President's Message

Dear ASSET Life Members,

Greetings!!

As you are aware, separation science is one of the most important as well as most widely used areas of science and technology penetrating almost all branches of science and many of engineering. From a chemist's view point, separation is indispensable in research involving organic, inorganic and analytical chemistry. Separation science and technology is used for process development in broad engineering areas such as metallurgy, chemical engineering and find relevance in technologies associated with the manufacturing / refining of paints, rubber, plastic, oil, pharmaceuticals, etc. Physical separations are routinely used in metallurgy. For the recovery of metal ions from ores, physical processes such as sieving, filtration, magnetic separations, etc. are used while leaching and hydrometallurgy are part of chemical separations. Some of the processes relevant for environmental protection include remediation of industrial effluents using separation techniques such as flocculation, precipitation, sorption and membrane based separations. It involves inputs from researchers working in laboratories and at plant sites of the industries mentioned above

From the point of view of nuclear industry, separation science is involved at many stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. Though the main processes in the front as well as back end of the nuclear fuel cycle are almost unchanged, there are continuous R&D efforts to improve the waste management strategy over the years which includes the evolving strategy of ‘wealth from waste’ for the recovery of radionuclides for societal applications. A huge sum is being spent by the European Union for this purpose. In India also, lots of effort is being put by the researchers to develop new and effective methods. The Association of Separation Scientists and Technologists (ASSET) provides an appropriate platform for interactions amongst Scientists and Engineers from DAE as well as non-DAE organizations including researchers from industries. The scientific activities of ASSET include organizing the biennial symposium on Separation Science & Technology (SESTEC) and theme meetings and seminars. ASSET encourages young researchers by giving best presentation prizes and also sponsors prizes for best Ph.D and M.Tech. Thesis works which was started in collaboration with Thermax Ltd, now termed as the “Thermax — ASSET” Award. There is also an Award for senior scientists instituted in the memory of Late Dr. Priyanath Pathak for their contributions to the area of separation science.

In our journey, we had the support of many seniors and younger colleagues through the past two decades. We are privileged to have supports of great visionaries such as Prof. M.M. Sharma, Dr. A. Kakodkar, Dr. S. Banerjee, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Prof. J.B. Joshi, Prof. G.D. Yadav and Prof. A.B. Pandit and others. I am thankful to former presidents of ASSET such as Dr. V.K. Manchanda, Dr. K.L. Ramakumar, Dr. B.S. Tomar, Dr. P.K. Pujari, and other senior office bearers such as Dr. T.G. Srinivasan, Dr. N. Sivaraman, Dr. C.P. Kaushik, and Dr. S. Kannan. I am thankful to Dr. S. Jeyakumar, Vice-President, ASSET and Dr. A.C. Deb, Secretary, ASSET and other EC members for their untiring efforts for establishing ASSET as a professional scientific body for separation scientists and technologists.

ASSET has been trying to promote separation science and technology and I need your support and suggestions for carrying it forward.