2.7.2016:
Dr.M.Ravikumar:
Seismologist. Director General of Institute of Seismological Research, Ahmedabad. Spent most of his time in Hyderabad (b. 1964?). PhD from Osmania Univ. Works on dynamics of geophysics. Earth's atmosphere and oceans are coupled systems. Kimberlites transport diamonds from deep inside the earth to the crust. Geophysics helps understand distribution of minerals, movement of water, natural oil etc.Mentions formation of Himalayas -formed around 50-55 million years ago. Earth's tectonic plates goes through a cycle every 220 million years. What is above goes below and plates below come up. TVV compares it to churn of material during cooking of upma. 140 million years ago, Laurasia was the northern continent. Southern part (of that continent??) was Gondwana land. India encountered the maximum number of plumes. In the history of plate tectonics, Indian plate moves the fastest, at 18 cm per year, after breaking away from Laurasia. TVV says "racing India" will continue to race due to scientists like Dr.Ravikumar.
Predicting earth quakes still not possible. The institute works on mitigation techniques - reduce impact of earthquakes. Gives seismic safety factor rating that are site-specific. ISR can predict earthquake in near real time. Building structures must be built in accordance with recommendations dependent on seismic rating of the site. A lot depends on the top-soil - 2 different places that are equidistant from epicentre need not have the same impact. TVV says that building that stand after earthquakes do so due to the hand of scientists like Dr.Ravikumar. Those buildings that were constructed as per the recommended norms will survive earthquakes. ISR has a network of 60+ observation centres that allow epicentre to be identified within 10-15 minutes after an earthquake has started - earlier this process used to take a few hours. Allows better mitigation system.
TVV says 1950s was hailed as the start of space age and there was a lot of euphoria. Need to embark on an "Earth mission" that tries to look at the earth and understand the earth better, just like space age spurred moon mission, mars mission etc.
9.7.2016:
Prof. Dipankar Banerjee:
Astrophysicist/astronomer, Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Interview at Srinagar. PhD thesis was about sun. Currently associated with Aditya-L1 sun mission project of ISRO. Developing an instrument called coronagraph that will be a part of Aditya-L1's payload - this instrument is meant to observe and study sun's corona. Aditya-L1 will be placed in a Lagrangian position/orbit - a stable position where the gravitational pull of sun and earth on the satellite will be equal. This position will let the satellite to be in a position that allows continuous observation of the sun. Also building a 2 metre glass telescope that will be positioned in an observatory in Kashmir/Ladakh near India's border. Says Indian Institute of Astrophysics originated at the sun observatory in Kodaikanal.Never anticipated becoming an astronomer/astrophysicist during his school days, though he was very interested in physics. Says good grounding in physics and mathematics are sufficient to pursue higher studies in astrophysics - needn't have specialized in astronomy/astrophysics early on.
Students interested in astronomy, astrophysics can become a member and participate in conferences of Astronomical Society of India. When TVV says that people often ask him about astrology when he talks to public about astronomy/astrophysics, Prof. Dipankar Banerjee says astrology isn't science as its basis is not understood and is not verifiable.
India offering good opportunities for research. Golden time for research in fundamental sciences in India. Says opportunities becoming limited in the West (plus increasing competition there?). Talks about importance of tie-ups of research institutes with universities; level of research will improve with such tie ups.
16.7.2016:
Dr. Kiran Kalia:
Biochemist. Director of NIPER, Ahmedabad (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research). Her father fled to India during partition. Despite difficulties, her parents valued education; her father would tell her that the one thing he would definitely give is education. Studied biochemistry (masters degree) at Lucknow University after completing B.Sc. Opted for PhD after masters - says wanted to have "Dr." prefixed to her name. PhD from Indian Toxicology Research Centre of CDRI (CSIR??). Walked right to the office of the director of that institute to check the status of her PhD application and check about fellowship options.Dr.TVV says number of diabetics in India has doubled during the period 2000-2013. Dr.Kiran has done research related to complications related to diabetes, like diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy. Says mortality due to diabetes as such is not high; mortality results more from hypoglycemia resulting from body's response to medicines - hypogycemia particularly harmful to brain which is more susceptible to blood glucose variations. Worked on genomic marker of Indian population to identify susceptibility to diabetic complications. Identified some genomic markers in western Indian population. 45% of diabetes patients end up with nephropathy.
Has wonseveral awards. Considers the President Guide Award that she received while at school the best and most powerful; received the award from president V.V.Giri.
Indian pharma industry the 3rd largest in the world. Indian phrama industry now entering the biopharma domain. NIPER was established by Govt. of India with the idea of having a pharma research institute at par with IITs for engg. and sciences. Around 15 courses available at different NIPERs. Dr.Kiran is a member of Intnl. Organization of women scientists.
Dr.TVV says only around 4-5% of educational/research institutes in India have women directors, so India has a long way to go in terms of getting more women into research. Dr.Kiran says women need to display more confidence than men to enter and have a sustained career in research.
24.7.2016:
Dr.B.N Gangadhar:
Director, NIMHANS-Bengaluru. Grew up and studied in BLR. His parents told him stories of Sir C.V.Raman & Visveshvarayya and these inspired him. Since his 6th standard school days, he was intrigued by mental health - wanted to know what really psychiatrists treat. Studied M.D. at NIMHANS. His major research was on electroconvulsive therapy - over 30 years of research and 150 papers around this topic. Tremendous refinement in EC therapy (ECT) during the past 40 years, in terms of procedure and instruments. New equipment allows delivering just a fraction of discharge compared to past; anaesthic a norm now. Says ECT, in vogue for over 80 years, is here to stay despite availability of medicines. Success rate around two-thirds - i.e. 2/3rds of people with mental illness become completely normal in terms of mental health following therapy. Even among the remaining proportion, some improvement is seen. Mental illness should not be stigmatized.Medicines for mental illness in vogue for ~60 years. Work on to make them more effective and reduce adverse effects.
Long way to go for diagnostic utility of tests. No confirmatory tests as yet for mental illness. Existing tests give some leads and work in progress to get causative information.
Nice quote by Dr. B.N.Gangadhara - Other physicians speak of giving more years to life. Psychiatrists focus on giving more life to those years.
Now measurement of amount grey matter and white matter possible without surgical/autopsy procedures, because of MRI. Connectivity between parts of brain can be measured.
Medicine has opened it doors to all scientific specialties - maths, engg., computer science. M.Phil in neurosciences available to students from other disciplines too.
TVV mentions aging population. Dr.BNG tells aging is a normal process but there are some people who start to age prematurely - in such people both brain and other organs age quickly; these people become withdrawn due to cognitive decline. Some mention of brain remaining young for ever.
Transcranial direct stimulation procedure to improve cognitive function! Research happening on yoga and its ability slow down or possibly even stop again. Brain neurotrophic factor. Increased levels of BDNF avoids depression. Initial statistical evidence indicates positive effects of yoga.
Many mental disorders can be treated by general primary care doctors, but they need to be trained more. This is essential because of growing population and practical impossibility of psychiatrists to reach out to this large population. Dr.BNG says (most?) people go to primary GP first, not directly to a specialist, for problems like eye infection, loose motion, back pain etc. Same can be done for mental illness too.
Messages: No health without mental health. Mental health can be cured and no stigma should be associated with it.
