Coimbatore, April 13
Almost all in the country know about Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. But very few know that two girls from this textile city of south India have also done the country proud by having two planets named after them.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has named two minor planets in the solar system after two engineering students P. Senthalir and S. Sharanya when they were only in class XI for their contribution to science.
“At first we could not believe that solar planets have been named after us and that too by a prestigious institution like the MIT,” said the duo.
After winning the national science talent competition in Bangalore they were invited to take part in a science competition in the USA. At the 2003 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, both of them received the fourth grand award and a special award of $ 500 each.
“We were thrilled and excited as we met many Nobel laureates there,”
they said.
After they returned to India an e-mail from the Lincoln Laboratory, MIT, informed them that a minor planet numbered 17,091 was named after Senthalir and another planet numbered 17,092 has been named after Sharanya in recognition of their achievements at the USA science fair.
So, what was their project which fetched them this rare honour?
They presented a research paper on “suppression of branching pattern in eucalyptus trees.” They proved in their thesis that growth could be suppressed using neem oil.
With Senthalir’s father Dr. M. Paramathma, head of bio-fuel research at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University as their guide, the two girls performed the experiment in three stages. In the first stage, lateral branches of select trees were pruned and a solution of neem oil applied on leaf axles.
In the second stage, the regenerated branches were again pruned and neem oil applied and in the final stage, the apical shoots were topped and treated with 100 per cent neem oil. They said, “We found out during our tests that
higher the concentration of the neem oil, higher the suppression of the growth. We also found out that in neem oil, a chemical called “azadirachtin”, played a major part in the suppression of growth.”Both the final year students of IT in engineering institutes here plan to go to the USA for higher studies and to return to India and join the IT industry instead of staying back like most of the Indian students.
“We are Indians at heart and would like to come back where our roots are. We hate junk food like burgers, pizzas and carbonated drinks and instead prefer fruits and butter milk. It is the lure of advanced scope in science which attracts us to the USA and we are preparing for the GRE along with our final engineering examinations,” said Senthalir and Sharanya.
The two young women aged 21 years plans to set up their own IT business after completing their post-doctoral research in the USA, return to India and gain some experience in the IT industry.
What about marriage? “The thought has never occurred in our mind yet,” they replied in unison.
