13 August,
Sharon,Boston,USA
Sharon,Boston,USA
Since a few days, I was interested if we can know the links that can inform about international Parasitologists ; these links, if found, I intended to load on this blog so that scholars may know more about their work and profile. In this endeavor, I posted some e-mails to some organizations by noting their details from Google.
I thankfully acknowledge receipt of e-mail from Ms Katie Steeles, Media Manager of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who mentioned " the easiest way to access this information is for you to visit school's website and use our people search at http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/search/ "
As he provided the site, I tried to check the same and found details of some important Parasitologists which we have read in our text books of Parasitology.By logging www.archive.lshtm.ac.uk we went to the archives of some important personalities who have some association to LSHTM at one or other time of their life. A few are below mentioned who also had worked in India :
Alcock ,Alfred William (1859-1933) Provides autobiographical notes on his life (between the period of 1876 to 1926) and correspondence on the status of Zoology in India and unsatisfactory condition of Indian Museum, Calcutta
Leiper Robert Thomson (1881-1969) Reports as Helminthologist ...... ( Leiper has published a checklist of parasites in India in 1915).
Ross institute and the hospital for tropical diseases .....
Materials Ross institute advisor committee and the Indian branch.....
Dates 1876-1980s
Extent 25 boxes
Catalogue status - mixture of series level and items level description
Ronald Ross All the details are there as Ross joined LSHTM when shifted from India in 1902.
Patrik Manson I think Manson has not worked in India though he was instrumental in starting a medical school in China and another in Formosa prior participating in opening LSHTM .I have mentioned his name here being an important Parasitologist ( identified mosquito as intermediate host for filaria even prior to the work of Ross ) and also as he was closely associated with Ronald Ross.
The beauty of the archive is that it is not only describing the work done by the scientist for or in LSHTM but providing more details about his life history; so much so that there are diaries showing day to day entry, line sketches , and correspondence. In true sense, it appears historical documents of historical persons.
It's not that LSHTM is providing details only of past personalities but there is a site to know faculty of the institute . By logging the site, one gets all the details of the faculty member including his/her qualifications, field of work and details of publications . Thus you have a profile of all the faculty members by a click of mouse.
Obviously, the above information raised a curiosity in me if our Indian institutes are also following same or alike system ; if they are also maintaining archives and providing detailed profile of their faculty members, what's the use of this indianparasitologist blog when anyone can directly link the institute to know the details about any past or present scientist .
As LSHTM is more than 100 years old, we selected (12,13,14 August,2013,USA) following three institutes of India which are not only premium institutes but are also more than 100 years old :
1. INDIAN VETERINARY RESEARCH INSTITUTE -since 1860 www.ivri.nic.in
2. MADRAS VETERINARY COLLEGE -since 1903 www.tanuvas.tn.nic.in
3..INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE RESEARCH -since 1929 www.icar.org.in
Indian Veterinary Research Institute : The site is providing a link to know about the scientist as follows : Scientist Name
Division
Submit
When we entered the name of past faculty member (e.g. Dr S C Dutt ) with division (Parasitology) and submitted , it repeatedly showed " Please enter scientist name" .Presuming that the system may not have information about old faculty members, we entered name of the present faculty e.g. Dr P S Banerjee with division (Parasitology), the same repetition was recorded. Unfortunately , there is no other site where you can get details of their faculty members ( however, an adv of LinkedIn erupted claiming to join it for viewing profile of many ivri scientists ). Even if you go to the "Divisions" , there is no mention of past or present faculty member .
It may be important to know their Past Directors to appreciate work of this premier institute hence we clicked the site of Past Directors ; It began with mention of its first Director Dr A Lingard (1860-1907 ) followed by Col J D E Holmes (1907-1915).........Dr S Dutta (1947-1954) ,Dr L Sahai (1954-1957) ,Dr P G Pande (1958-1961)........Dr S P S Ahlawat (20.11.2006-17.02.2009) . Except mentioning the period of Directorship and a Photograph ,there is no other detail about any of these important personalities - thus you are completely ignorant about their age , previous and past assignments , qualifications and contributions made to their profession or any other personal details .
In the site of Present Vice Chancellor , it reveals "Page is under construction ".
In the " Research Milestones", there is a long list of outstanding achievements ( e.g. Development of Theileria schizont vaccine for theileriosis (1979) but without providing team of contributors of these achievements.
In " Honors and Awards " there is a list but without clarifying whether faculty is eligible for these awards or they have been won by its faculty. Name of any faculty member or time of award is also missing from the list .
Being a premier institute of 100 years old , every one will aspect a good number of book publications from the faculty ; the books are mentioned under "other publications" with beginning of the book "Animal Tuberculosis" showing year 1990 and continues thereafter ... Does it mean that books were not published by IVRI faculty prior to 1990 ? There is no information about author/editor of the book , page number ; neither it is clear whether the book is for a farmer , field veterinarian or its a reference book ; further , you can not confirm if other publishers have also published books of IVRI scientists ? In this age of e-book, is it sufficient information on the books, provided by this premier institute ?
Madras Veterinary College : This premier college is providing desired information including projects completed , in hand and important publications about its present faculty member minus date of birth . However, there is no link to get information about past vice chancellors of TANUVAS or past Principals/Deans of MVC , past faculty members or books published by them.
Indian Council of Agriculture Research :There appears some problem on official site of ICAR hence I have to gather information from other sites. Again, there is no information about its past Director Generals or their contributions. ICAR is a nodal agency and have instituted many national awards to encourage Agriculture research by the scientists and research scholars of the country . How much they care for their own awards is evident by absence of the lists of the awardee of any national award. As per guidelines the national professors , national fellows ,selected by ICAR, are the distinguished national scientists but ICAR has not published list of even these distinguished scientists on its website. ICAR spent a lot of national money in running many research schemes, national projects, all India coordinated research projects but any one is unable to know their achievements or important findings of these projects as there is no link to get such information.
It is sad that what should be existing in the official site of ICAR , a part of it is present in Wikipedia (partial list of some icar awards) . It is most disturbing that ICAR has not highlighted any where the important book of Dr M S Randhawa (1979) "A history of the ICAR 1929-1979 " published by ICAR, New Delhi which is an important document on ICAR and is free to download .
All these premier institutes of India, every one believes might be giving due credit to their meritorious students /gold medalists in MVSc, Ph.D who are future scientists of the nation but it is far from truth ; this neglect can be gauged by not providing list of their gold medalists or Jawaharlal Nehru award winners , by any institute .
Being a premier institute of 100 years old , every one will aspect a good number of book publications from the faculty ; the books are mentioned under "other publications" with beginning of the book "Animal Tuberculosis" showing year 1990 and continues thereafter ... Does it mean that books were not published by IVRI faculty prior to 1990 ? There is no information about author/editor of the book , page number ; neither it is clear whether the book is for a farmer , field veterinarian or its a reference book ; further , you can not confirm if other publishers have also published books of IVRI scientists ? In this age of e-book, is it sufficient information on the books, provided by this premier institute ?
Madras Veterinary College : This premier college is providing desired information including projects completed , in hand and important publications about its present faculty member minus date of birth . However, there is no link to get information about past vice chancellors of TANUVAS or past Principals/Deans of MVC , past faculty members or books published by them.
Indian Council of Agriculture Research :There appears some problem on official site of ICAR hence I have to gather information from other sites. Again, there is no information about its past Director Generals or their contributions. ICAR is a nodal agency and have instituted many national awards to encourage Agriculture research by the scientists and research scholars of the country . How much they care for their own awards is evident by absence of the lists of the awardee of any national award. As per guidelines the national professors , national fellows ,selected by ICAR, are the distinguished national scientists but ICAR has not published list of even these distinguished scientists on its website. ICAR spent a lot of national money in running many research schemes, national projects, all India coordinated research projects but any one is unable to know their achievements or important findings of these projects as there is no link to get such information.
It is sad that what should be existing in the official site of ICAR , a part of it is present in Wikipedia (partial list of some icar awards) . It is most disturbing that ICAR has not highlighted any where the important book of Dr M S Randhawa (1979) "A history of the ICAR 1929-1979 " published by ICAR, New Delhi which is an important document on ICAR and is free to download .
All these premier institutes of India, every one believes might be giving due credit to their meritorious students /gold medalists in MVSc, Ph.D who are future scientists of the nation but it is far from truth ; this neglect can be gauged by not providing list of their gold medalists or Jawaharlal Nehru award winners , by any institute .
Any one who ventures on these official sites will develop the opinion how the scientists who devoted their whole life for bringing prestige of these institutes and also for advancement of science are neglected by their own institutes , and this becomes more glaring while comparing these sites with LSHTM. It is absolutely true that you can prosper , may compete with international institutes, only when you start caring your scientist and his contributions .By logging these Indian links,only neglect towards the scientists is apparent . From these sites, no one can assess how much a scientist , whether present or past, has contributed to his institute and to the science in his life time.
History tells us that more than 4000 years ago, Indus valley civilization developed in Indian continent which mesmerized the whole world. This is where the roots of Indian knowledge and wisdom begin. There was development in all fields ,Panini created a treatise on language, Chanakya explained Arthashastra , Aryabhatta made head ways in astronomy ,Brahmagupta introduced negative numbers and developed use of zero , Dhanavantri, Shalya, Ashwani Kumar developed new methods of treating human,animal ailments and propagated new hypotheses of health or Ayurveda . At that time, Europe, including United Kingdom , was in its nascent stage.
Every one knows that it is only during last 500 years when Europe made marvelous scientific discoveries and became pioneer in leading the world. During the same period, the Indian continent witnessed its fall and lost its old glory .
Now , we have entered in twenty first century and if we wish to regain our lost glory we have to pay utmost attention to our scientists who are the back bone for advancement of the nation . . This will be made possible only with encouragement and revamping our present knowledge system . In the present circumstances , we are merely witnessing the great difference between the two continents.
History tells us that more than 4000 years ago, Indus valley civilization developed in Indian continent which mesmerized the whole world. This is where the roots of Indian knowledge and wisdom begin. There was development in all fields ,Panini created a treatise on language, Chanakya explained Arthashastra , Aryabhatta made head ways in astronomy ,Brahmagupta introduced negative numbers and developed use of zero , Dhanavantri, Shalya, Ashwani Kumar developed new methods of treating human,animal ailments and propagated new hypotheses of health or Ayurveda . At that time, Europe, including United Kingdom , was in its nascent stage.
Every one knows that it is only during last 500 years when Europe made marvelous scientific discoveries and became pioneer in leading the world. During the same period, the Indian continent witnessed its fall and lost its old glory .
Now , we have entered in twenty first century and if we wish to regain our lost glory we have to pay utmost attention to our scientists who are the back bone for advancement of the nation . . This will be made possible only with encouragement and revamping our present knowledge system . In the present circumstances , we are merely witnessing the great difference between the two continents.
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