Provi Magazine 2020-21

ADr. A. Sobha sity of Science and Technology as a Technical good companion shortens the longest Officer. road Later she resigned that job to join her husband While people know us as simply being in Calicut, who was working as a Physics facul- good colleagues at work, we know that we are ty at St. Joseph College Devagiri. more than that. The role you played in my life is When MSc Physics was sanctioned in Prov- monumental. I am grateful for the support and idence Women’s College in 1998, Dr Suman- guidance. I really appreciate it! gala joined as guest faculty. Her experience as Here is some information about my friend Dr. a researcher and technical officer was helpful Sumangala Dr. Sumangala completed her BSc for the new course. She also taught Physics in from SN College Cherthala and MSc from Co- KMCT Engineering College and NIT Calicut chin University of Science & Technology. After during 2002-2006. She returned to providence which she worked as Project Associate in an in 2006 and became an indispensable part of MHRD Project and later as CSIR Senior Re- the Department of Physics Dr. Sumangala was search fellow and took her Ph.D. from Cochin a passionate teacher, very much involved in University. After completing her Ph.D. in Ul- tracking the latest developments in the field of trasonic NDT, she joined STIC, Cochin Univer- physics research. She wanted her students to de- velop an enquiring attitude, a deep understand- ing of the concept, and all the more develop a scientific temper. She was a good experimental- ist, her skill matched with her untiring patience to repeat the experiments till the correct results were obtained , a model to be emulated by her colleagues and students. She could spend hours on experimental projects and was an investiga- tor in two major and two minor projects funded by the UGC and KSCSTE. She was the person who started the process of applying for CPE status, which our college acquired in 2016 and is now a Centre with Potential for Excellence. She also worked in coordination with the NAAC committee keep- ing all records up to date for the accreditation process. All this scientific work did not keep her away from other activities. She was the Stu- dent Administrator, Staff Association Secretary, the committee for computing the workload for charting the master timetable of the college. She was a close friend of mine from our NIT days onwards and was a pillar of support when I joined providence. I collaborated with her in many of the research projects, and her analytic mind and eye for detail have helped us to get many projects sanctioned. She was a friend in needy times, ready to help not only in college matters but also in our home affairs. She is a compassionate human being, loving nature, and its beauty. Dr. Sumangala has officially retired from active service, and now she is pursuing her other inter- est like music and gardening. Now she has all time to spend and manage as she likes and so I am sure we will be hearing many more success stories from this persistent experimenter. 50