This is part of its efforts to popularize science to the General Public and Students who are pursuing science as their career. TNSF attempt to focus on students on higher science as everyone knows
that learning of science at college within the curriculum is not enough to acquire holistic knowledge of science at the appropriate time. Hence, to fill the gap between what students are acquiring through the curriculum and what
it is required, TNSF is planning its activities on higher science to students who are pursuing higher education.
COVID-19, perhaps one of the most virulent pandemics in the past 100 years, has exposed the frailties of public health systems in many countries,
as evidenced by the massive loss of lives and livelihoods across the world. But it has also shown the power of science and technology, especially the open
and quick sharing of data and results. Obversely, the ensuing infodemic has brought with it a tide of misinformation, chiefly the manufactured controversies
on whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolved naturally or was deliberately or artificially created by Chinese scientists who then caused its spread intentionally
or otherwise.
Introduction
Dr. S. Krishnaswamy
Retired Professor, Madurai Kamarajar Univeristy, Madurai
Biology behind the Corona Virus
Dr. T. R. Govindarajan Retired Professor, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai Which of it will withstand scientific scrutiny?
Question & Answer
Dr. S. Krishnaswamy, did his B.Sc (Hons) (Physics) in IIT, Kharagpur, then MSc at Pachaiyappas College, Chennai and completed his research for PhD at Department of Bio-Physics and Crystallography Madras University in 1985. After that he did his postdoctoral research first at Purdue University, USA with Prof Rossmann on virus crystallography and then worked in Strasbourg University, France on Asp tRNA synthetase - Asp tRNA complex structure with Prof. Dino Moras. He joined the Bioinformatics Centre at Madurai Kamaraj University in 1990. He taught bioinformatics, biophysics, structural biology, structural genomics, programming in computational biology for post-graduate students. His research group and PhD students worked on membrane protein structural biology of membrane proteins, prophages proteins and proteins that aggregate and cause disease. He was instrumental in establishing a Macromolecular X-Ray Diffraction facility, initiated two teaching programmes and developed Bioinformatics at MKU. He took voluntary retirement as Senior Professor from MKU in 2015. After that he has been a visiting professor at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai with the computational biology group. He was State President of the Tamil Nadu Science Forum.
Dr. T. R. Govindarajan fondly called TRG in academic circles is having more than 35 years of experience in academics and research. His area of specialization is High Energy Physics and he did research on Gravitational force. He is an Adjunct Professor in Chennai Mathematical Institute. He is also an emeritus Professor in Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He has also worked as a professor in Chennai Loyola College. He visited various high profile research institutions functioning in various part of the world that include Max Plank Institute. He has published more than 90 research papers.