Apart from publishing the journal ‘The Nucleus’, which is the main purpose of ASFC, other activities of the ASFC society include conducting annual memorial orations, lectures, seminars, and symposia singly or in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta (CU) / other scientific bodies / societies, both Internationally and Nationally. The society also engages itself in social welfare activities concerning education of poor / underprivileged children.
i) Publication of journal ‘THE NUCLEUS’ – An International Journal of Cytology and Allied Topics
The publication of the journal ‘The Nucleus’ was initiated in 1958 by the Founder editors, Professor (Mrs.) Archana Sharma, and Professor A K Sharma. Since then, the journal was nurtured and published by them regularly without break until their demise in 2008 and 2017, respectively. The Nucleus is a quarterly published journal (3 issues per year in April, August, and December). After the death of Professor A K Sharma in 2017, the Editor-in-Chief has been Dr. U C Lavania, Department of Botany, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, UP, India. The present volume of The Nucleus for the current year (2021) is Volume 64. The issue 1 of Vol 64 (The Nucleus, Vol 64, Issue 1, April 2021) as well as the 2nd issue (The Nucleus, Vol 64, Issue 2, August 2021) are already out and available on the Nucleus website. https://link.springer.com/journal/13237 or https://www.springer.com/journal/13237
ii) Organizing Lectures / Seminars / Symposia / Funding of the same
Several lectures / orations were organized since the Foundation was established, either singly or in collaboration with other scientific bodies, Societies and the Department of Botany. One annual special oration with award was introduced in memories of both Professor (Mrs.) Archana Sharma and Professor A K Sharma together and named as ‘Professor (Mrs.) Archana Sharma and Professor A K Sharma Oration’ after Professor A K Sharma’s demise in 2017. The Society collaborated in 3 International Symposia since 2015 with CSIR-Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata in 2015, 2017 and 2019 which were held at IICB, Kolkata. All these national symposia, seminar or lectures were being organized in association with Department of Botany, CU, Kolkata and held at the Archana Sharma Memorial Hall, Department of Botany, CU, Kolkata until early 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in lockdown situation all over the globe including India. Since 2020, all lectures, seminars were being held on virtual platform because of Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, in October 2020, a national virtual webinar was organized by ASFC in collaboration with Department of Botany, CU. The foundation provided monetary help and collaborated in the International Symposia, organizing seminars or to hold lectures in the Department of Botany. All virtual academic programs and meetings of the society continued to be held on the virtual platform through Webinar, Zoom or Google meet platforms.
Chronological List of Scientific Activities of ASFC
|
Date |
Name of the Seminar / Symposium |
Organized by |
Name and Affiliation of the Speaker |
Title of Lecture / Symposium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
22nd to 24th December 2015 |
17th All India Congress of Cytology and Genetics |
CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata in collaboration with the ASFC |
Organizing Secretary: Dr. A K Giri, CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata |
International Symposium on “Exploring Genomes: The New Frontier” |
|
18th February 2016 |
Seminar |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Prof. Jin Kyu Kim, Principal Researcher, Biotechnology Research Division, Jeongeup 56212, Korea |
Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation and Ongoing Challenges |
|
29th to 31st January 2018 |
18th All India Congress of Cytology and Genetics |
CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata in collaboration with the ASFC |
Organizing Secretary: Dr. A K Giri, CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata |
International Symposium on “Translating Genes and Genomes” |
|
11th June 2018 |
1st Professor Archana Sharma and Professor A K Sharma Oration |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Prof. Partha Pratim Majumder, Distinguished Professor and Founder, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, West Bengal |
Enabling Precision Medicine in Cancer |
|
6th March 2019 |
One Day Symposium on “Applications of Advanced Tools and Technology in Plant Biology” |
Organized by The West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology (WAST) in collaboration with Centre of Advanced Study, Department of Botany, C.U. and sponsored by ASFC |
Dr. Pallab Kundu, Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Kolkata |
Novel CRISPR-Cas toolkits: Shaping the crops of the future |
|
Dr. Nrisingha Dey, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneshwar |
Designing plant transformation promoters using breakthrough technologies |
|||
|
Dr. Ananda Sarkar, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi |
Laser capture micro-dissection: applications in microarray / NGS based gene expression studies |
|||
|
Prof. Gautam Basu, Bose Institute, Kolkata |
Art in Science (Special keynote address) |
|||
|
30th April 2019 |
2nd Professor Archana Sharma and Professor A K Sharma Oration |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Dr. Amit Ghosh, J. C. Bose Distinguished Professor, National Academy of Sciences, India. National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (ICMR) |
Gut Microbiome, Brain and Behaviour |
|
29th May 2019 |
Seminar |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Dr. Ruby Banerjee, The Welcome Sanger Institute, United Kingdom |
An Overview of FISH and its Applications at Different Resolutions |
|
21st August 2019 |
Seminar |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Dr. Sarbani Ghoshal, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Science and Geology, QCC-City University of New York, USA |
Specific Inhibition of IP6K1 Ameliorates Metabolic Syndrome in Mice |
|
2nd to 4th December 2019 |
19th All India Congress of Genetics and Genomics |
CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata in collaboration with the ASFC |
Organizing Secretary: Dr. A K Giri, CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata |
International Symposium on “Impact of Air Pollution on Human Health” |
|
26th December 2019 |
Seminar |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Dr. Santanu Paul, Professor, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Bioactivity Guided Isolation of Phytochemicals and its Biomedical Application |
|
Dr. Anish Nag, Department of Life Sciences, Christ University, Bengaluru |
Phytochemicals as Potential Drugs – An in-Silico Approach |
|||
|
27th October 2020 |
National Webinar on “Emerging Trends in Plant Research” |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Dr. Utpal Nath, Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru |
Growing to a Shape: Genetic Control of Leaf Development |
|
Dr. Kutubuddin Ali Mollah, Scientist, Indian Council of Agricultural Research – National Rice Research Institute, Cuttak, Odisha |
Precise Genome Engineering with CRISPR-CAS-Base Editing |
|||
|
Dr. Jitender Giri, Staff Scientist IV, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi |
Targeting Roots for Sustainable Agriculture |
|||
|
10th December 2020 |
3rd Professor Archana Sharma and Professor A K Sharma Oration |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Prof. Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay, Vice Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata |
COVID-19 and Its Population Based Differential Effects |
|
7th June 2021 |
4th Professor Archana Sharma and Professor A K Sharma Oration |
ASFC in collaboration with the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta |
Prof. Rajeev K. Varshney, J. C. Bose National Fellow, Research Programme Director, Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology, ICRISAT, Patancheru, Hyderabad |
Genomic Interventions for Crop Improvement |
i) Providing monetary assistance to poor and needy students
The idea to help the needy students through the Foundation came from the late founder of the ASFC Professor A K Sharma and that also in line with the same noble thinking of late Professor (Mrs.) Archana Sharma who always was keen to support poor and needy students. She was particularly keen in empowering the girl students of our society. Keeping in mind the noble thoughts, Professor A K Sharma wished to keep this objective under the vision and mission of the Foundation and always encouraged the members to find out how the Foundation could be a part of this noble activity apart from its academic activities. To honor Professor Sharma’s wish, few members (Professor Anita Mukherjee, Dr. Bani Gajra and Dr. Indrajit Dasgupta) contacted respected Prabrajika Atandraprana Mataji, Assistant Secretary, Sri Sarada Math, Dhakhineswar, Kolkata and met her in 2017 when Professor Sharma was the President of the ASFC. The foundation thus started donating to the Ma Sarada Scholarship fund which is meant for meritorious and needy girl students of higher secondary classes XI-XII. Ma Sarada Scholarship was initiated in 2004-2005 on Holy Mother's 150th Birth Anniversary to sponsor the higher education of meritorious girls. The scholarship annually provides students with Rs 2000/- per month for the ordinary courses and Rs 5000/- per month for technical courses. Atandraprana Mataji informed that all the scholarships are distributed to the students in the name of Ma Sarada. Therefore, the Sponsor’s name remains only in the Record Book of the Math but original receipt and tax exemption certificate in the name of the donor (in this case ASFC) are provided on receipt of the donation money as per rule of the math. More than 200 meritorious students are being helped in this scheme all over India by Sri Sarada Math. Professor Sharma approved a sum of Rs 16000/- donation to Sri Sarada Math to contribute to the Ma Sarada Scholarships. Therefore, Atandraprana Mataji informed that a total of 5 girl students (2 students from the technical course, Rs 5000/- each and 3 students from the ordinary course, Rs 2000/- each) would be benefitted with the Rs 16000/- from ASFC’s donation. Since 2017, ASFC is being a part of this noble activity. In a recent Governing Body meeting this year (2021) the donation amount has been increased from 16000/- to 30000/- per year so that the society may be able to help few more needy students in their education through Sri Sarada Math, Dhakhineswar, Kolkata.
Email -
asfcwebsite@gmail.com
gajrabani@gmail.com
Address -
'Dept of Botany' CU,
35, Ballygunge Circular Road,
Kolkata 700019
