Climate, Water, and Justice in Bangladesh
Thomas Harun Hodgman’s keynote speech at the Dhaka Reporters Unity on the climate crisis in Bangladesh, the Buriganga River, and the work of Dr. Rash B. Ghosh and the IIBHB.
Who We Are
The IIBHB was cofounded by Dr. Rash B. Ghosh, a Bengali-American scientist, Professor Glenn T. Seaborg, the 1951 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and Professor Charles H. Townes, the inventor of the laser, the 1964 Nobel Laureate in Physics, and the recipient of the Tagore Award (1999) and the Templeton Prize (2005). Dr. Ghosh earned his PhD in hydrology under the direction of Professor William Kershaw at the University of Manchester in Great Britain, and during the 1980s he was introduced to the works of Rabindranath Tagore by his friend and advisor Linus Pauling, the 1954 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Laureate. Since 2008, Dr. Ghosh has been the Charles H. Townes Chair Professor of Water and Environmental Chemistry.
Solutions
The HydroGrameen Model
HydroGrameen, formerly known as the Bengal Basin Working Model, involves injecting fresh, clean water to replenish depleted aquifers in a safe way to protect the world’s most invaluable resource, water.
Featured
Archive
A Discussion with Richard Saykally on HydroGrameen
UC Berkeley chemist Richard Saykally talks with IIBHB cofounder Rash B. Ghosh about Charles Townes, his water research, desalination, and HydroGrameen. He also joins the IIBHB.
Wishing Charles Townes a Happy 99th Birthday
Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman welcomes the fifth Townes and Tagore symposium on the water crisis in India and salutes Charles Townes on his 99th birthday.
How Advances in Science Are Made
Nobel Laureate Douglas Osheroff takes a light-hearted tour of great advances in science, from Copernicus and superconductivity to MRI, the maser, and the transistor, and of how they have changed our lives, including the burning of coal that is warming our planet.
Tagore and our Search for Solutions
Professor Charles H. Townes’s keynote speech at our 2013 seminar
Revisiting the Convergence of Science and Religion
Neuroscientist David Presti revisits Charles Townes’s 1966 article “The Convergence of Science and Religion.” He argues that science is ready for a new revolution in how we see connection in nature and in the mind, and that this can give us the ethics to meet the water crisis.
The Poetry of Light: Charles H. Townes, Rabindranath Tagore, and the IIBHB
Now in its third year, the Townes and Tagore Seminar is at once a celebration and a call to action.
What Science Can and Should Do: Rabindranath Tagore and a Vision for our Planet
Professor Charles H. Townes’s keynote speech at the 2012 Townes and Tagore Seminar on the Global Water Crisis.
