Dr. Dinesh Agarwal, Director of the Microwave Processing and Engineering Center at Pennsylvania State University (USA), gave a series of talks hosted by the Amrita Center for International Programs between December 21^st and 26^th, 2015 at the Amritapuri, Ettimadai, and Kochi campuses. Dr. Agarwal gave 5 talks in total. He gave two talks to faculty members and research scholars at the Department of Physics and Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Amritapuri campus. One was titled Microwave Processing of Various Materials and Applications: An Overview and the other was Microwave Materials Processing in Separated Electric and Magnetic Fields. The former talk was also delivered to faculty, staff, and students from the Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Sciences, the Center of Excellence in Advanced Materials and Green Technologies, and the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Ettimadai campus. His final field related talk was given to faculty members and research scholars at the Amrita Center for Nanosciences, Kochi campus, titled Synthesis and Processing of Nanomaterials Using Microwave Energy.

Dr. Agarwal, however, was more than just a leading scientist and researcher in the field of Microwave Engineering. Through casual conversations and discussions with Amrita faculty and staff, Dr. Agarwal’s interest, grasp, and deep understanding of India’s cultural and spiritual history and its influence on the world emerged. Subsequently, he was requested to share his knowledge and proceeded to give an extemporaneous talk titled Contributions of Hindu Genius on Civilizations at the Amrita School of Engineering’s CIR department, Amritapuri campus, to a well attended audience of students and a few faculty from CIR. Dr. Agarwal was “overwhelmed by the students’ enthusiasm” and said it was “really remarkable to have spiritualistic thoughts in an institution.”