2019-2020

Alchemia 2019-2020 was a special landmark event in the history of XAC. The fest was especially grand to celebrate the coinciding sesquicentenary of the Periodic Table and of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. This year, XAC Core-committee came out with its Official RnR. The leading feature of the events of this three-day long celebration were a series of fascinating guest lectures. To inaugurate it, the special edition of the annual XAC magazine, Elemental was released officially on January 15, 2020 by chief guest and distinguished speaker Dr. Arnab Bhattacharya, Professor, Department of Condensed matter Physics and Materials Science, TIFR, along with Dr. Rajendra Shinde, Principal, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and Marazban Kotwal, Head of the Department, Department of Chemistry, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. This was followed by by Dr. Bhattacharya’s extremely engaging lecture titled “Celebrating the Periodic Table”. The most fascinating feature of this session was the once in a life-time opportunity for students to see all the metals of the periodic table in person. The next talk was by Dr. Deepa Khushalani, Department of Chemistry, TIFR, Mumbai, ‘ Debunking the Myths of Nanoparticles and their applications’, another engaging session opening research avenues for many of the students. The final talk of this series was delivered by Dr. Shaibal K. Sarkar, Associate Professor, Department of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT, on ‘Understanding the Physics and Chemistry of Perovskite Solar Cells Stability”.

Other notable events of the fest included a photography contest “Frame it Right”, debate competition “War of Words”, treasure hunt “Dash for the Stashed Potash”, and quiz “Fact and Furious”. Participation of students from 15 colleges made these activities a marvellous success. The concluding ceremony was held in the evening of the final day, January 17, with the award and certificate distribution to the winners and participants.