History And Milestones
2000-2009
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NCL marks the Golden Jubilee of its founding on January 3, 2000. The occasion is graced by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister of India and Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, Minister for Science and Technology, Government of India.
- NCL creates several physical infrastructure in its campus. A new building to house the digital information resources of NCL is built in 2003. This building also functions as the IT hub for NCL. Major investments are made to make NCL's function fully IT-enabled. Several service oriented activities at NCL are designated as Resource Centers. The Sophisticated Instrumentation Laboratory is re-designated as Center for Materials Characterization.
- NCL forges strong public-private-partnership in the areas of utilization of waste agricultural biomass as a resource for fuels, chemicals and materials for a fossil fuel deficit world and R&D in the area of alternative energy sources (Fuel cells).
- NCL begins the creation of a strong scientific group on advanced materials including nano-materials; integrating biology, chemistry, physics and engineering. Two Centers of Excellence, namely, Scientific Computing and Microreactor Engineering are established to pursue interdisciplinary research cutting across Divisions. A close partnership between NCL and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology is formally established in the form of a joint research initiative to promote research in the area of chemistry and biology. NCL becomes a major center for Ph.D. research in chemical and life sciences.
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NCL's expertise in polymer science, especially in the area of membranes and porous polymers lead to innovation in applications, namely, nano-filtration for drinking water free of virus and bacteria, new high temperature membranes for fuel cells, polymers for enzyme immobilization and adsorbent materials and biomedical polymers for ocular implants.
- NCL successfully transfers several technologies from the laboratory to industry. These include, proprietary processes for the manufacture of THPE, ATBS, epichlorohydrin, recovery of cellulose from bio-mass and chiral active pharmaceutical intermediates.
- A new Resource Center called the "NCL Innovations" is created to promote synergistic and productive relationship between business enterprises and NCL with a clear focus on innovation and technology development for value creation.
- NCL floats a company under Section 25 of the Companies Act called "Entrepreneurship Development Center" to manage a technology business incubator. A separate 25 acres campus to house the NCL Innovations as well as the Entrepreneurship Development Center is developed which includes offices, lecture rooms, library, cafeteria and ready to use modular laboratories.
- CSIR donates 98 acres of green field land in NCL campus to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune to build its permanent campus. NCL gives birth to IISER in Pune which commences operation from NCL campus in August 2006. NCL and IISER-Pune are collocated on adjacent campuses building a strong synergy between teaching and research.
- Dr. S. Sivaram, Head of Polymer Chemistry Division of NCL assumes office as the eighth Director of NCL (2002 - 2010).
