Mangalore University's new facility - Centre for Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation Technology (CARRT) - will be inaugurated on February 23.
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Prof T.C. Shivashankara Murthy, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said that Dr Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), will inaugurate the facility.
He said that CARRT will provide the technical support and training for graduate and post-graduate students from biological sciences, medical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sciences through certificate courses and other educational programmes.
Summer and vacation courses for students of undergraduate science courses will be held to inspire them pursue higher studies in basic and applied sciences using radiation technology.
tailor-made programmes
Prof Murthy said this centre will also conduct tailor-made short-term training programmes to scientists and engineers from industries.
CARRT will also design and develop the syllabus on the application of radioisotopes and radiation technology suitable to introduce in different graduate and post-graduate courses.
nodal agency
It will also act as a nodal agency to facilitate research in areas that involve radiation and radioisotopes application.
He said that CARRT has been established in collaboration with Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) and Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT) of the Department of Atomic Energy, and signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU) with them.
Under the MoU, BRNS has provided Rs 3 crore to establish the centre.
The Mangalore University has spent Rs 60 lakh to establish the laboratories required for the centre according to the guidelines of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
Stating that scientists from BRIT and BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) have worked with the university in establishing the centre, Prof Murthy said this is the first of its kind amongst the Indian universities.