Researchers from the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Toronto's York University are currently touring India on a mission to establish key partnerships and collaborations with Indian research organizations and educational institutions, wrote Mumbai's The Hindu Business Line Feb. 27. The delegation of 12 researchers is visiting several top-tier universities and institutes across the country such as the IITs at Chennai and Mumbai, the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the University of Kolkata, to name a few.

The key mandate for these meetings is to enable researchers from York University and from across India to establish joint bilateral research and developmental projects. York University, the third largest university in Canada, is the country's leading interdisciplinary research and teaching institution with an academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide.

Leader of the delegation is Janusz Kozinski, dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering, and professor in York’s Department of Earth & Space Sciences & Engineering. Among others, Kozinski's brainchild is an anti-terrorism project evocatively called eWAR (Early Warning & Advance Response) system that seeks to detect, quantify and initiate an effective response to chemical and biological agents released in public buildings.

In a special interview to Business Line during his visit to this newspaper office in Mumbai despite a hectic schedule, Kozinski shared for the benefit of readers the mission's objectives, research priorities, funding and related matters:

Kozinski: India is one of our three focal points. We want to engage in projects with practical social applications. Specifically, we are looking at, among other areas, space science which would cover micro and nano satellites to carry communications tools. Our focus would also be atmospheric monitoring to study global warming and climate change.

Also, we are keen to develop partnerships in the field of biotechnology for healthcare; analyse propagation of infectious diseases – their origin, spread, control and eradication through bio-sensors.

We firmly believe in creating value and sharing it with the society. Where societal benefits are involved, I am somewhat wary of creating barriers like intellectual property rights and so on. We want the society at large to benefit from our research.

Republished courtesy of YFile – York University’s daily e-bulletin.