Interviews of August 2016

7.8.2016:

Prof. J. Srinivasan:

Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic sciences, IISc. From an engineering background - M.Tech in mech. engg. from IIT-Madras, masters and Ph.D. from the US. He studied in 10 different schools in a span of about 10 years; school education in 4 different languages (Kannada, Hindi, Tamil?, English). His father was an IAS officer with Karnataka posting, a transferable job. Complated schooling from Bangalore.

Chose mech. engg. by chance. Each of his relatives felt the engg. domain they were working in had no future as there was not much growth in engg. in 1960s.

Had fun with friends in finding mistakes in what was taught by teachers. As an example, in 1950s, a teacher expanded LASER (very new then) as "Light Emission by stimulated ..", and one of his co-students asked the teacher if it was "stimulated" or "simulated".

Masters and Ph.D. specialization on radiative thermal transmission / heat transfer in atmosphere, though the department he studied in was an engg. dept. Says he was surprised to see a waning interest in engg. in the US in the late 1960s; US students didn't seem to realize the immensity of their country's contribution to engg. Also gained expertise in computational modelling (?) which helped him in atmospheric sciences work, like monsoon modelling.

Proxy method used to measure what the temperature was in the past. Ice preserves history - ice drilling in Antarctica to extract ice deposited decades or centuries ago; ice traps air and water; ratio of oxygen isotopes in these is related to global temperature.

Firmly believes that global warming is largely a result of human activities. Says that currently this can be proved only through scientific/mathematical models, but there are people who refuse to believe in mathematical models.

Earth's temperature has risen by 1 deg. celsius in the past 100 years, but if human activities continue in the same way as now, the temperature will rise by 4 to 5 deg. celsius in the next 100 years!! Society has got addicted to a lifestyle dependent on fossil fuel. Society should start changing right now. No scope for postponement, since earth is at a tippping point. If actions are postponed, whatever is done or not done then will not help in preventing the undesirable effects.

Cut down use of fossil fuels to 1/10th. It is okay to use fossil fuels for a few niche uses like medicine, but society is taking a shortcut by using fossil fuels for transportation and manufacturing when eco-friendly alternatives.

He has been changing is area of research and teaching every 10 years. Academic career gives him this freedom, something not available in industrial/non-academic career. Says he never applied for a single industrial job as a result.

Says India should have started focusing on solar and wind energy 50 years ago. Instead, India has been continuing to rely on oil and importing oil from abroad. Cost of solar energy production coming down and India must use this opportunity. India must produce energy from soalr, wind and hydro sources.

13.8.2016:

Dr. P. Udaykumar:

Senior deputy Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyd. Has received Norman Borlaugh research fellowship and numerous other awards. Is an eminent toxico-pathologist. 25th years in NIN where he also did his PhD.

Nutrition till 5 years of age has long-standing impact on life. According to Barker's hypothesis, nutrition when one is still in womb can sometimes decide the person's health lifelong, even decades after.

Sustainable development goals for 2030 includes goals related to health. Indian paradox: 1/3rd of population s under-nourished while 10% to 15% are obese or overweight.

Difference between food and nutrition - food is quantity; nutrition is about quality. Road-side eateries sell stomach-filling food but is not nutritious; has little dal and over 80% rice - not a right balance.

Sedentary way of life has increased due to nature of profession. Tells that his grandfathr used to eat a handful of ghee but would walk over 10 kms a day, neutralizing the negative effects of fat-dense and energy-dense ghee.

Vegetable oils generally more beneficial but blending needed since most  vegetable oils, lack one or the other of essential fatty acids.

Favourite quote: "Every food is a poison; only the dose matters". Cannot say tha fat is bad - the amount matters. Doing research on link between food and canc. in mice. Saturated fats, N6 fats and trans-fats seem to have similar levels of tumor-promoting effects as they are dificult to metabolize. N3 fats, which are considered good, are found to have inverse correlation with tumour-formation.

Nutrition in medical curriculum not given enough importance. Even during his M.D. days, the study of nutritional aspects of health was minimal. His study book on pathology has only 20 pages on nutrition, but it interested him a lot and he decided to take up research on nutritional-pathology despite it not being a sought-after specialization.

NIN has developed a kit to detect presence of iodine in salt. Has developed a double-fortified salt that includes iron and iodine. Iodine policy was drafted by govt.; iodine deficiency more prominent in sub-Himalayan regions and parts of NE-India.

Nutritive value of Indian food done 30 years ago. 5 years ago, NIN revisted this study and has come up with updated nutritive value information.

Recommended dietary intake guidelines for Indians also drafted by NIN. Is available free of cost as a Google app. and downloadable from mygov.in.

21 different types of brinjal alone in India - NINs has studied and documented the nutritive value of each; significant variation between these varieties w.r.t. nutritive value.

NIN offers an MSc programme in nutrition.

20.8.2016:

Prof.Ram Ramaswamy:

President, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. Professor at JNU. Outstanding inter-disciplinary researcher. Computational biology, nonlinear sciences. Born in Chennai, but studied in atleast 6 different schools due to his father being in a transferable job in the army. Completed schooling from a boarding school in Mussoorie. Most students from that school would enter business or army, and Ram was unusual in that he wanted to study pure sciences. B.Sc in chemistry from Loyola Colege - says it was not a concsious choice - he soon realized he wanted to work in theoretical chemistry and interface of physics with chemistry. Masters from IIT-Kanpur. PhD from Princeton University in scattering theory. Says IIT-Kanpur had an academic environment comparable to that in top universities in the US; his professors used to give assignment problems taken from latest journals.

Got interested in chaos theory (part of non-linear sciences) when doing post-doctorate in the US. Weather phnomenon, gaps in the rings of Saturn, motion of meteors etc. are all chaotic. Back in India, in the early 1990s, he was in a discussion with a friend, Dr.Alok Bhattacharya, who was a biologist, and this led to Ram taking an interest in computational biology. Question that Alok had was whether genes could be identified easily from long, random genome sequences. This led to his starting research in computational biology, a highly inter-disciplinary field - maths, computation theory, game theory, physics, dynamics, chemistry.

Founded by Dr.C.V.Raman in 1934, IASciences plays an important role in academic life in India. Fellowships awarded based on good work. Says recognition by peers is important for researchers whose work is often independent; IASciences provides recognition through fellowships. The academy publishes several journals in math and science fields.

Says it was in the 1990s that some members of academy started expressing concern over brain-drain in the field of sciences. Hence the academy started to award summer scholarships for 2000 students every year.

Advice to youngsters: Some houmour here. Dr.TVV says he doesn't like to use the word "advice" but he has gray hair and he isn't able to thing of a better word; Prof Ram says with a smile that he (himself) has almost no hair! A career in science is a privilege to have. Lots of interesting problems to solve.

27.8.2016:

Prof. D. Balasubramanian:

Renowned ocular biochemist/biologist. Director of research at LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyd. Kalinga Prize winner. Eminent science popularizer. Say 1.8% of population of A.P. and Telangana are blind as per WHO's (??) definition of blindness - blindness needn't be complete absence of vision. Extremely poor . 3-3.5 million Indians are blind because of very severe refractive index errors - can be treated in 10 minutes by prescribing approriate glasses; these constitute 10% of blind people in India; poverty and lack of access to doctors is why these people remain effectively blind. 45% of blind due to cataract - this too can be corrected by simple surgery. Another 10% are blind due to infections. Thus about 65% of blind people in India have some cure or remedy. Says eye camps are not the best choice for reaching out to larger and disadvantaged population with eye problems - post-operative care is important, which cannot be provided by camps. Pyramidal model of (eye-care??) hospitals and good rural-urban medical cooperation is the best solution to address the eye problems of the huge Indian popul'n.

On research being done. Glaucoma is the slow death of optic nerves. Can it be treated by correcting the eye fluid circulation valves just like heart valves are treated? Are there genetic factors behind glaucoma? Age-related macular degeneration - can stem-cell therapy be used to replace poor retinal cells with healthy ones. Eye of a child not developed fully during birth - develops fully only after birth. Prematures put in high-oxygen chambers are susceptible to retinopathy. LVP eye institute does translational research too by reaching out to .

On his background. He was trained as a chemist. Did M.Sc and PhD in chemistry. Says he got interested in chemistry due to an outstanding teacher. During his PhD years, he worked on understanding crystallines which are proteins the constitute eye lens. Ordinary glass is made of silicon dioxide. Biological lens is made of lipids and proteins, which have tiny ball-like structure - can be compared to cooked saboodaana. Pondered over what causes cataract and moved from CCMB to LVP eye institute - a move from pure theoretical/lab research to translational research -- feels it is one of the best decisions in his life.

On the controversy over genetically modified crops - says it is an unnecessary controversy. Genetic modification helps make plants more robust to pests, meaning less need for pesticides - this translated to safer and healthier food. GM cotton has been used in some countries for decades (Brazil etc.) and no adverse effects have been found. Says GM mustard is likely to be cleared soon by India.

Science as a subject is exciting, just like a good story can be exciting.