Interviews of February 2016

6.2.2016:
Dr. Pushkar Sharma: Scientist, National Institute of Immunology. Hails from a family of academicians from Bareily. Was and continues to be very interested in sports; still plays badminton regularly. Studied at Bareily College and it was during college days that his interest in science grew. Father a physics expert and mother a trained musician. Did research abroad. Research on molecular signalling pathways in malarial parasite. No successful vaccines as yet for malaria, only a variety of drugs to which the parasite has been developing resistance, which is why understanding signalling helps. Frankly says that his interest is in understanding signalling mechanisms, disease or no disease. Says he doesn't work on vaccines and is not interested in direct research on vaccine development, but is interested in study of other mechanisms which could help vaccine researchers. Identified on calcium signalling pathways used by the parasite. Funding needs to be increase and distribution of funds should be improved. Funding and accountability should go hand in hand. Good science always flourishes. Make science education more attractive - laments that many bright people study at top institutes like IITs but end up becoming bankers or non-science professionals. Always seek appreciation for good work, be it award or not award. Conferred SS Bhatnagar award in 2013. Thanks his team and students for the awards he has won; good team leads to excellent research.
Message: Follow your passion; don't shy away from science - it has tons of exciting problems to do research on.

IST: Conversation with Robi Damelin, member/posibly-founder of "Forgiveness project" in Israel.

13.2.2016:
Dr. Roop Malik: Associate professor, TIFR. Specialized in physics but now works largely on molecular biology. From Allahabad, growing up there broadened his mind. Mother was a school principal and father a engineer. Visting his father's mechanical engineering workplace inspired him later. Says he has fond memories of his first school; remembers falling asleep often in school! Initially didn't want to continue education in physics after masters and wanted to take up a job; attributes to the turbulent 1990s (Mandal comission effect etc.) his temporary loss of interest in taking up PhD. Eventually went on to do PhD (in TIFR?). After PhD in physics, which he enjoyed thoroughly, he slowly got interested in biology work going on in biology. His lack of knowledge in biology didn't discourage him - he spent a year learning basics of biology; lots of basic biology concepts had to be learnt post his PhD in physics. That he had done is PhD alone (no one else in his research lab for a long time) gave him confidence that he could switch to biology. Had a chance encounter with Steven Gross of UCI whom he says was a great mentor. Dr. Gross wanted to do research in biology and seemed to want someone who knew physics. Did research work on "motor" proteins. There are 3 classes of motor proteins. Dr. Malik focussed on the "dynein" class of motor proteins. Dynein motors have diverse functions. During his work with Dr.Gross he identified that these motor proteins work together in large numbers, function like a car and more importantly that they have a gear mechanism. Mentions that cholestrols have a role to play in clearing pathogens. Dynein motors are nanoscale machines. They use energy from ATP molecules. Dynein motors recognize tubules and take steps over tubulin protein polymers. Size of step varies depending on some factors. This movement can be viewed like cars moving over roadway.

Need more industry support for research to flourish. Message to younsters aspiring to become scientists: Expect from failures. Learn from failures and that will lead to success. If you want to do something difficult, especially in science, failures are very common but if one learns from those, success is achievable.

20.2.2016:
Dr. Shekhar C Mande: (Soft spoken, humble) Director, NCCS. Researcher on tuberculosis. Dr. Raza give a huge introductory talk on the impact of TB. Asia and Africa are most affected by TB; Europe and NA not impacted significantly. Dr. Mande says TB is a complex disease and places with higher population density are likely to have higher incidence. When asked why African countries that mostly do not have high population density are highly impacted, SCM says TB is correlated with other diseases, especially HIV and possibly diabetes, which are less prevalent in Europe, NA. BCG vaccine lilely to be more effective in Europeans than in people of other regions, as per "Madras (?) vaccine experiments/trials". SCM hails from a highly educated family, mother a French teacher, father a physicist. But there was no pressure from him parents to study. One of the top rankers in 12th standard; decided to take up physics, but had not decided on specialization within physics. Mentions something about solar eclipse of 1980 and some home experiment and cockroaches! Did research abroad but returned to India after that; again there was no pressure from parents to return. Says wanting to serve the country was the main reason for returning; cultural differences may have been another factor. Worked in DNA fingreprinting lab (which had actually diversified into other research areas by the time he joined) where he got interested in cell biology, biophysics and crystallography. Physics helped him to understand objectivity. Physicists (?) look into qualitative aspects. Says many leading biologists in India come from physics and chemistry backgrounds. This helped him in biology-related research. Schrodinger's book in fact inspired many people to take up biology. Interested in HSP 60 class of chaperones, a class of biomolecules/proteins that cause protein folding. Potential biological role of chaperone in TB. Eureka moment: Sommetime in 1991 when the team he was working for discovered the structure of some protein. Standard question: Should India increase expenditure on science research? Answer: Absolutely, since our problems should be solved on our own; other countries are not going to be interested in solving our country's problems. Funding needs to be increased almost ten-fold.

Message: Says he is not used to giving such messages! Follow pursuits that interest you. Nature poses lots of interesting questions; try to answer them.

IST: Conversation with Obiageli Ezekwesil, an African activist and co-founder of a movement tpo bring back school children kidnapped by Bokoharam in 2014. Talks very well! Formerly Minister of Education in Nigeria, and later member of some World Bank agency in Africa. That those children haven't been resuced yet is an open sore on the conscience of the world community, should not be forgotten. Talks about poor goverance tand how she had been spoken strongly about it even prior to the kidnapping incident. Former regime supported insurgents. Talks about complex psychoanalytics of politics. Leadership is all about sacrifice, but that was lacking in the earlier government. Terrorism is a "global public bad". Just like there is a "global public good", there is "global public bad".

27.2.2016:
Dr. C.V. Vishveshvara: (b. 1938) Theoretical physicist credited with what have become seminal papers on black holes following the discovery of gwaves by LIGO in 2016. Popularly called the "Black Hol(e)y" man for his work on black holes. Was among the 1st to derive mathematical models on black holes based on Einstein's theeory. Joined Raman research institute after Ph.D. in the United States. Born and brough up in Bangalore. His school teachers instilled in him Gandhian ideals during he independence movement though they did not encourage him to go on strike. Was interested in mathematics, especially geometry, and Einstein's relativity theory, which uses geometric models, fascinated him. Recalls how he was fascinated by physics in school during experiment on Archimedes principle (apparent loss of weight in water). Mentions that Einstein too was very keen in geometry, but says he doesn't intend to compare himeself with Einstein :)

His father was a great literary figure who was conferred Padma Shree. Recalls how happy he felt when seeing photos of Jawaharlal Nehru talking to his father about literature.

Interviewer (Dr. T.V.Venkateshwaran) says that Dr. CVV, a 77-year young (not old!) person, is not just an eminent physicist but also a cartoonist and science writer.

Took 3-year physics honors course after school and did M.Sc in nuclear physics in 1959. Ph.D from Univ of Maryland. Had initially wanted to do research in nuclear physics and joined Columbia Univ. His mentor introduced him to Charles Misner, a renowned physicist from Univ of Maryland, who specialized in relativity theory. Following this, Dr. C.V.Vishveshvara moved to Univ of Maryland to do research on black hole physics. His 1st major paper proved that anything pulled into black hole cannot come out. The 2nd paper did stability calculations on black holes and proved that black holes are stable in nature and therefore can exist in reality. Quasi-normal modes are signature of black holes, which is an important concept, since black holes are not visible. Pulses of gravitational . His wife is a professor emeritus in IISc (in dept of molecular biology??).

The announcement of gwaves discovery in 2016 was a euphoric moment for him as it.

Message to younger generation: Starts by saying that he is not a prophet to give messages. Goes on to give the following pieces of advice:
1. Never look for rewards in life.
2. Be happy with whatever you do.
3. Be innovative. Don't take the beaten track. Quotes some Spanish scientist's words: Travellers have no paths. Paths are made by walking.