Dear ISMAANA members:

It is a great pleasure for me to communicate with you as your Chairman. We are taking steps to assist our Alma Mater in a positive and impactful way. We, as the ISMAANA Executive Committee, have developed our goals and objectives for the next two years as given below:

1. Granting eight (8) scholarships at ISM and executing the scholarship program effectively in a sustainable manner – this program has been running well for the last two years.
2. Communicating effectively and often with our Alma Mater and the ISMAANA members located in North America – newsletters are being published regularly and we are working on our web system and/or joining other forms of social media to communicate with our members and ISM family worldwide.
3. Granting and administering faculty grants at ISM. This is to encourage the ISM faculty members to contribute significantly to teaching excellence at ISM.
4. Other items as considered pertinent by the ISMAANA members and the Executive Committee.

The ISMAANA Board has worked closely with ISM in executing the scholarship program. The ISM Director, Dr. D. C. Panigrahi, and our Executive Committee are pleased with this program.

I am very proud of the millennials like Dr. Deblina Sarkar, a 2008 graduate of ISM and a postdoctoral researcher in the Synthetic Neurobiology group at MIT. Her research aims to bridge the gap between nanotechnology and synthetic biology. She invented the world’s thinnest channel sub-thermal transistor which overcomes the fundamental power limitations of present technology. Through our newsletter, I am requesting our alumni, especially millennials, to actively participate in our ISMAANA activities through participation on the board, newsletter publication, connecting thru our members, collecting their e-mails and contact information, and fund raising. Anyone interested in participating in these roles should please feel free to contact me.

I sincerely thank our publishing editors of the newsletter. Please continue publishing it every quarter, as it serves a good means to keep abreast of various ISM and ISMAANA activities. I am also requesting our members to share the newsletter with others who may not be receiving it to encourage sign-up.

I encourage each one of you to prepare articles for publication in future newsletters. If you would like to share your ideas, particularly any items related to your ISM experience (like what Mr. Atul Kumar has done in this newsletter), please feel free to send to the editors of this newsletter. Also, if you have any feedback to enhance ISMAANA’s roles in assisting our Alma Mater, please send me an e-mail.

With best wishes to you and your family members,

Ganesh Thakur (Class of 1970 Petroleum Engineering),
ISMAANA Chairman/President
Director of Energy Industry Partnerships and Distinguished Professor of Petroleum Engineering
University of Houston, Texas
2012 SPE Intl. President
Former VP & Fellow – Chevron Technology
drganeshthakur38@gmail.com