Inauguration of Geo-Environmental Research Laboratory by Prof Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University along with Dr. Debabrata Das (Lab Incharge) Prof Ashu Khosla (Chairperson, Department of Geology) and Dr. Parveen Goyal (Senator).
Geo-environmental research laboratory is funded by the Ministry of Coal, Government of India, New Delhi under the project entitled
“Assessment of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and other economic resources in Coal & Non-Coal Strata and Characterization of Acid Mine Drainage and its pollution control from the North Eastern Region (NER) Coalfield, India”.
Dr. Debabrata Das is the Principal Investigator of the above Project and is Assistant Professor at the Department of Geology, Panjab University. Total Sanctioned amount in the project is of Rs. 3.62 crore).
The above project is about the Exploration of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from North East Indian states and different coal basin in India. Rare Earth Elements are very much needed for our national energy security, green energy technology, State of the Art production and Steps towards Self-Reliant India.
The lab Facilities include highly sensitive instruments such as Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrophotometer (ICP-MS) along with the Microwave Digestor System for the analysis of all the elements in any kind of samples (geological, biological and any environmental materials) up to trace and ultra-trace level.
The broad vision of the laboratory is to support the interdisciplinary research by providing the facility of trace & ultra-trace element analysis of international standard for any kind of samples to both the internal (Panjab University) and external users (all over India) in the form consultancy/sustainable manner.
Workshop was organized at the same day of inauguration ceremony entitled
“Trace Element Analysis of Geological, Biological, and Environmental Materials by ICP-MS: An Exposure, Challenges and Recent Trends” in collaboration with Agilent Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
Total 82 no. of participants (Research Scholars, Assistant Professor, Professor, Scientists) have enrolled for the workshop from various organizations (GSI, PEC, INST, CSIO-CSIR, Directorate of Food Civil Supplies-HP) of India covering various states (Chandigarh (UT), Panjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh) along with the eight departments of Panjab University.
