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America at 250 — The need for institutional transformation

July 4 2026 marked 250 years of USA’s independence. In 250 years the USA has become the most prosperous nation in the world. It has created new scientific disciplines—electrical,aeronautical,semiconductor and taken existing classical sciences —thermodynamics ,mechanics as well as material engineering to new heights. It has done this while fighting colonialism, famines,civil unrest, the great depression, 2 world wars and numerous other global shocks any one of which would have been enough to end the strongest of empires.  Regardless of what its critics may say, what the USA has achieved is no small feat. It has accomplished what many considered to be impossible several times in the 250 years since it gained freedom. These achievements are most certainly a cause for celebration.  The world has changed dramatically in the last few decades and geopolitically new challengers have arrived on the global stage to shape the world according to their ideologies. This changing...
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From castings to composites — can Al manufacturers help disrupt the carbon industry?

Aluminium is one of the most important industrial materials renowned for being as light as ceramics despite having a metallic character. It possesses high thermal conductivity,excellent reflectivity and electrical conductivity that is higher than steel making it a direct competitor to iron and its alloy systems.  Globally the Al market is valued at ~$180B with 72 Million Tonnes of Al produced annually. India is the world's second largest producer at 4.2 M tonnes of annual production and $12 B of market value. Aluminium being important both technologically and economically I was glad to attend the conference organised by Aluminium casters association of India and learn about what new technical and business innovations are being planned for this metal.  I was excited to learn that the industry leaders have recognised applications beyond the automotive and packaging sector. Because of its high electrical conductivity one of the most lucrative non automotive applicatio...
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A discussion on electron sticking coefficient of dielectrics and some potential applications of dusty plasmas

It was a great learning experience for me to hear from researchers Franko Greiner and Franz Xaver Bronold of Kiel University and University of Greifswald respectively about the new model they have developed to measure the sticking coefficient of low energy electrons.  When an insulating material is placed in a stream of electrons it acquires surface charge. For low energy electrons this charge is negative as they lack energy to cause electron emission from the dielectric surface. In this presentation researchers  Franko and Franz demonstrated a highly creative method of measuring the number of electrons that remain trapped on the dielectric surface.  Their method was to suspend dust particles inside the plasma sheath causing them to levitate as they acquire charge. On these charged particles when an oscillating electric field was applied it resulted in the oscillation of the particle itself. The resulting oscillation of the particle was captured by high speed cameras. Thr...
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Combustion Science: Adapting to a Changing Energy Landscape

Yesterday at the biennial meeting of the Combustion Institute President Hai Wang outlined some of the achievements and challenges facing the organisation.  As a non profit initiative the CI has been highly successful in organising the scientists working in the field of combustion giving them a platform to publish their findings as well as exchange ideas during in person meets and symposiums.  Even as the focus shifts towards electrification, combustion science remains important and this was reflected in the membership of CI which grew to 10 thousand and the number of papers published which crossed the 1.2 thousand figure mark indicating healthy activity.  CI has managed to remain cash flow positive which enabled it to function as an independent organisation. This is a significant achievement for a non profit as it generally has to depend upon donations for its financial health. Being cash flow positive has allowed the CI to maintain its research integrity.  As Presid...
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Congratulatory note to Mr. Lorne Doerkson on being elected as the next Premier of British Columbia

After nearly 100 years British Columbia will form a conservative government. To say that this is a historic moment would be an understatement. As premier Eby exits the administration , BC finds itself at crossroads. Its relations with its neighbour and biggest trading partner are at an all time low. Its strategy for economic growth seems to be too heavily reliant on raw material export (natural gas and minerals including rare earths) putting it in direct competition with nations who can offer the same exports at a lower price.  Despite being a province that generates 98% of clean electrical energy, BC has remained a service based economy which not only limits its potential but also creates severe problems with differentiation especially in an era where service sectors are going to be impacted by AI.  A massive 29% of BC population is made up of immigrants that has caused the cost of living to go up. This was reflected in the elections as nearly 52% of the people didn't even bo...
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Hydrogen At Scale

Hydrogen remains one of the most exciting applications of clean , renewable energy. Its production has been demonstrated  on an industrial scale. Today the price of hydrogen is at an all time low of about $5/kg. That's a kilogram of fuel for about the price of a cold brew coffee. Yet green hydrogen has not been as successful as other fuels or alternative clean energy technologies like batteries.  This was among the main points of discussion at the conferences I attended in New Delhi and those organised online by Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the USA. One of the most important reasons for slow adoption of green hydrogen is simply the fierce competition it faces from Non Renewable fuels that are so cheap that it makes even a small price of $5/Kg look expensive.  One solution was proposed during the presentation of GenH2 where they suggested using decommissioned oil wells to produce H2 in situ using gasification (a combination of water gas reforming a...
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The vision of universal access to space

This summer I had the opportunity to meet Candace Johnson, a pioneer in space communication systems. She co-founded and grew SES (Société Européenne des Satellites) into one of the largest satellite fleets in the world. SES is significant because it represents one of the early attempts at privitisation of the space sector along with Intelsat. Prior to this space was exclusively controlled by the government and was confined to mostly research and military operations.  Led By Candace SES provided Direct To Home satellite and radio broadcast services that democratised information access to millions of citizens in Europe and in the rest of the world. Listening to her speak about how this sector evolved and broke free from the control of the government I was able to connect the dots on how telecommunication became the primary business model of the space industry.  Historically speaking the evolution of satellites from the initial Low earth orbits to medium earth and geo...
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