Ancient ironsmiths highly skilled in Material Science

Hyderabad: ’The Iron Pillar of Delhi has attracted the attention of materials scientists because of its high resistance to corrosion and has been called a ‘testimony to the high level of skill achieved by the ancient Indian iron smiths in the extraction and processing of iron’, said Prof. Budaraju Srinivasa Murty, Professor and Chair Professor at the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Prof Murty was the chief guest in the inaugural of two-day national conference on ‘Physics and Chemistry of Functional Materials-2019’ at GITAM Deemed-to-be University, Hyderabad on Thursday. Materials are playing vital role in our day-to-day life and anything other than spiritual is material, he told. The development of advanced materials can even lead to the design of completely new products, more particularly in the defense sector.  ‘Many of the most pressing scientific problems humans are currently face is due to the limits of the materials that are available and how they are used. Thus, breakthroughs in materials science are likely to affect the future of technology significantly’ he added. He released the conference proceedings on this occasion. 

Prof. N. Siva Prasad, Pro Vice-Chancellor in his presidential address said that India is very powerful in the strength of materials, their work can acknowledge in Qutub Minar pillar, but we lost our technology for developing the materials. Earlier, Prof. Balaji Rao Ravuri, Convenor of this conference briefed about the two-day conference. Dr. I.V.Subba Reddy, Co-Convenor proposed the vote of thanks. Prof. Ch.Sanjay, Principal, School of Technology, Prof. G.A.Rama Rao, Principal, School of Science, 85 delegates across the country participated in the inauguration.