"It is my brief and pleasant duty to welcome you all to the 'ground-breaking' event of the ICTS campus. It has been a long journey from the idea of the ICTS that was simmering since the end of Strings 2001 and which finally took shape around 2007 when we began our program activities.

The ICTS is conceived to promote excellence in research within an interdisciplinary setup, to foster interactions among scientists by organizing programs and long term visits and growing a graduate and post-doctoral program in an environment where 'science is one story’ without boundaries.

The search for a campus site for ICTS was a trying process and we, mainly Avinash and I, went exploring to Pune, IIT Powai, Mysore, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Bangalore was the best choice given the presence of NCBS and CAM both Centres of TIFR, and other institutions like the Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

The Govt of Karnataka has gifted this land. Thanks to Prof CNR Rao who strongly recommended that India needs an institution like the ICTS and it would be viable if it is in Bangalore which has a rich and vibrant academic eco-system.

We have had a lot of fun interacting with our architects Venkatamanan and Associates (VA) in creating the architectural design. Prof David Gross, Chair ICTS International Advisory Board, had cautioned me about the architect’s propensity to come up with grand designs! However the ICTS core team and our project management team from DAE’s DCSEM worked with VA to arrive at a design that is aesthetic and at the same time functional.

Now the main task of DCSEM and JMC (the construction company) is to execute the architectural design with precision and form conforming to international standards. We hope that JMC will build a campus that will make ICTS an attractive place for work and international visitors. The international community is waiting to come to ICTS by the end of 2014!

A milestone like the one we have reached is only possible with the combined effort of the TIFR, the TIFR Council, the DAE, the AEC and finally but not the least the staff of ICTS."

For pictures of ground-breaking event, please click here