I am often asked “Whom do you
consider as your role model in Indian science?” I must say that as a scientist,
I was not fortunate enough to find any single individual as role model…A
personality whom I could just follow. Later in my life I realized that as we
grow older, our role models keep changing. It is also interesting that one’s
early childhood exposure has a profound influence on the future scientific
career. While during my school days, my eldest sister mentored me in maths, it
was my eldest brother who built in me the passion to solve puzzles. Little did
I know at that time that my scientific career will be full of solving the
puzzles of mysterious biological systems.
At the beginning of my scientific
career at Bangalore, I found Prof. V Sasisekharan as a role model. I remember
that as a student, I aspired to be like him and had his thesis as my guideline
of my PhD thesis. His thesis had a crystal structure of an amino acid in the
appendix and I managed to put a tripeptide crystal structure (published in JACS
subsequently) in the appendix of my thesis.
As an individual scientist, Prof. G. N Ramachandran’s
extraordinary brilliance, his ability to stand tall among international
scientists and clarity with which he could express his ideas on stage impressed
me. Hence GNR’s exuberant personality with imaginative creativity was a role
model as a scientist. I was also deeply impressed by the vigor and energy that Prof.
C.N.R Rao brought into institution building and his passion for science. During
the course of my scientific journey, I have followed many of his approaches in
institution building with focus on excellence.
While GNR and Sasisekharan were
needless to say my scientific role models, the scientific brilliance of Dr. Charles
Cantor, a biophysical chemist and his trajectory of science attracted my interest
and helped me focus on building a career which was different from both GNR and Sasisekharan.
Hence, while as a young student I looked upon Dr. Sasisekharan’s thesis as a
model, as a young faculty I followed the bio data of Charles Cantor and as a
mature scientist I admire the brilliance, imaginative power and enthusiasm of
GNR. However, I have always wanted to be
loved and admired by my students and colleagues and not respected out of fear. Later
during my scientific career, as a Director of an institute and as Director
General of CSIR, I had a single role model and that was Dr Satish Dhawan,
Founder of ISRO. I have followed him even
with the realization that he was the least rewarded and recognized scientist for
the outstanding contributions he made during his lifetime. Today ISRO has
reached Mars and has in place a master piece of precision engineering, being
able to successfully transmit radio signal to space, 200 million kms away,
while many of the major institutions in India struggle to establish a
successful video conference at merely 20 km distance. I am sure Satish Dhawan
is now remembered far more than ever before. According to me, Satish Dhawan
indeed is the ultimate level 5 leader of Indian Science who built lasting
institutions but was not duly recognized during his time. I consider him a
great role model, a scientific leader and an institution builder who is admired
by his colleagues and successors even today.
As I moved on as a scientist, with
a passion to build partnerships with industries to translate laboratory
research to market place, I found a new role model in Prof. M. M Sharma who has
followed Goddess Saraswati to reach Goddess Lakshmi. I profusely admire Prof.
M. M Sharma whose personal accomplishments I believe are unmatched, both in
terms of his outstanding scientific contributions being an FRS and for the rare
and distinct honor of creating extraordinary students, one a follower of
Saraswathi -Dr. R. A Mashelkar, an FRS himself and another a follower of
Lakshmi -Mr. Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian. He built an outstanding
institute – The Institute of Chemical Technology (earlier known as UDCT) in
Mumbai with least dependence on government funding for research. I always wish
I had known him earlier- a walking encyclopedia of chemistry and chemical
engineering. I also wish that he is looked up as a scientific role model among
the young Indian scientific community, for his accomplishments reach beyond the
so called indices we use often to measure scientists. It is indeed heartening
to note that The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), UK has instituted
a medal in his honor for the lifetime achievement of a chemical engineer- a
medal on which his photograph is embossed. This indeed is a rare distinction
for a humble scientist like him whose contributions to industry and academia is
extraordinarily high. I wish Indian
scientific community projects him and propagates his style of science and life as
a model for the future young Indian scientists to emulate. As Indian science needs tall scientific
leaders with the ability to translate their knowledge to industrial growth and
wealth generation, Prof. M. M Sharma is a unique role model for the next
generation scientists of India.
Hence during my lifetime, I created
a synthetic role model for myself as I progressed in my scientific career, using
the unique characteristics of individuals I much admired and could only emulate
a small fraction of the personalities of these great leaders of Indian Science.
SKBlog-09
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