Inamori Professor S. K. Sundaram writes his way out of the pandemic
S. K. Sundaram, Inamori Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Alfred University, keeps a busy schedule teaching ceramics, glass, and materials science and engineering and researching photon-matter interactions over visible to terahertz frequencies. Sundaram has found time—particularly over the last several months, during the COVID pandemic—to indulge in another of his passions: writing.
ALFRED, NY -- S. K. Sundaram, Inamori Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Alfred University, keeps a busy schedule teaching ceramics, glass, and materials science and engineering and researching photon-matter interactions over visible to terahertz frequencies. Sundaram has found time—particularly over the last several months, during the COVID pandemic—to indulge in another of his passions: writing.
Sundaram reveals he has been writing stories since he was a child growing up in Tamil Nadu, India, in the 1970s. From the childhood to adulthood, he says, his life was full of unique experiences and enriched senses. When the pandemic confined Sundaram to the village of Alfred village last year, his inner literary writer came to the rescue.
He has published three memoir-style pieces in The Alfred Sun under “Pandemic Escapes.” The first piece, entitled “Remembering The Banana Auction,” published on Nov. 5, 2020, was a first-hand account of a trip to a banana auction at the weekly market with his father. The second piece, entitled “Schooled in a Coal Town,” published on April 8, 2021, describes his elementary school experience in a small town called Neyveli in India. The third piece, entitled “Crow-Calling Before Harvest Feast,” published on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, is an account of a unique harvest festival ritual and experience in India.
Sundaram’s previous publications were stories and poems in magazines in the United States and India. His academic doppelgänger publishes his works in scientific journals.