Khagol Bulletin # 131

satellites around him, and his absence is the most significant loss the Kerala astronomy community has ever had to undergo. During his tenure, Kerala astronomy flourished to a self-sustaining status, and over 300 workshops and training programs were organised at state, national, and international levels. K Indulekha, Vinu Vikram, Minu Joy and several others from MG University, V.C. Kuriakose, Vivek M, Tharanath, Nijo, etc. from CUSAT, B.R.S. Babu, C D Ravikumar and many others from Calicut University have all contributed to the spread of astronomy research in the state. Of the various programmes taken up during the International Astronomy Year 2009, a significant outreach activity to village schools in the Idukki district of Kerala under the label "Sasthragramam" was carried out by Joe Jacob and Ravi Pillai (Newman College, Thodupuzha) in collaboration with the social organisation for the upliftment of women, "Kudumbasree". They conducted a sequence of programs and competitions for the students. The final round of twenty students who topped in these programs were brought to IUCAA, where they interacted with faculty members and research students and visited various facilities like the IGO, GMRT, etc. This was an unforgettable experience for the leaders and the children. The Kerala story does not end by organising workshops and training programs to create human resources. It has also contributed to the national and international research i n a s t r o n o m y , c o s m o l o g y a n d astrophysics. When this collaboration published the machine learning tool for star-galaxy classification in 2002, fewer than half a dozen use cases for AI were reported in astronomy and astrophysics. However, on average, more than a dozen papers using these techniques now appear Nijo Varghese (S H College, Chalakudy) and R Tharanath (Aquinas College, Kochi) and their group continue the legacy of telescope building, astrophotography, and astronomy outreach programs in memory of V.C. Kuriakose in and around central Kerala. They procured a telescope in 2020 that is used specifically for this purpose under the banner of the Astronomical Society of Kerala (ASK). During his PhD, Vinu Vikram (Central University, Kasaragode) developed a pipeline called Pymorph, which is widely used by the astronomy community n o w a d a y s t o d i s c o v e r G a l a x i e s ' morphological and structural parameters. He used it to extract the parameters of the galaxies in the Hubble space telescope and SloanDigital Sky Survey. A notable contribution of the IUCAA collaboration was the discovery of the Galaxy Supercluster Saraswathi by Joe Jacob et al., under the leadership of Joydeep Bagchi, which received worldwide attention. The models developed for astronomy research have also been extended to other fields. The Pune Knowledge Cluster, the IUCAA associateship, and the High- Performance Computing Facility at IUCAA deserve honourable mention in these aspects. Papers in reputed journals like Nature for Protein Particle Picking from CryoEM images, behavioural studies of insects, morphological alterations in macrophages, etc., in collaboration with daily in archives. Another outcome of this collaboration is that the Quasar catalogue published by Sheelu Abraham et al. could correctly predict more than 99% of the quasars detected in 2012 and is over 96% accurate even today. This is despite the ten-year development in technology and learning models. The collaboration has grown such that over the 28-plus years, several cutting-edge and advanced techniques for Image and spectral classifications using ground telescopes, Transient classification in LIGO detectors, application of Natural Language Processing for observatory maintenance, etc, were developed and applied by the group to astronomy research and beyond. International collaborations and bilateral projects spawn as natural outcomes of these collaborations. Researchers were involved in the Virtual Observatory project, LIGO, CRTS, SALT, SKA and many other international programs. The founding membership in the SKA India Consortium is just one example of the active participation of astronomers from the state in such collaborative programs. In the first picture, the other young boy is Joe Philip Ninan, who became a full-time astronomer and faculty member at TIFR, Mumbai. A name that should be associated with Joe's journey to astrophysics is that of the late Paul Kodiyan Thomas, HOD, Department of Physics and Electronics, CHRIST (Deemed to be University). Like V.C. Kuriakose, Paul Kodiyan Thomas played a pivotal role in cementing the foundation for astronomy research at Christ University, Bangalore. N a t i o n a l C e l l S c i e n c e s ( N C C S ) , collaborative projects with the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) for the use of Digital Twins for DME manufacturing plants, Solid Hydrogen Storage, etc., in which the author was also a participant would not have been possible without this collaboration. There are currently three IUCAA Centers for Astronomy Research and Development (ICARD) in Kerala at Newman College, Thodupuzha, Providence College, Calicut, and the Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and local IUCAA associate coordinate the activities there. Kerala Astronomy gradually matured, and since 2014, with the first independent gathering of Kerala Astronomers at MACFAST, Thiruvalla, it has continued every year with growing enthusiasm. Known as the Regional Astronomers Meet now, it also has its presence outside the state. The 9th meeting was conducted at the Manipal Center for Natural Science (MNCS) this year, where young researchers presented and discussed their work before a group of experts. Senior members from IUCAA, like Ranjeev Misra, Ajit Kembhavi, and several local associates of IUCAA, oversee the proceedings and mentor the youngsters. The Kerala success story continues. Two astronomy workshops conducted exclusively for female students at Alphonsa College, Palai, by Minu Joy and Mar Thoma College, Chungathara, by Sheelu Abraham, have motivated many aspiring female students to take up astronomy careers. Their journey itself stood as a significant motivation factor for many. With the retirement of many active | 061 | KHAG L | No. 131 - JANUARY 2024