Awards / Recognitions / Nominations / Academic Degrees
 

during 2009-10

  • NML had sent 2 teams to participate in the Dara P Antia Memorial Quiz under the auspices of IIM, Jamshedpur Chapter, and organized by NIT, Jamshedpur. One of the teams, represented by Sanjay Agarwal and Pankhuri Sinha, has bagged the 2nd Prize.
     

  • Sri Rajesh Kumar Singh Roushan, S.O. NML has won first prize in the essay competition conducted by CSIR on the occasion of 'Vigilance Awareness Week - 2009' during September, 2009 and received prize on March 11, 2010.
     

  • Dr. Subhadra Garai, Scientist NML has won "Best Poster Award" for her poster entitled, "CORROSION INHIBITION OF MILD STEEL BY BACOPASAPONINS" at the International Symposium on Current Status and Opportunities in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, held at CIMAP, Lucknow during February 21-24, 2010.
     

  • Mr. Pravesh Kumar, Scientist, Engineering Division has won "Sojitz Golf Tournament 2010" on Sunday 07.02.2010 among the Golfing fraternity of Jamshedpur, official of the companies "Metal One & Sojitz" & Out station golfers.
     

  • Mr. Pravesh Kumar, Scientist, Engineering Division has won "Jamshedpur Challenge Golf Tournament" held during January 2-3, 2010 and January 9-10, 2010.
           NML Foundation Day Award-Nijhawan award, Altekar Award, Excellence in in-house research

               I.    Nijhawan Award ( For the Best Technical Paper published in 2008)

      Nijhawan Award goes to the paper entitled "Modification of sensitization resistance of AISI 304L stainless steel through changes in grain
      size and grain boundary character distribution” authored by Dr. Raghubir Singh, Dr. Sandeep Ghoshchowdhury and Dr. Indranil Chattoraj
      published in the Metallurgical and Materials Transactions  A,  Vol. 39A, 2008, pp  2504-2512. 

              II.  Altekar Award (For the Best Technology of 2008)

    Altekar award goes to the technology titled” Development of manufacturing technology for production of Fe-based wide metallic glass 
    ribbon” developed by Dr. Amitava Mitra, Mr. K.K.Paul, Mr. A.K. Mallik, Dr. A.K.Panda, Mr. Arvind Kumar 

              III.  Award of Excellence in In-house Research  (For in-house projects completed in 2007)

  • 1st Best Project Award goes to OLP 0063 “Studies on the geopolymerisation of fly ash with and without granulated blast furnace slag” with Dr. Sanjay Kumar, MEF Division as Project Leader and Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Dr. A. Bandopadhyay, Dr. Swapan Kr. Das , Dr.B. Ravikumar, Mr. B.K.Mitra and Prof. S.P.Mehrotra  as team members.

  • The 2nd Best Project Award goes to project OLP 0056 “Analysis of particle dynamics in flotex density separation” with Mr. B.Sarkar, MNP Division, as Project Leader and Dr. Avimanyu Das, Mr. K.K.Bhattacharya and Mr. S. Chandrasekhar as team members. 

          IV.  Meritorious student awards – 2009

          Awards to the wards of NML employees for securing 85% or above marks in ICSE / CBSE in class 10th and 12th examination held during 
          the year, 2009.

    Sl.No. Student's  name Father's/Mother's name Class Percentage (%)
    1.

    Shri  Susmit  Paul

    		 Shri T.K. Paul 10th 91.60
    2. Shri Avishek  Das Dr. Goutam Das 10th 88.40
    3. Shri Gaurav Bhattacharjee Dr. Santanu Bhattacharjee 12th 88.00
    4. Ms. Shubhi Malaviya Shri  S.K. Malaviya 12th 86.80
    5. Shri Saurav Bhattacharjee Dr. Santanu Bhattacharjee 12th 86.00

          V.  Foundation Day Quiz - 2009

    • First:      Team comprising Indranil Chattoraj, Debarati Chattoraj and Debdeep Chattoraj

    • Second: Team comprising Swapan Kumar Das, Aniruddha Das and Sukla Das

    • Third:     Team comprising K.K. Gupta, Saurav Bhattacharjee and Gaurav Bhattacharjee

                Annual Convention of IIME & International Seminar : MPT-2009, held at IMMT, Bhubaneswar

  • Dr. A. Das, A. Vidyadhar and S.K. Dey won Khare Best Paper Award - Coal Preparation for "Modelling of fine coal processing in a teeter bed separator"

  • Dr. R. Singh, R.K. Rath, D.S. Rao, K.K. Sahu and K.K. Bhattacharyya won Khare Best Paper Award - Beneficiation for "Processing of fine grained limestone for special applications"

  • Dr. S.K. Sahu, B.D. Pandey and Vinay Kumar won Mishra Best Paper Award- Bio-Hydro-Electro Processing for "Solvent extraction and separation of zinc and cobalt from ammoniacal solution"
     

  • Dr. Biswajit Sarkar, Avimnayu Das and S.P. Mehrotra, won IIME Best Paper Award  - Beneficiation for "Study of separation features in floatex density separator for cleaning fine coal",  published in  International Journal of Mineral Processing, 86 (2008), 40-49.

                second Inter Corporate Sector Table Tennis Tournament

  • Mr. R. Raju, D. Murmu, K.P. Krishnan and K.S. Trivedi won Runners-up Trophy in 2nd Inter Corporate Sector Table Tennis Tournament, organised by Sports Department, Tata Steel, at JRD Tata Sports Complex during June 26-27, 2009.

                                                               

    during 2008-09

    VASVIK AWARD

    Dr. Suman K. Mishra, Scientist NML received Vasvik award of Smt. Chanda Ben Mohanbhai Patel Industrial Research Award for Woman Scientist-2004 for contribution by way of research in Science and Technology, held at Mumbai during August 2008.

    Young Scientist Award-2008

    Dr. R.K. Sahu, Scientist received Young Scientist Award - 2008 in the Engineering Science during 2008.

    Khare Award for the best paper presentation

    Sri T.C. Alex, Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Sri S.K. Roy and Prof. S.P Mehrotra, Director NML received Khare Award for the best paper presentation entitled, "Grinding Kinetics of Gibbsite in Stirred Media Mills", organised by Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers, at the MPT-2008, held at Trivandrum on April 24, 2008.

    BOYSCAST Fellowship award

    Dr. D. Mandal, Dr. A.K. Mohanty and Sri Arpan Das, Scientists have been awarded BOYSCAST Fellowship award of DST for the year 2009-10.

    National Mineral Award for 2006

    Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju and Dr. S.Prabhakar, Scientists were presented the National Mineral Award for 2006 for their outstanding contribution for the field of Mineral Beneficiation by Sri Sisram Ola, Minister of Mines at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on April 26, 2008.

    Raman Research Fellowship

    Dr. S. Sivaprasad and Dr. (Mrs.) S. Chakravarty, Scientists have received Raman Research Fellowship of CSIR and CSIR-DAAD Exchange Fellowship, respectively.

    INSA-JSPS Visiting Scientist Fellowship-2009

    Dr. S.K Das was nominated for INSA-JSPS Visiting Scientist Fellowship-2009 to visit National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan

    NACE International Gateway- India Section (NIGIS) Award

    Dr. I. Chattoraj, Scientist received NACE International Gateway- India Section (NIGIS) Award for Excellence in Corrosion Science.

    National Award for Best Employee

    Sri A.K. Mandhyan, Scientist received National Award for Best Employee with Disability by Ms. Pratibha Patil, Honorable President of India in a ceremony organised by the Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India at New Delhi on December 3, 2008.

    Best Technical Paper (Ferrous) Award

    Dr. Sukomal Ghosh, Acting Director,, NML has been awarded the Best Technical Paper (Ferrous) Award for his paper entitled, "Emergence  of Aluminium Alloyed Cast Iron as Heat Resistant Material", published in the Indian Foundry Journal for the year 2008.

    IIME Mineral Beneficiation Award

    Dr. B.D. Pandey, Scientist NML won IIME Mineral/Coal Beneficiation Award (R&D/Academic) during December 2008.

    Dr. S.K. Sahu, Dr. K.K. Sahu and Dr. B.D. Pandey, Scientists NML won IIME Best paper published award for Bio-Hydro-Electro processing during December 2008.

    Ms. Mamta Sharma, A.K. Singh, N.K. Shukla, S.K. Srivastava and K.K. Bhattacharyya, Scientists NML won IIME Best paper presentation award for Characterisation during December 2008.

    Sri T.C. Alex, R. Kumar, S.K. Ray and Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director NML, won IIME Best paper presentation award for Beneficiation during December 2008.

    Certificate of Merit

    Dr. Ratnakar Singh, Scientist was awarded Certificate of Merit, for his excellent performance in CSIR Leadership Development Programme (LDP-08) by DG, CSIR. The course was conducted by Mr. Ian Dean, Grover Consulting, South Africa during February 17 to May 08, 2008.

    Best Poster Paper Award

    Sri J.N. Mohapatra, SRF won Best poster paper award at the Young Scientist Colloquium (USC-08), organised by MRSI, Kolkata during December 2008.

    NML FOUNDATION DAY AWARDS

    The Nijhawan Award for Best Technical Paper was awarded jointly

    The Nijhawan Award from NML for best technical paper was awarded to the team constituted Sri A. Metya, Dr. N. Parida, Dr. D.K. Bhattacharya, Dr. N.R. Bandyopadhyay and Dr. S.Palit Sagar, won for their paper entitled "Assessment of Localized Plastic Deformation during Fatigue in Polycrystalline Copper by Nonlinear Ultrasonic", published in the Journal - Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Vol. 38(h), 2007, pp. 3087-3092.

    Nonlinear ultrasonic (NLU) and conventional ultrasonic techniques have been applied to assess the localized plastic deformation in polycrystalline copper during high-cycle fatigue (HCF). The measurement parameter of NLU, i.e., the NLU parameter, b, has been calculated from the power spectrum of the filtered and amplified received signal. For conventional ultrasonic, longitudinal velocity (V l) and attenuation coefficients (a) have been determined. It has been observed that the position of maximum localized plastic deformation cannot be detected by V l and a, whereas b detects the same at the stage of 30 pct of damage corresponding to the total fatigue life of the material. The result of NLU has also been correlated with the hardness during fatigue. This work reveals the potential of NLU to assess the localized deformation during fatigue much earlier to the failure.

    The Nijhawan Award from NML for best technical paper was jointly awarded to the team constituted Dr. S.K. Mishra, Dr. S.K. Das and Dr. V. Sherbacov, for their paper "Fabrication of Al2O3-ZrB2 in situ composite by SHS dynamic compaction" published in the Composites Science and Technology 67(11-12), (2007) pp. 24-53.

    Al2O3-ZrB2 in-situ composites of 97% of theoretical density were successfully fabricated by a novel self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) dynamic compaction, using less expensive raw materials zirconium oxide, boron oxide, and aluminium. The process is fast, energy efficient, where no furnace sintering is required. The process inhibits and controls the grain growth and microstructure. The densification behaviour and correlation with microstructure of the SHS dynamic compacts were compared with the furnace sintered composite samples where the composite powder was prepared by SHS process. The furnace sintered samples showed coarser grain growth and maximum density of 94.5% of theoretical density was achieved. The SHS dynamic compacted in situ composite had much finer grains in the range of 0.5-3 ?m with density 95.5% of the theoretical value. The average grain size was found to decrease from 10 ?m to 1.4 ?m for alumina and from 5.4 ?m to 1.0 ?m for zirconium diboride from furnace sintering to SHS dynamic compaction, respectively. Addition of Al2O3 as a diluent during SHS reaction enhanced the density to 97%. During SHS dynamic compaction, the amount of liquid and the time interval at which the sample stays at high temperature are the controlling factor of the final microstructure and the densification of the composite.

    Altekar Award for the Best Technology

    The Altekar award for best technology was awarded to teams consists of Dr. Gautam Das, Sri. K.K. Paul, Dr. S. Tarafder, Dr. N.V. Satyanarayana, Dr. S. Prakash, Dr. Sabita Ghosh, Ms. Mousumi Das and Dr. R.N. Ghosh, Scientists for the technology transferred to the industry pertaining to "Development of Portable Automated Ball Indentation (PABI) device for evaluating mechanical properties of materials".

    Assessing of mechanical properties of old structure can be done by (a) scaling down of conventional specimen size (like miniature tensile, fatigue, impact and fracture toughness tests), (b) novel techniques using disk sized specimens of approximately 0.3 mm thickness (like Disk Bend tests, Shear/Small Punch tests) or (c) in-situ mechanical test techniques like ball indentation technique. Therefore, the design, development and fabrication of a "Portable System'' for assessing the mechanical properties of exposed components are very much relevant and significant

    Portable automated ball indentation (PABI) system was developed from its conceptual stage at NML. This uses advanced instrumented indentation technique for evaluating mechanical properties of materials. A tailor made controller and dedicated software were used in an innovative way to control the test, data acquisition and subsequent calculation. The test data obtained are accurate, reproducible and have excellent agreement between PABI derived material properties and those obtained from the conventional methods.

    This PABI system is capable of measuring yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), true-stress vs. true-plastic-strain curve, strength coefficient (K), strain hardening exponent (n), hardness (BHN) and fracture toughness (KJc). This unit can be mounted on components having curved or flat surfaces and properties of the material could be evaluated by making a very small indentation.  The components, subjected to indentation tests, will be unaffected. It can also be used to test small specimen in the laboratory.

    The importance of the above development is immense, as the determination of mechanical properties of service exposed components plays an important role for estimating their remaining lives. The ABI technology will help: (i) estimate the current key mechanical properties needed for damage assessments and (ii) periodic health monitoring of aging components.

    Atomic energy establishment, thermal power plants, oil sectors, steel bridges and pipe lines etc. where there is a possibility of degradation of materials/components; this system can be utilized for life assessment. In addition, it can also be used in various laboratories as a substitute of conventional mechanical testing particularly where there is a scarcity of test materials.

    Awards for excellence in In-house project

    Dr. Avimanyu Das, Dr. Shobhna Dey, Sri K. K. Bhattacharyya, Mr. S. C. Maulik and Dr. J. Konar, Scientists received the NML's best In-house Project award for the project "Processing of waste printed circuit boards" (OLP- 0032) completed in 2006 during November 2008.

    Dr. Shrabanee Sen, Dr. S. K. Mishra, Dr. S. Palit Sagar, Dr. S. K. Das, Scientists received the NML's Second best In-house Project award for the project "Preparation and evaluation of structural, Microstructural and electrical properties of polymer-ceramic composite" (OLP- 0051) completed in 2006 during November 2008.

    Poster Presentation

    Mr. Partha Sarkar, Project Fellow, NML received the First Prize for poster presentation of his paper entitled, "Giant magneto-impedance effects in the Co-Fe based solidified alloys" at the National Symposium for Materials Research Scholars-MR 08, held at IIT, Bombay during May 17-18, 2008. The paper is co-authored by Shri O. Mohanta, Dr. S.K. Pal. Dr. A.K. Panda and Dr. A. Mitra.

    Timken Golf Tournament - 2009

    Mr. Pravesh Kumar, Scientist, won the first prize in 19-24 handicap category of the Timken Golf Tournament-2009 held on February 15, 2009.

    SSBM Tournament (Indoor Finals)

    Md. Nayeem Ansari and Md. Salim Ansari won Runners-up prize in Carrom at the XXXX Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Memorial Tournament (Indoor Finals) held at NGRI, Hyderabad during February 20-22, 2009. Mr. R. Raju has been selected for CSIR Table Tennis Team and will be representing CSIR in All India Tournament in future.

    Elocution in Hindi

    Ms. Mala Mandhyan, ACC Division, NML, won the Second Position in extempore elocution in Hindi, organised by Life Insurance Corporation of India under the aegis of Nagar Rajbhasha Karyanawan Samitee, Jamshedpur.

    Recognitions / Nominations

    Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director NML served as Member in the following Committees/Councils:

    Professional Bodies

    -     The National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad: Council Member

    -     The Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata : Council Member

    -     Indian National Academy of Engineering : Governing Council Member

    -     Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers  : Executive Council Member

    -     Materials Research Society of India : President of Jamshedpur Chapter

    Honours / Recognition

    -     Director on the Board of UCIL, Jaduguda

    -     Director on the Board of TSIL, Joda

    -     Director on the Board of Governors, NISST, Mandi Gobindgarh

    -     Member, Empowered Committee of Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India

    -     Member, Expert Committee for establishment of 50 Centres for Training and Research in Frontier Areas of Science & Technology, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India

    -     Member, Working Group on Bio-waste/E-Waste/Hazardous Waste, Central Pollution Control Board

    -     Member, Selection Committee for NASI -Young Scientists Platinum Jubilee Awards

    -     Member, Advisory Committee for Young Scientist Awards, CSIR, New Delhi

    -     Member, Sponsored Scheme Research Committee, CSIR, New Delhi

    -     Member, Project Monitoring Committee & Research Advisory Council of JNARDDC, Nagpur

    -     Member, Research Council of CIMFR, Dhanbad

    -     Member, Academic Council, Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad

    Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist has been elected as Editorial member of the Journal of Institution of Chemists.

    Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist has been elected as Editorial member of International Journal-Materials Science Research India.

    Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist has been elected as Alternate member of Central Boiler Board (India)

    Dr.  I. Chattoraj, Scientist invited to be a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Corrosion Management Committee.

    Dr. S. Srikanth, Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju, Dr. S. Prabhakar, Dr. T.S.N. Sankara Narayanan and Dr. D.S. Rao served as reviewers for several papers in many international journals including J. Electrochemical Society, Metallurgical Transactions, Surface and Coatings Technology, J. Hazardous Materials, Hydrometallurgy, J Materials Science and Indian Journal of Marine Sciences.

    Dr. Ratnakar Singh, Scientist was re-elected as the Honorary Secretary of Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers.

    Dr. Ratnakar Singh, Scientist chaired a technical session in International Seminar on Mineral Processing Technology (MPT-2008) held .at Trivandrum, 22-24 April 2008.

    Dr. Ratnakar Singh, Scientist was nominated as the Member, Ores and Raw Materials Sectional Committee, MTD 13, Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi.

    Dr. B. Nayak, Scientist paper published on occurrence of gold in the pyrite associated with some high sulphur coals from Meghalaya in Current Science was reviewed on-line and cited by Vertical News India under Research on Science.

    Academic Degrees/Diploma

    -     Mr. S.K. Das, Scientist has been awarded Ph.D. degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering for his thesis "Fracture Behaviour of Copper Strengthened HSLS Steel" from Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shipper (Formerly BE College Shibpur) during 2008.

    -     Mr. J.  Pal, Scientist has been awarded Ph.D. degree for his thesis "Development of Fluxed Iron Oxide Pellets Utilizing Waste Oxide Fines for Use in the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking Process" from Jadavpur University during 2008.

    -     Ms. Mita Tarafder, Scientist has been awarded Ph.D. degree for her thesis "Analysis of microstructural and fractographic images for evaluation of materials" from Jadavpur University, Kolkata during 2009.

    -     Mr. Prabir Kumar Roy, Technical Officer has been awarded M.Sc. in Metallurgical Engg. with specialisation in Process Metallurgy from NIT Jamshedpur on January 29, 2009.

    -     Mr. C. Soupramanien, Technical Assistant has been awarded AMIE Section A&B examinations and has gone for M.Tech Degree to NIT Rourkela.

    -     Mr. Rachit Ghosh, Technical Officer has been awarded M.Tech from Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), Shibpur, Howrah.

    -     Mr. M.K. Mahato, Technical Officer has been awarded M.Sc. in Electrical Engg. with specialisation in Power Electronics of Ranchi University from NIT Jamshedpur during 2009.

    -     Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist has been successfully qualified for Praveen (Hindi Examination).

    -     Dr. R.K. Rath, B.M. Srinivas Rao, A. Raj, T.K. Mohanty, S. Kundu, S. Chandrashekar, K. Seetharaman, S.C. Biswas, S.P. Ganguly, A. Vidyadhar and B.S. Rao has been successfully qualified for Praveen Hindi Examination during May 2008.

    Under the supervision of Dr. TSN Sankara Narayanan, Scientist NML, Madras Centre, Mrs. K. Krishnaveni was awarded Ph.D in 2008.

                                                               

    during 2007-08

     

    National Metallurgist Day Award of Indian Institute of Metals (IIM)

    Metallurgist of the year

    -     Dr. DDN Singh, Scientist received NMD Metallurgist of the year award for 2007 of IIM by Ministry of Steels and Mines, Government of India for his outstanding contributions in the area of corrosion control iron and steel, development of novel products to economize galvanizing with improved corrosion resistance, reduction in by-product generation and controlling pollution.

    Young Metallurgist of the year

    -     Dr. V.C. Srivastava, Scientist received NMD Young Metallurgist of the year award for 2007 of IIM by Ministry of Steels and Mines, Government of India.

    Tata Gold Medal

    -     The prestigious Tata Gold Medal for the year 2007 is awarded to Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director, NML, at the NMD/ATM celebrations of The Indian Institute of Metals, held at Mumbai during November 14-17, 2007 for his outstanding contributions in the area of extractive metallurgy involving computer applications and mathematical modelling. His research on continuous sheet casting on single roll continuous sheet caster and inagneto =hydrodynamics in electrically driven melts have potential for commercial utilization.

    Poster Presentation

    -     Dr. (Ms.) S. Palit Sagar and S. Das, Scientists received best poster presentation award in Metal Science for the paper entitled "Magnetic Force Microscopy to image domain structures of fatigue damaged ferromagnetic steel", at the NMD/ATM celebrations of The Indian Institute of Metals, held at Mumbai during November 14-17 2007.

    -     Dr. R.K. Jana, Scientist received first prize for the poster presentation in the Non-ferrous for the paper entitled "Utilisation of leached sea nodules residue for recovery of manganese and removal of toxic elements from effluents and ground water", at the NMD/ATM celebrations of The Indian Institute of Metals, held at Mumbai during November 14-17 2007.

    Oral Presentation

    -     Dr. S. GhoshChowdhury, Scientist and Sri B. Mahato won best oral presentation award in Metal Science for the paper entitled "Evolution of texture and grain boundary character distribution(GBCD) in copper processed by equal channel angular processing", at the NMD/ATM celebrations of the Indian Institute of Metals, held at Mumbai during November 14-17 2007.

    -     Dr. B.D. Pandey and Dr. Vinay Kumar, Scientists won second prize in Non-ferrous for the paper entitled "Extraction of Chromium from tanning waste solution by ion exchange", at the NMD/ATM celebrations of the Indian Institute of Metals, held at Mumbai during November 14-16, 2007.

    Distinguished Engineers' Award

    -     Dr. A.K. Vaish, Scientist won distinguished engineers' award of Institute of Engineers (India) for the year 2007, at the 40th Engineers' Day celebration on September 15, 2007 in recognition of his professional excellence and services in the field of Metallurgical Engineering.

    MRSI Medal Award

    -     Dr. Ashok K. Ray, Scientist received MRSI medal award of the year 2008 in High Temperature Materials from Dr. R.A. Mashelkar at the 19th Annual Meeting of Materials Research Society of India, held at Trivandrum on January 16, 2008.

    CSIR Raman Research Fellowship Award

    -     Dr. K.L. Sahoo, Scientist received CSIR Raman Research Fellowship award for the year 2008-2009 to carry out research work with University of Washington in St. Louis, USA.

    -     Dr. (Ms.) S. Palit Sagar, Scientist received CSIR Raman Research Fellowship for the year 2008-09.

    Young Chemist Award

    -     Dr. T. Mishra, Scientist received Young Chemist Award - 2007 from Orissa Chemical Society on December 22, 2007. Award was given during the 21st Annual Conference of Orissa Chemical Society held at OEC, Bhubaneswar. Selection for the award was based on the significant scientific contribution in the field of chemical science.

    Hindustan platinum best poster presentation Award

    -     Dr. T. Mishra, Scientist received Hindustan platinum best poster presentation Award for the paper entitled "Synthesis, characterisation and photocatalytic activity of spherical titania based mixed oxide materials" at the CATWORKSHOP-2008, organised by Catalysis Society of India, held at IMMT, Bhubaneswar during February 18-20, 2008.

    Biography published in Marquis Who's Who

    -     Biography of Dr. T. Mishra, Scientist is selected and published (Jan-2008) in the 10th edition of Marquis Who's Who in Science and Technology of the world. This was selected based on the scientific contribution of the concerned scientist in recent years.

    Certificate of Merit

    -     Dr S. Srikanth, Scientist received award of "Certificate of Merit" in the CSIR Leadership Development Programme in March 2008, during conducted by GROMAN Consulting, South Africa and organized by HRD Centre, CSIR, Ghaziabad.

    Mishra Award for Technical Paper

    -     Dr. S.K. Sahu, Dr. K.K. Sahu and Dr. B.D. Pandey, Scientists won the Mishra Award for the technical best paper cum presentation award in Extraction Metallurgy by the Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers for their paper entitled, "Leaching of zinc sulphide concentrate from the Ganesh-Himal deposit of Nepal" presented by S.K. Sahu and published in the Journal - Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, (2006), Vol. 37B(4), pp. 541-549.

    Poster presentation in METALLO-2007

    -     Sarvashri G.K. Mandal, D. Mandal, S.K. Das, R. Balasubramaniam, S.P. Mehrotra  received second best prize in "Characterization" category in a poster presentation in 'METALLO-2007' International Conference on 'Metals and Alloys: Past, Present and Future' at IIT Kanpur, organized by IIM Kanpur chapter and IIT Kanpur during December 07-10, 2007.

    Foundation Day Award of Indian Ceramic Society

    -     Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Scientist received award on his presentation "Geopolymers - ceramics at low temperature", during Foundation Day of Indian Ceramic Society, Jamshedpur Chapter at Centre for Excellence, Jamshedpur.

    Indian Literature Golden Jubilee Literary Translation Prize Competition

    -     Shri Anuj Mohan Pradhan, Section officer (F&A) has own the Consolation pize in "Oral Literature category of Indian Literature Golden Jubilee Literary Transalation prize Competition".

    IIME Mineral Beneficiation Award

    -     Dr. S. Prabhakar and Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju, Scientists NML Madras Centre, Chennai won the National Mineral Award - 2006 in recognition of his significant contribution in earth sciences and related fields under the 'National Mineral Award Scheme' of the Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India. The Award carries a Cash prize, trophy, certificate and citation during December 10-11, 2007.

    -     Dr. Ratnakar Singh and Mr. K.K. Bhattacharyya, Scientists received Best paper award for presentation of their paper on "Technology for recovering barite values from mine waste dump", in the International Conference on Beneficiation of Fines and Its Technology (ICBeneFIT-2007), organised by IIME Jamshedpur Chapter during December 10-11, 2007.

    CSIR FOUNDATION DAY AWARD

    CSIR Innovative Suggestion Award 2007

    The CSIR Innovative Suggestion Award - 2007 was presented to Dr. S. Prakash, Shri S.K. Pal and
    Ms. Anuradha Madhukar of BDM division and Shri K.D. Pathak and Shri S.K. Bose of Finance & Accounts for developing 'A web-based interactive system for processing and assessing information related to R&D project resources and their tangible and intangible outputs leading to the saving of time and manpower (WEBsys).

    CSIR Foundation Day English Essay Competition

    As a part of CSIR Foundation Day celebration, a English Essay competition was held at NML on September 13, 2007. The topic for the essay competition was - "Media, Science and Superstitions." Dr. Hema T Chaturvedi got first prize, Shri Alok Kumar got second prize and Dr. Sandhya Singh received third prize.

    Inter School Science Debate - 2007

    As a part of CSIR Foundation Day celebration, an Inter School Science Debate was held at NML on September 21, 2007. The topic for the debate was - "In the Opinion of the House: Indian Gurukul System should be adopted in Today's Scientific Mentoring" wherein Sri Pawan Kumar Jaiswal and Mr. Prashant Kumar of Motilal Nehru Public School, Jamshedpur, got first prize, Ms. Neha of Kerala Samajam Model School, Jamshedpur got second prize and Sri Prashant Kumar of Motilal Nehru Public School, Jamshedpur got best speaker prize.

    CSIR Outstanding Services Award-2007

    Category I - Shri Ajoy Kumar Acharya, Shri Tej Bahadur Singh, Shri Dharmendra Kumar, and Shri Shridhar Khiste; Category II - Shri B Mahato, Shri Ravinder Thakur, Shri R Raju, and Shri HN Singh; Category III - Shri SK Roy, Shri M Mondal, Shri SK Saksena, and Shri AK Sumbroi. Several staff members also received the Foundation Day Mementos on superannuation and completion of 25 years of service rendered to CSIR.

    NML FOUNDATION DAY AWARDS

    The Nijhawan Award for Best Technical Paper

    The Nijhawan Award for best technical paper was jointly awarded to the team constituted by - Dr. S.K. Sahu, Dr. K.K. Sahu and Dr. B.D. Pandey, for their paper entitled "Leaching of zinc sulphide concentrate from the Ganesh-himal deposit of Nepal", published in the Journal - Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, (2006), Vol. 37B(4), pp. 541-549.               

    Abstract : The leaching of zinc concentrate obtained from the zinc ore located in the Ganesh-Himal region of Nepal has been carried out in the presence of ammonium persulfate (APS) as an oxidant. Leaching variables such as time, temperature, acid, and oxidant concentration, Eh, and particle size of sphalerite concentrate were studied to optimize the condition and to understand the mechanism of the reaction. The zinc extraction increased up to a temperature of 333 K and further rise in the temperature to 343 K resulted in lowering of metal extraction. A decrease in particle size and increase in oxidant concentration enhanced the dissolution rate of zinc. The leaching data best fitted to the mixed controlled kinetic model. An activation energy of 43 kJ/mold was obtained for the dissolution of zinc in the temperature range 303 to 333 K with APS. The leaching mechanism was further established by characterizing the original concentrate and the leach residue by X-ray diffraction (XRD) phase identification and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies.

    The team 'B' constituted by Dr. R.K. Sahu, Dr. A.K. Ray, Dr. S.K. Das, Dr. A.J. Kailath and Dr. L.C. Pathak, for their paper "Microwave assisted combustion synthesis of Ni powder using urea", published in the Journal of Materials Research, (2006), Vol. 21(7), pp. 1664-1673.

    Abstract : A novel microwave-assisted combustion method was used to prepare Ni powder. The method involves the combustion reaction of nickel nitrate and urea as a fuel in the microwave field. The initiation of the exothermic peak of the combustion reaction was found to vary as a function of urea content. The microwave-prepared Ni powder was characterized using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, differential thermal analysis (DTA), and magnetic measurement. The XRD pattern revealed that the Ni powder crystallizes with the cubic phase when the molar ratio of fuel to nitrate is varied between 5:1 and 6:1. Above or below that molar ratio, NiO phase coexists as an impurity along with the Ni phase. The magnetization value of Ni measured at room temperature is 53.5 Am2/kg, which is close to the value observed for commercial Ni powder (55.0 Am2/kg). The mechanism for the formation of the Ni and NiO phase is discussed based on the infrared, TG, and DTA data. The method shows that highly pure Ni powder can be prepared using urea as a fuel and microwaves as a source of energy via the solution combustion method.

    Altekar Award for the Best Technology

    The Altekar award for best technology were awarded to teams consists of Sri S.A. Akbar, Dr. D. Bandopadhyay, Dr. S.K. Das, and Dr. R.P. Goel, Scientists for the technology transferred to the industry pertaining to "Development of a technology for monitoring and predicting the internal state of an iron making blast furnace towards improved performance" developed for M/s Bokaro Steel Ltd., Bokaro.

    Abstract : Real Time Process Simulator (RTPS), of late, has become an efficient tool for real-time monitoring and prediction of process behavior and as an additional resource for Decision Support System (DSS) for improving the performance of processes. This has been successfully implemented in petrochemicals, Aerospace and other industries. An attempt has been made to develop RTPS for the blast furnace, which works in synchronization with the plant and provides real time prediction of the internal states of the furnace, hot metal quality and other associated process variables. It would facilitate understanding of the furnace dynamics and internal state, which would provide guidelines for improvement 'in the furnace performance on the basis of real time process behavior to take appropriate decisions by the operating personnel. The input-output functionalities of critical process variables have been embedded in the RTPS with various reduced order models, process calculation procedures, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy logic based furnace irregularity prediction modules.

    The outer core of the RTPS consists of Graphical User Interface (GUI) based operator station. It is an expert shell, which coordinates and supervises the simulation software in the background and the operator through user-friendly graphical utility. The GUI provides the time domain display of process variables based on sensor data and important predicted variables generated in real time in synchronization with the plant. The RTPS has been installed and customized at the Blast Furnace BF-5, BSL, Bokaro.

    Awards for excellence In-house project

    Dr. A.K. Panda, Dr. A. Mitra, Mr. P.K. De and Dr. S. Garai, Scientists received the NML's best In-house Project award for the project "Development of Nanocrystalline Soft Magnetic Materials for high temperature applications" (OLP- 0020) completed in 2005.

    Meritorious Student Awards 2007

    The Meritorious student awards for excellence in ICSE/CBSE (2007) in Class XII were given among the childrens /wards of NML family. This was received by Shri Ajay Pratap Singh, Ms. Tanvi Mishra, Ms. Niharika Gudipati, Shri Anshuman Das, Ms. Navya Mishra, Ms. Vatsa Dwivedi, Ms. Shubhi Malaviya, Shri Gaurav Bhattacharjee, and Shri Saurav Bhattacharjee.

    Quiz Competition 2007

    Three R&D teams of the Laboratory received awards for the foundation Quiz competition. First prize to Team 'BUCKNELL' - Dr. Indranil Chattoraj, Mrs. Debarati Chattoraj, and Master Debdeep Chattoraj; Second prize to Team 'NIJHAWAN' - Dr. Santanu Bhattacharjee, Master Sourav Bhattacharjee, and Master Gourav Bhattacharjee; and Third prize to Team 'BANERJEE' - Dr. Suprava Nayar, and Ms. Siddhi Gupta.

    Recognitions / Nominations

    Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director NML has served as Member in the following Committees/Councils:

    -     Council, The Indian Institute of Metals

    -     General Council, Indian National Academy of Engineering

    -     Council, Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers

    -     Council, The National Academy of Sciences, India

    -     Fellowship Committee, The National Academy of Sciences, India

    -     Board of Directors, Uranium Corporation of India Ltd.

    -     Board of Governors, National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology, Mandi Govindgarh

    -     Research Advisory Committee & Project Monitoring Committee of Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Design & Development Centre, Nagpur

    -     Research Council, Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research, Dhanbad

    -     CSIR - Alcoa Interaction Council

    -     Empowered Committee on Research & Development, Ministry of Steel

    -     Screening Committee for National Mineral Awards, Ministry of Mines

    -     Screening Committee for National Awards for R&D Efforts in Industry, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research

    -     Peer Review Committee, Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad

    -     High Level Expert Committee for Diamond Jubilee Technology Awards, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

    -     Steering Committee on Nanotechnology, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

    -     Project Monitoring Committee of New Millennium Indian Technology

    -     Leadership Initiative, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

    -     ENG-41 Selection Committee, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

    -     Working Group on Eleventh Five Year Plan, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

    -     Transition Management Advisory Committee for consolidation of core competencies of Central Mining Research Station, Dhanbad & Central Fuel Research Institute, Dhanbad

    -     Mentor, Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research, Dhanbad

    Dr. R.P. Bhagat, Scientist was elected as Fellow of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers during April, 2007 

    Dr. Ashok K. Ray, Scientist has been elected as - The Fellow of Institution of Engineers; Editorial member of the Journal of Institution of Chemists; Editorial member of International Journal-Materials Science Research India; Alternate member of Central Boiler Board (India); and A reviewer of various technical journals like Materials Science and Engineering A, Surface & Coatings Technology, Journal of Materials Science, Journal of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences and International Journal of Fatigue.

    Dr. (Ms.) S.K. Mishra, Fellow of Indian Ceramic society since 2007.

    Dr. S. Srikanth, Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju, Dr. S. Prabhakar, Dr. T.S.N. Sankara Narayanan and Dr. D.S. Rao served as reviewers for several papers in many international journals including J. Electrochemical Society, Metallurgical Transactions, Surface and Coatings Technology, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Hydrometallurgy, Journal of Materials Science and Indian Journal of Marine Sciences.

    Dr. S. Srikanth served as the examiner for the oral examination of the Ph.D. thesis "Studies on Preparation of Non-Stoichiometric Boroncarbides and their applications" by Radhamadhab Mohanty at the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in July 2007.

    Dr. S. Srikanth served as the external examiner for B.Tech project Viva-Voce examination at the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Madras held on May 16-17, 2007.

    Academic Degrees/Diploma

    Sri S.K. Das, Scientist has been awarded Ph.D. degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering for his Thesis "Fracture behaviour of copper strengthened HSLA steel" from Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, (Formerly BE College Shipper) during March, 2008.

     

                  

    during 2006-07

     

    National Metallurgist Day Award of Indian Institute of Metals (IIM)

    NP Gandhi Memorial Lecture

    –      Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director NML delivered the coveted NP Gandhi Memorial Lecture on the topic ‘Realm of mechanochemistry in extractive metallurgy – Scientific curiosity to commercial reality during the 44th National Metallurgist Day Celebration of Indian Institute of Metals at the XLRI Auditorium, Jamshedpur on November 14, 2006.

    Metallurgist of the Year

    –      Dr. A. Mitra, Scientist received NMD Best Metallurgist of the Year 2006 of IIM in the Metals Science category in the 44th National Metallurgist Day at Jamshedpur on November 13, 2006. He has made significant contributions to the fundamental research on functional properties of alloys, to the development of novel iron based nanocrystalline alloys for application in magnetic sensors and NDE techniques for engineering critical assessment.

    –      Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Scientist won Metallurgist of the year award 2006 of IIM in the Environment, energy conservation and waste management category in the 44th National Metallurgist Day at Jamshedpur, on November 13, 2006. He has made significant contributions to environmental protection through development of environment friendly metal extraction processes and novel materials / processes for utilization / minimization of industrial wastes which include among others, a process for minimization of the environmental impact of red mud based on the concept of ‘Simultaneous Milling and Leaching’.

    Metallography Contest

    –      Shri Arpan Das, Scientist won the first prize in Metallography contest under general category at the 60th Annual Technical Meeting of the Indian Institute of Metals, held at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur during November 14-16, 2006.

    Poster Presentation

    –      Shri J. Pal, Dr. M. C. Goswami, Mr. D. P. Singh, Dr. A.K. Upadhyay and Dr. Sukomal Ghosh, Scientists won first prize in poster presentation under process group at NMD-ATM held at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur during November 14-16, 2006.

    –      Dr. S.K. Mishra, Scientist won first prize in poster presentation under product group at NMD-ATM held at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur during November 14-16, 2006.

    –      Shri G.K. Mondal, Shri S.K. Das, Scientists and Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director NML won third prize in poster presentation under product group at NMD-ATM held at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur during November 14-16, 2006.

    Oral Presentation

    –      Ms. M. Tarafder, Ms. T. Das, Dr. S.K. Das and Dr. S. Tarafder won third prize in oral presentation under products category for the paper entitled ‘Fractal Characteristics of Fracture Behaviour of HSLA Steel’ at NMD-ATM held at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur during November 14-16, 2006.

    MRSI Medal for the 2007

    –      Dr. L.C. Pathak, Scientist has won MRSI medal award of the year 2007. The Award has been conferred on Dr. Pathak by the Materials Research Society of India.

    CSIR Raman Research Fellowship

    –      Dr. L.C. Pathak, Scientist received the CSIR Raman Research Fellowship for his outstanding R&D achievement.

    IIME Mineral Beneficiation Award

    –      Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju and Dr. S. Prabhakar, Scientists won the IIME Mineral Beneficiation Award for the year 2006 held at IIT, Mumbai during MPT 2007 (February 12-14, 2007).

    IIME Best Paper Award

    –      Dr. D.S. Rao, T.V. Vijay Kumar, S. Prabhakar, G. Bhaskar Raju and T.K. Ghosh won the IIME best paper award on Characterisation area for their paper entitled Alteration characteristics of ilmenite from South India, published in the Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterisation and Engineering, 4(1), 2005, pp. 47-59.

    –      Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Mr. S. Badjena and Prof. S.P. Mehrotra won the IIME best paper award on Environmental issues related to Mineral processing for their paper entitled Hydration of mechanically activated slag, published in Metallurgical and Materials Transaction B, 36, 2005, pp. 873-883.

    –      Dr. C. Guria, Dr. Mohan Verma, Dr. Santosh K. Gupta and Prof. S.P. Mehrotra won the IIME best paper award on Beneficiation for their paper entitled Multi-objective optimal synthesis and design of froth flotation circuits for mineral processing, using the jumping gene adaptation of genetic algorithm, published in  Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 44, 2005. pp. 2621-2633.

    Mishra Award for Best Technical Paper

    –      Shri S.C. Pal, Abhilash, K.D. Mehta, V. Kumar, B.D. Pandey and T.R. Markhand won the Mishra Award for best technical paper cum presentation in Extraction Metallurgy by Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers for their paper entitled Copper biodissolution from a low grade chalcopyrite ore using adapted Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans presented by Dr. V. Kumar held at IIT Mumbai during MPT 2007 (February 12-14, 2007).

    ECM Best Presentation Award

    –      Shri P. Lakshmipathiraj, S. Prabhakar, S. Parvathy and G. Bhaskar Raju, Scientists won the best presentation award for their paper entitled Removal of toxic Cr (VI) and As (V) metal ions from aqueous solutions by electrochemical techniques in the National Conference on Environmental Challenges and Management (ECM 2007), organised by Bharathiar University, Coimbattore during March 8-9, 2007

    M.S. Khan Memorial Trophy

    –      Dr. A.K. Vaish, Scientist has been awarded M.S. Khan Memorial Trophy by Sri B. Muthuraman, MD Tata Steel and President, Indian Institute of Metals on October 7, 2006 for significant contribution in Metallurgical Engineering and outstanding service to the Indian Institute of Metals Jamshedpur chapter.

    NDE-2006

    –      Ms. Mita Tarafdar, Scientist won the best paper (oral presentation) award in R&D category, at the National Seminar on Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE-2006) held ay Hyderabad during December 7-9, 2006

    TECHNICA 2006

    –      Shri Arpan Das, Scientist has been awarded first prize in Poster competition at the TECHNICA 2006 organised by Society for Metallurgical Engineering Students NIT, Jamshedpur in association with IIM Jamshedpur Chapter.

    –      Shri Arpan Das, Scientist has been awarded third prize in Quiz competition at the TECHNICA 2006 organised by Society for Metallurgical Engineering Students NIT, Jamshedpur in association with IIM Jamshedpur Chapter.

    CSIR Foundation Day Award

    Meritorious student awards

    –      The Meritorious student awards for securing 100% marks in ICSE/CBSE (2006) in Class X & XII were given among the Childrens/wards of NML family. These were received by Shri Ankur Nigam and Ms. Shaoli Dutta respectively.

    Inter School Science Debate – 2006

    –      As part of CSIR foundation celebration, an Inter School Science Debate was held at NML on September 22, 2006, the topic for the debate was “In the opinion of the house - Mathematics is not Science it is an Art” wherein six schools of Jamshedpur participated.

    CSIR Outstanding Services Award - 2006

    –      Category I – Shri S.K. Poddar,  Shri D. Bhattacharya, Shri A. Gopalakrishnan and  Shri T.K. Mohanty; Category II – Shri K.P. Krishnan, Shri T.K. Bhattacharjee,  Shri R.K. Saha and Shri D.P. Rao Pariti; Category III – Shri T.S. Das, Shri Shatrughan Singh, Shri H.P. Gope and Shri Ashok Chatterjee. Several staff members also received the Foundation Day Awards on superannuation and completion of 25 years of service rendered to CSIR.

    NML FOUNDATION DAY AWARDS

    The Nijhawan Award for Best Technical Paper

    –      The Nijhawan Award for the best research paper, 2006 was awarded to the team constituted of Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Sri S. Badjena and Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, won the for the paper was entitled as “Hydration of mechanically activated granulated blast furnace slag” published in the Journal Met. Trans. B, Vol. 36B, December, pp. 873-883.

             Abstract : Ground granulated blast furnace is known to possess latent hydraulic activity, i.e. it shows cementations properties in contact with water over a long period of time. Results are presented in this paper to show that, in sharp contrast to published literature on the hydration of neat ground granulated blast furnace slag, the complete hydration of slag is possible in short time (days) even without a chemical activator. This is achieved if the slag used for hydration is mechanically activated using an attrition mill. The nature of hydration product of the mechanically activated slag depends not only on initial specific surface area (SSA) of the slag but also on surface activation as manifested by change in Zeta potential (x) of the slag during the milling process. Depending upon SSA and x, the hydration product changed from non-reacted slag with high porosity (slag SSA < 0.3 m2/g, x > -29 mV) to hydrated slag with compact structure (SSA = 0.3-0.4 m2/g, x = -29 to -31 mV), and finally, to fully hydrated slag with high porosity (SSA > 4 m2/g, x ~ 26 mV). Unlike the poorly crystalline hydration product formed by the non-activated slag even after prolonged hydration for years, the hydration product of mechanically activated slag was crystalline in nature. The crystallinity of the product improved with increasing duration of mechanical activation. The calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) phases present in the slag hydration product, characterized by Ca/Si ratio 0.7-1.5, were similar to those found for hydraulic cement binder except for the presence of Mg and Al as impurities. In addition, the presence of a di-calcium-silicate-hydrate phase (a-C2SH), that normally forms under hydrothermal condition, and a Ca-deficient and Si-Al- rich phase (average Ca/Si mole ratio < 0.1 and Si/Al ~ 3) is indicated, especially in the hydration product of slag that was activated for longer time.

    The Altekar Award for the Best Technology

    –      The Altekar award for best technology wasawarded to the team consists of Dr. S. Prabhakar, Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju, Dr. S. Subba Rao, Dr. D.S. Rao and Shri T.V. Vijayakumar, Scientists of the Madras Centre for the best technology “Column flotation for the beneficiation of sillimanite” developed for M/s Indian Rare Earths Ltd., Chatrapur, Orissa.

             Abstract : For the first time, NML Madras Centre has designed, installed and commissioned a commercial scale flotation column having a capacity of 6 tons/hr for the beneficiation of sillimanite at Indian Rare Earth Ltd., OSCOM, Chatrapur, Orissa. The design drawings and specifications are provided to IREL. Fabrication, erection, installation and commissioning of the flotation column are completed as per the schedule. The plant personnel are trained for operation. The flotation column was commissioned successfully and integrated with the existing beneficiation circuit. The column operation is stabilized and is currently producing sillimanite grades of above 93% and with recoveries of above 85%. The column operation manual was handed over to the plant personnel at IREL.

    Awards for excellence in In-house project

    Three R&D teams of the Laboratory received awards for the best in-house project.

    –      First prize for the project, “To explore the performance of DRI fines on the nitrogen removal in Arc Furnace steel[OLP-0001]” (Team Leader: Sri J. Pal, Members: Sri M.C. Goswami, Dr. S. Ghosh, Dr. Manoj Kumar, Sri R.K. Minz, Sri D.P. Singh and Sri A.K. Upadhyaya)

    –      Second prize shared for the project, (1) “Characterisation of flow behaviour of microstructurally engineered precipitation strengthened structural steel [OLP-0007]” (Team Leader: Dr. S.K. Das, Members: Dr. S. Tarafder, Sri P.K. De, Sri S. Das and Dr. S. Sivaprasad) & (2) “Development of an acoustic signal based non-destructive test technique for damage assessment of in-service components [OLP-0012]” (Team Leader: Dr. S. Palit Sagar & Members Dr. N. Parida, Dr. S. Sivaprasad, Dr. D.K. Bhattacharya and Dr. R.N. Ghosh.

    Meritorious Student Awards 2006

    –      The Meritorious student awards for securing more than 85% marks in ICSE/CBSE (2006) in Class X & XII were given among the Childrens/wards of NML family. These were received by Ms. Khushnam Kersi Godiwalla (10th), Ms. Shaoli Dutta, Ms. Rini Tarafder and Shri Arijit Chakravorty.

    –      The Meritorious student awards for XII passed Children of NML Employee for their admission into the Institute of National repute, 2006. These were received by Ms. Rini Tarafder- NIFT, Bangalore and Shri Aaditya Narayan Chaudhary- Jadavpur University.

    Quiz Competition 2006

    –      Three R&D teams of the Laboratory received awards for the Foundation Quiz competition. First Prize to Team ‘Austenite’ - Dr. Santanu Bhattacharjee, Sri Sourav Bhattacharjee and Sri Gourav Bhattacharjee; Second Prize to Team ‘Cementite’- Dr. Sandhya Singh, Sri Samrat Sen Choudhury and Sri Anirban Bhattacharya; and Third Prize to Team ‘Ferrite’- Smt. Mita Tarafder, Sri Vikas Sharma, and Ms. Pritha Dhali.

    Recognitions

    Prof. S.P. Mehrotra, Director NML served as a Member in the following Committees/Councils:

    –      Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC)

    –      Working Group on Eleventh Five Year Plan for CSIR

    –      Transition Management Advisory Committee (TMAC) for consolidation of core competencies of CMRI & CFRI,  Dhanbad

    –      Mentor of the newly formed Central Institute of Mining and Fuels Research

    –      Research Council, RRL, Bhubaneswar

    –      Research Council, CMRI, Dhanbad

    –      Research Council, CGCRI, Kolkata

    –      Peer Review Committee of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad

    –      Member, Research Advisory Committee & Project Monitoring Committee of JNARDDC, Nagpur

    –      Board of Governors of National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology, Mandi Govindgarh

    –      Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata (Council)

    –      Indian National Academy of Engineering (General Council)

    –      Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers (Council)

    Nominations

    –      Dr. S. Ghosh, Scientist nominated in Editorial Board Member, ‘Indian Foundry Journal’ of Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIF) during August 2006.

    –      Dr. S. Srikanth, Dr. G. Bhaskar Raju, Dr. S. Prabhakar, Dr. T.S.N. Sankara Narayanan and Dr. D.S. Rao, Scientists served as reviewers for several papers in many international journals including J. Electrochemical Society, Metallurgical Transactions, Surface and Coatings Technology, J. Hazardous Materials, Hydrometallurgy, J Materials Science and Indian Journal of Marine Sciences.

    –      Dr. Ashok Kumar served as reviewer of many International journals including J. Materials Science, Materials Science and Engineering - A, Surface and Coating Technology, International Journal of Fatigue.

    –      Dr. V.C. Srivastava, Scientist selected as member of the scientific committee for the 6th International Conference on Spray Forming at Bremen, Germany during September 4-6, 2006.

    –      Dr. V.C. Srivastava, Scientist chaired a session on Light alloys in the 6th International Conference on Spray Forming at Bremen, Germany during September 4-6, 2006.

    –      Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist was nominated as the Fellow of Institution of Engineers.

    –      Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist was nominated as Editorial member of the Journal of Institution of Chemists, and Journal of Materials Science Research India.

    –      Dr. Ashok Kumar Ray, Scientist was nominated as Alternate member of Central Boiler Board (India)

    –      Dr. Amitava Bandopadhyay, Scientist served as a Member of the Registration Committee on Recycling of hazardous waste, of the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi.

    –      Dr. K. Chatterjee, Scientist has been nominated as Resource Person - Workshop on The ways to create interest in science among rural students by Dist. Co-ordinator of Science Congress and Science Teachers, by Tata Steel Rural Development Society under Vighyan ki Duniya at Centre for Excellence, Jamshedpur.

    –      Dr. K. Chatterjee, Scientist has been Judge-State / District Level Children’s Science Congress 2006 and Childs Rights Congress - 2006, East Sighbhum, organised by NCSTC Network - Science for Society, Jharkhand.

    Academic Degrees / Diploma

    –      Shri S.K. Maity, Scientist has been awarded Ph.D.  degree for his Thesis “Development of ultra high strength steel by Electro Slag Refining (ESR) and Thermo-Mechanical Activation (TMT)”  from IIT Bombay during December 2006.

    –      Shri Arvind Kumar Upadhyay, Technical Officer has been awarded Ph. D. degree in Chemistry for his Thesis “A study of sediment quality index. Igeo (Geoaccumulation Index): The pollution index of river Subernarekha determined by electro-analytical techniques” from Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur (India) on March 28, 2007.

    Tata Power Golf Tournament

    Shri Parvesh Kumar, an avid golfer of NML won the first prize in 6th Tata Power Golf Tournament in 19-24 handicap categories. He also got the 2nd runners-up prize in Parvez Mehta Cup 2006 and recorded a “Hole-in-one” in Jubliee Golf Tournament.

    Carrom Tournament 2006

    The 6th Inter Public Sector Carrom Tournament 2006 had been organised by LIC Employees Sport Club, Jeevan Prakash Bhawan, Bistupur, Jamshedpur, during July 29-30, 2006. Shri Manjit Singh, Md. Nayeemuddin Ansari, Md. Salim Ansari and Mr. K.S. Trivedi won the Runners up prize in Carrom Team tournament.

    Shri Manjit Singh won 3rd prize in the District Carrom Championship-2006 organised by East Singhbhum District Carrom Association was held at Jamshedpur.

     

                  

    during 2005-06