

), our initial years were given a boost,” said Wadia. The institute, set up in February 2007, caters to a plethora of research areas within theoretical sciences, including string theory, cosmology, quantum gravity, mathematics among others.

Rajesh Gopakumar, director, ICTS, said: “One of the major areas we have been looking at is our societal outreach programmes. Apart from collaborations to address issues pertaining to India, we have also recorded an increasing number of followers: over 6,600 on Facebook and over 11,000 on YouTube, where our public lectures are streamed live and people can post questions through the platforms.”

“Many collaborations with international institutes has given ICTS the edge, while our local collaborations with institutes like IISc and NCBS as well as other Bengaluru-based institutions has helped in building a scientific community,” he added.

Much of what happens in science is on the boundaries of traditional disciplines. An interaction with the international community can help promote science in India while characterizing its own scientific excellence. Sowing the seeds, expanding and inspiring more to look at science has been one of the greatest accomplishments of the institute and its likes.

David Gross, Nobel Laureate and member, international advisory board, ICTS