Be it be the Earth's comfort blanket (or) the vital ingredient of human breath (or) an important component of various life cycles on earth (or) the transporter of water around the earth, replenishing lakes, rivers and waterways (or) the key player in carbon recycling (or) a medium for sound propagation (or) the cause of a blue sky (or) its role in fall of rain and snow, air was the savior of humans from the time immemorial. Air also is a home for many microbes (Earth born and Alien species) and is instrumental in their propagation across the continents causing many air-borne diseases. The aspects and prospects of Aerobiology and its relevance in human health were explored in this workshop entitled “The art of living with microbes in air: Human Health” by Professor Kesaraju Seeta RamChander Rao at the Department of Applied Sciences on 24-04-2018 from 9:30 am to -10:30 am at the Room, M-315 as a part of the HCT, Staff Development Program for the academic year 2017-18.

Professor Kesaraju Seeta RamChander Rao was introduced to the audience by Dr. C. Rama Chandra Prabhu, Head of the Staff Development committee. Professor Rao started his research on the Microbiology of the Atmosphere in the year 1982, after completing his Post-Graduation in Botany. His “three and half decades of sustained interest in Aerobiology” gave him a Doctoral degree with gradual growth in the academic ranks starting from the Assistant to Associate and finally to a full Professorship with approximately two dozens of International and national publications in various peer reviewed journals, thirty invited talks on reputed platforms and one major research project from “Indian Council of Medical research”. He chaired several scientific sessions at various national and international conferences. He visited “Sweden, Germany and USA” as a research scholar and was also awarded the prestigious “Young Scientist Award” from “Department of Science and Technology of Government of India” in the year 1988. He is a Life Member of the Indian Aerobiological Society, Indian Institute of Botany,  International Association for Aerobiology, Indian Phycological Society, an executive committee member, of  Vasundhara 'The Earth' and an active member of the “Pan American Association for Aerobiology“. He is working as a faculty member in the Applied Biology Section of the Department of Applied Sciences of HCT from 2014 till date.

Professor Rao started his workshop by presenting the distribution of species through kingdoms and gradually presented the ways for the human beings to live with the microbes. He then explained the concepts of Aerobiology and the air sampling methods by using the different tools. The presentation on the spreading of several important diseases on a continental or global scale was very catchy.  His explanation about the indoor air pollution was an eye-opener for many of the participants, because of the wrong notion that home is highly secured and is free of pollution.  The information presented by Dr. Rao on the lifestyle of Americans, spending 90% of their lives living indoors, had shown the importance of air pollutants. He had thrown light on the sick building syndrome, which was a very useful information for be all the participants. Dr. Rao concluded the workshop by explaining the theory of Panspermia as proposed by Richter (1865), Lord Kelvin (1894) and Arrhenius (1903) and presented their view that reproductive bodies of living organisms can exist throughout the universe and develop wherever the environment is favorable.

The question and answer session was lively and Dr. Prabhu appealed to all the participants from the various departments for having research partnerships, so that collective ideas can be used in producing marketable products from HCT. Professor Rao thanked the Head of the Department of Applied Sciences, Dr. Mohammed Ali Oueslati, the Head of the section of Applied Biology Dr. Afraa Said Al-Adawi and the head of staff development committee Dr. C. Rama Chandra Prabhu for providing the platform to share his ideas. Dr. Prabhu thanked the Deanship on his behalf and also on behalf of the HoD and the DC for providing an opportunity to the Applied Sciences Department for conducting this workshop as a part of the HCT, Staff Development Program for the academic year 2017-18.

This activity was conducted by department of applied sciences in order to meet the partial requirements of Goal-5 of the strategic plan.

WRITTEN & DOCUMENTED BY:
Dr. C. Rama Chandra Prabhu

PHOTOS CREDIT:
Mr. Ronaldo Silverio
Dr. Pankaj Sah