6.6.2015:
Dr. Amit Sharma: Biotechnology scientist
(currently at ICGEB, Delhi?). Post doctoral reasearch at the prestigious
Oxford university ; had offers from both Cambridge and Oxford. Gauhar
Raza jokes that Cambridge university lost such a brilliant reasearcher
to the Oxford university. Dr. Sharma hardly smiles during the interview.
Did work on malarial parasite and its mechanismm of action. Returned to
India for multiple reasons - family, feels more at home. Has received
several awards.
Note: Web search result - interesting - reversal
of brain drain - Dr. Ami Sharma mentioned -
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/young-academics-return-india-leaving-their-careers/1/309635.html
13.6.2015:
Dr. K.K.K. Singh:
Geophysicist specializing in mining. Gauhar Raza and interviewer both
in mining suit - helmet with light, mining jacket etc :). Interview
location: Dhanbad coal mine? Dr. Singh studied physics undergrad and due
to interest in understand earth, took to geophysics for higher studies.
Developed a radar just capable of breaching the 60m limit - says radar
waves can penetrate several kilometres in a place like Antarctica but in
cola mines, assessing what lies more even 60m deep or away is
difficult. Felt motivated to develop this improved radar as he wanted to
improve mining safety and avoid mishaps like a major 1 that happened in
a coal mine in 1970s when water entered a mine. His radar has now been
approved for use in UK as well. Wants to improve his radar further to
become capable of studying things upto 100m or more. Hopes he can
achieve that. Message: Feel positive, work hard to achieve it.
20.6.2015:
G.P.S.Raghava:
Computer engineer (scientist??) at IMTeCH, Chandigarh; joined c.1986.
Pioneer of bioinformatics in India. M.Tech in Electronics from IIT; took
interest in No background in biology but work in bioinformatics and
possibly computational biology started when a biology researcher
approached him asking for help to solve a computational problem related
to his research. G.P.S. solved it by devising an improved algorithm. Was
the 1st Indian to publish a paper related to bioinformatics - though
the paper was not widely recognized in India, it drew the attention of
Western researchers and G.P.S. too knew it would be a helpful tool for
biology. Says he did not have a good relatiuonship with teachers, both
in school an in college - largely relied on self-study and curiosity.
Stresses the importance of self-study and curiosity (says he was curious
in how things work right from childhood), keeping in touch with latest
developments and preserving and publishing one's findings.. says India
had lots of good research/science knowledge for long but had not been
good at preserving/publishing/advertising those findings. Says
biologists must come out of the habit of thinking that only working in
biolog lab is the mark of a researcher - now it is very easy to get
biological data (genetic information, for instance) but it is analysing
that data and making inferences is the more challenging part. Says no
lack of funds for research, at least in CSIR.
27.6.2015:
Gangan Prathap:
Aeronautics engineering researcher who became director of NISCAIR. A
famous German aeronautics engineer was his role model, though his
parents reminded him once during his college days that in his early
schools days he would mention he was inspired by C.V.Raman. First to do
research on non-linear mathematical models in the context of aeronautics
in India. Says he wanted to continue to be in research but was called
upon to head scientific committees and took to that duty to serve the
nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment