If you and any of your colleagues are interested in arts and paintings, do come to attend the talk.


Professor Richard Ernst, NL, will deliver a Public Lecture on Monday, January 22, 2007. The details are as under:

Title: Science and Heritage: Analysis and Conservation
The Example of Tibetan Painting Art

Speaker: Prof Richard R. Ernst, NL
Laboratorium fr Physikalische Chemie
ETH Hnggerberg HCI
8093 Zrich, Switzerland

Date Monday, 22 January 2007 at 5 .p.m.
Homi Bhabha Auditorium, TIFR, Mumbai 400005

Abstract
Tibetan Painting Art, is closely related to the urgency of preserving cultural heritage. Cultures are our roots. Culture is where we are at home, and it is not only science that fills our hearts, even when we are spending days and nights in our beloved laboratories. Losing our roots means losing our sense in life.

The Tibetan culture has undergone major destruction by ruthless politicians during the Cultural Revolution and before. Most of the monasteries and much of the art have been eradicated. But also today, there are enemies to the preservation of cultural heritage: mainly our profit-oriented monetary thinking. It is one of our academic obligations to actively help preserving our treasures

Richard Ernst's personal encounter with Tibetan art and culture was purely accidental, but it significantly enriched his life through collecting, studying, analyzing, and restoring Tibetan paintings. It brought him into contact with a fascinating culture that opened his eyes to a different world.

The speaker will try to transfer his personal excitement to the audience, hoping that it will be contagious. He will show that science is of great value in the process of conserving ancient art.
\nAbout the speaker
Richard Ernst, Swiss researcher and teacher was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1991 for his development of techniques for high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Ernst's refinements made NMR techniques a basic and indispensable tool in chemistry and also extended their usefulness to other sciences.\n

The lecture is open to all