Sunday, January 10, 2010
CARRT to be set up at Mangalagangotri

• BRNS to provide Rs. 2.5 crore for the centre
• Varsity to introduce various courses at the new facility

Mangalore: Mangalore University and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at Mangalagangotri for establishing a Centre for Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation Technology (CARRT).

The centre will be set up in collaboration with the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) and the Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), which are the wings of the DAE. According to the MoU, the BRNS will provide Rs. 2.5 crore for establishing the centre. Scientists from BRIT and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre will work with the university in establishing the centre. K.M. Kaveriappa, Vice-Chancellor of the university, and N. Sivaprasad, representing the BRNS and BRIT, exchanged the MoU document.

K. Chinnappa Gowda, Registrar of the university, said in a release that summer and vocational courses would be offered to select students of undergraduate science courses. The centre will also conduct tailor-made short-term training programmes for scientists and engineers from industries and R&D organisations.

CARRT will design and develop the syllabus on application of radioisotopes and radiation technology for graduate and postgraduate courses.

It will also help in establishing a laboratory for such courses. It will act as a nodal agency to facilitate research in areas involving radiation and radioisotopes application.

H.M. Somashekarappa, Head, University Science Instrumentation Centre, will head CARRT and also a research team.

Other principal investigators are Rajashekhar Patil, K.R. Chandrashekar and K. Bhasker Shenoy.