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Pierre de Gennes received the Nobel prize in Physics in 1991 for ‘discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalised to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers’. Liquid crystals, polymers, foams, emulsions and suspensions are common examples of a class of matter called ‘soft materials’ – materials characterised by structural complexity and mechanical flexibility. In this talk, we will together try to decipher the intriguing flow and deformation properties of some very common soft materials that we encounter everyday - materials categorised  as colloidal suspensions (clay, smoke, fog, ink and milk), emulsions (mayonnaise, lotions and creams), liquid foams, pastes (tomato ketchup and toothpaste), granular media (a bag of rice or sand) and polymers. 

I will give a brief discussion of my journey as a scientist over the years, including how I got into the question of gender in physics. I will then end my lecture with a popular science level discussion of my current work.

The talk will go over some crucial developments in astronomy over the last hundred years, such as the classification of stars, the distance scale of the universe, the abundance and production of the chemical elements, compact objects like neutron stars and black holes, and many more. Women astronomers had a crucial role in all of these examples

In the two sessions we will explore what it means to approach physics through the lens of computation. I’ll introduce some of the ways in which computation has shaped physics in terms of modelling, measurement and also how we learn the subject. No prior programming knowledge is expected. We’ll begin from first principles, using just our hands, some paper, and a few simple rules to build up a system. 

In the second session, we’ll move to a visual programming environment (Tinkercad and Seelab). You’ll use a laptop (preferable) or smartphone to try out basic computational constructs like loops, conditionals, and sensor-based responses. The goal is to begin thinking computationally in a  physics context, and to see how we can even start doing simple experiments by interfacing with real hardware.

In the two sessions we will explore what it means to approach physics through the lens of computation. I’ll introduce some of the ways in which computation has shaped physics in terms of modelling, measurement and also how we learn the subject. No prior programming knowledge is expected. We’ll begin from first principles, using just our hands, some paper, and a few simple rules to build up a system. 
 

In the second session, we’ll move to a visual programming environment (Tinkercad and Seelab). You’ll use a laptop (preferable) or smartphone to try out basic computational constructs like loops, conditionals, and sensor-based responses. The goal is to begin thinking computationally in a  physics context, and to see how we can even start doing simple experiments by interfacing with real hardware.

 Why can’t we predict the behavior of a gas molecule the same way we track a planet? In this talk, we’ll explore why classical and quantum mechanics alone are not enough to explain the messy, complex world around us—and why we need statistical mechanics to bridge the gap between microscopic particles and macroscopic behavior. Along the way, we’ll look at stochastic processes as powerful tools for dealing with randomness and uncertainty in nature. We’ll also touch on big ideas like chaos, self-organization, networks, biological complexity, and even how diseases spread—all from a statistical perspective. This talk aims to give you a fresh way of looking at the world: not as a set of exact rules, but as a dynamic system full of patterns, surprises, and probabilities

We will talk about large scale flows in the atmosphere, containing droplet or particulate matter, such as snow avalanches and pollutant dispersal. Being a late evening lecture, we'll not go into too much of the mathematics, but we'll try to appreciate why these problems are beautiful, hard and important.

AI is an increasingly integral part of doing research. This hands-on, very practical session will provide a brief overview of the capabilities, pitfalls, and ethical concerns with its use in Science.  We will cover four main domains: 1. data gathering and research summaries,
2. scientific writing, 3. graphs and statistics in science, and 4. coding. I will end with a sketch of major AI tools like Alpha Fold and agents, and give a glimpse of where the field may be going.

This lecture journeys through my multidisciplinary art practice grounded in the language of mathematics, mythology and metaphysics. From sacred geometries inspired by temple architecture to recursive drawings based on chess algorithms, my work seeks to bridge the material and the infinite. Influenced by constructs such as the golden ratio, Fibonacci sequences, Penrose tilings, and knight’s tours, my sculptures and drawings embody systems of order that reveal poetic possibilities. This talk will also explore how myth, memory, and cultural frameworks from South India—such as Kolams and cosmological diagrams—become vehicles for visualizing the vast, often hidden structures that underpin reality.