Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, a facility of Department of Atomic Energy in the city, is unlikely to conduct summer courses for budding scientists this year due to coronavirus outbreak in the country.
RRACT runs two short-term courses viz Orientation Course on Accelerators Lasers and related Science and Technologies (OCAL) and Young Scientist Research Programme (YSRP) for students from engineering and science background every summer.
These two eight-week courses commence in May and continue to July.
This year, the YSRP was to commence on May 11 and continue till July 3 whereas OCAL was to begin on May 18 and continue till July 10.
The online registrations for YSRP were over on March 15 whereas registrations for were to be held till March 30.
The Centre had suspended registration process for OCAL before the deadline arrives citing outbreak of coronavirus in the country.
Now, the Centre has signalled at not holding the courses this year due to spread of coronavirus. “Covid-19 is playing havoc in the country. Currently, the lockdown is going on in the country to check Covid cases. It won’t be a wise idea to invite students to RRCAT for any academic activity and put their lives at stake. We may release a notification soon informing cancelling this year’s programme,” an officer of RRCAT said wishing anonymity.
Every year, students from across the country participate in the programmes offered by the prestigious Centre, which played an important role in discovery of God Particle.
It is a dream for engineering and science background students to participate in these two summer residential courses. But this year, they may not be able to realise their dreams.
