Ganderbal: The Department of Animal Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Kashmir (CUK) organised a one-day workshop on “Foldscope Assembly and Usage,” at the Science block here on Thursday.
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir, Registrar, Prof. Fayaz A Nikka, Dean School of Science and Director Science and Arts block, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, resource person, Head Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, SKUAST (K), Dr. Irfan Ahmad Khan, Head Department of Biotechnology, Dr. Abid, coordinators of departments, faculty members and students were present on the occasion.
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir while addressing the gathering, hailed the department of Animal Sciences for holding the workshop and assured all possible support from the university for conducting the academic activities. Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir said the university will provide State-of-the-art laboratory facilities to the students pursuing education in Science programmes, adding that research programmes would be also started in these programmes. He said the students would be send outside State for the project work.
Addressing the gathering, Registrar, Prof. Fayaz A Nikka said, the workshop is extremely important for the Science students. “It is the job of the scientists to uncover the realities of the nature, which haven’t been explored so far and use them for the betterment of the mankind,” Prof. Nikka said and urged the students to innovate and do something substantial to change the lives of the people for good. He said there are hundreds of herbal plants in Kashmir Valley which still haven’t been explored and used for medicinal purposes. CUK Registrar underscored the need of registering patents in the field of Science. “The scientists in West are frequently registering patents, but the same is not true for the Scientists working in sub-continent. This needs to be looked into, thoroughly discussed and deliberated upon,” he added. He appreciated the role of Assistant Professor, Dr. Ibraq, for being the brainchild behind the workshop.
Speaking on the occasion, Dean School of Science and Director Science and Arts block, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, said that although Foldscope is a small, simple and low cost instrument, but it gives us an inspiration to create innovative things for undertaking experimentations in the field of Science. “The main objective of holding the workshop is to educate and train you (the students) to use the Foldscope and prompt you to create and innovate in the field of Sciences,” Prof. Zargar said. He said that despite facing several constraints on account of infrastructural development, the varsity was moving ahead on the academics front. He urged the university authorities to extend all possible help to the department for conducting academic and other allied activities.
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, Dr. Latief Ahmad in his introductory remarks said, the expert during the workshop would discuss various contour and usage of the Foldscope. “Foldscope is a low cost microscope that was developed to make the microscopy easy, affordable and accessible world over,” he said, adding that the equipment was developed by a team led by an Indian Scientist, Mr. Manuprakash, who works in Stanford University.
Earlier, recitation of Holy Quran was done by Mr. Asif Ahmad and Younis Ahmad, Department of Zoology.
The inaugural session was conducted by Dr. Javed Ahmad who also proposed the vote of thanks.