The month of November saw the launch of a training program for young chemists at ProCitius. The course titled “A Practical Course in Synthetic Organic Chemistry”, is designed and delivered by inhouse PhD faculty keeping in mind relevance to the practical challenges chemists at ProCitius face in the laboratory during their day to day work.
The overarching principle is to deliver training that reinforces and extends the academic MSc curriculum to an industrial laboratory context.
Twelve students were chosen from among the most recent recruits to attend the course of 19 one hour lectures over an 8 week period.
The course is designed to promote classroom discussion and interaction, as well as study outside the classroom.
Both students and faculty will be evaluated for their learning and performance in the course.
Commenting on the experience, Dr Swaminathan Subramaniam, Chief Executive, who has also donned the mantle of course director said: “This is the first time we are attempting this and it is a gratifying experience, so far. We have a pool of internationally trained PhD scientists on our staff
and their experience and knowledge is being leveraged by imparting training to these young and eager chemists. Everyone, including the faculty, benefit from this interaction and a culture of learning and innovation is promoted, as a result.”
Dr Hemant Joshi, the Faculty Coordinator, spoke on behalf of the other faculty members when he said, “The youngsters are very bright and are not afraid to challenge the faculty. This keeps everyone on their toes.” The students were also uniformly appreciative of the opportunity to learn and grow, even while they worked full-time.
Kankana Barua, Hemant Joshi and Swaminathan Subramaniam with the trainees