Address at the Drdo Directors Conference, Drdo Bhavan, New Delhi

Science is a Life Time Mission

Dear Friends, I would like to share with you certain experiences which I had while interacting with unique personalities. Last week I was with Prof. John Nash who got his Nobel Prize in 1994, for his work on application of Game Theory to the field of economics.

We had an interesting discussion regarding the concept of GDP. Prof. Nash?s theory on the subject of economics and most of the theory of the subject of economics throughout the world, consider GDP as an important indicator of economic growth of a nation. During my discussion, I said the GDP indicates only one portion of the growth of the nation. I have designed a new inclusive concept which I call as National Prosperity Index.

National Prosperity Index : While we are happy that our economy is in the ascent phase and our GDP is growing at nearly 9% per annum, it is evident that the economic growth is not reflected in the quality of life of large number of people, particularly in the rural areas and to some extent in urban areas. Hence, we have evolved what is called ?National Prosperity Index? (A); which is a summation of annual growth rate of GDP (a);  plus minimum level of quality of life for the citizens of the country (b); plus the value system derived from our civilizational heritage (c); which is unique to India. That is A=a+b+c. Particularly, ?b? is a function of availability of housing, good water, nutrition, proper sanitation, quality education, quality healthcare and employment potential. ?c? is a function of promoting joint family system and creation of the spirit of working together and above all leading a righteous way of life. All our measure of economic performance should be towards improving the National Prosperity Index.

I had intensive discussion with Prof. Nash on the subject of National Prosperity Index. To achieve this, we have a vision of transforming India into a developed nation before 2020, ( ) energizing and igniting the minds of all Indians. Scientist and technologists have an important role in realizing the missions of Developed India.

Now I would like to share with you the uniqueness of five great minds, all of them Nobel Laureates, each one having a special trait which he symbolizes. They are Value of Science; Science as a Life time mission; Science is Borderless; Science is about converting challenges into opportunities and Scientific Magnanimity. Friends, if you acquire any of one of them or few of them or all of the traits, you will be heading towards becoming a Nobel Laureate or you will make a difference to our Planet. Let us go into details.

The traits of Nobel minds

Value to Science: Since I am in the midst of Scientists, Technologists, research scholars and students, I thought of sharing with you an incident about Sir CV Raman ?a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction which determines the observed luminosity and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect. Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted. Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student. It is this unique trait of giving value to science that builds science. Next, let me highlight how science becomes a life time mission for Chandrasekhar Subramanyan.

Science as a Life time mission: Chandrasekhar Subramanyan?s most famous discovery was the astrophysical Chandrasekhar limit. The limit describes the maximum mass (~1.44 solar masses) of a white dwarf star, or equivalently, the minimum mass for which a star will ultimately collapse into a neutron star or black hole following a supernova. The limit was first calculated by Chandrasekhar while on a ship from India to Cambridge, England. The Chandrasekhar Limit led to the determination of how long a star of particular mass will shine. In 1983, Chandrasekhar Subramanyan got the Nobel Price for this discovery.

Two of Chandrasekhar's students in 1947 were the doctoral candidates Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang in Particle Physics research. Even though Chandrasekhar Subramanyan maintained his office at the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, he would regularly drive the one hundred miles to Chicago to guide and teach Lee and Yang and others many a times in difficult weather conditions. In 1957, these two of his students won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in particle physics research. This also brings out Chandrasekhar Subramanyan?s commitment to science and there by to his students. Science indeed is a life time mission for Chandrasekhar. It is this characteristic which makes youth to become passionate towards science.

Science is Borderless: Prof. Bert Sakmann - a German medical doctor and a research scientist who in 1991, together with German Physicist won the Nobel Prize for medicine for research into basic cell function and for their development of the patch-clamp technique. This technique conclusively established the existence of characteristic set of ion (+ve and ?ve) channels in cell membranes, that in turn established the role it plays in diseases like diabetes, cardiac, epilepsy and certain neuromuscular disorder.

Prof Bert Sakmann who did his elementary education in a rural background had a passion for Physics and Engineering in school days. He got interested in Cybernetics in the final year school, since he realized that living organisms could be understood in engineering terms. Thus, the seed of inter-disciplinary research was firmly rooted in him in a very young age. He enrolled himself for medical education. After foundation courses in bio-chemistry and physiology, he did his doctoral thesis in electro physiology. He attended medical schools in Freiburg, Berlin and Paris. As a doctoral student, he worked on electro-physiological basis of pattern recognition. For this, he closely worked with electrical and computer scientists. He learnt the basic mechanism of vision. Later, he ran his own laboratory in physiology in close collaboration with physio-chemical and bio-chemical departments. In his own words, he enjoyed working with fellow scientists on scientific adventures. Now, here we can find a doctor and a researcher with the capability of working in multiple laboratories simultaneously and becoming a team scientist, sharing the research, sharing the work and sharing the rewards too. He is the real example for ?Science is borderless?.

Science is about Converting challenges into opportunities: Prof. Paul Crutzen (Chemistry, 1995) got Nobel Price for chemistry for demonstrating that the chemical compounds of Nitrogen Oxide accelerate the destruction of Stratospheric Ozone, which protects the Earth from the Sun?s ultraviolet radiation. From the young age, Paul Crutzen was challenged by war, family conditions, and his atmospheric research interest was shining despite different types of work environment. He is indeed an example of how a strong mind can defeat the problem and succeed.

In his younger days itself, Paul Crutzen was fond of Physics and Mathematics and also he was a good chess player. For many years, Crutzen longed for an academic career and accidentally joined Meteorology Department of Stockholm University as a programmer. There he programmed a model of tropical cyclone. Also, he attended some of the lecture courses and fulfilled the requirement of Master of Science degree taking the combination of Mathematics, Mathematical Statistics and Meteorology. Time constraints did not permit him to pursue Physics or Chemistry which needed large amount laboratory work. With this background, he took up Ph.D. thesis on a meteorological topic using his experience in the development of numerical model of a tropical cyclone. Simultaneously, he was given a task of helping a scientist from US to develop a numerical model of the oxygen allotrope distribution in the stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. He got interested in this project leading to the study of photochemistry of atmospheric ocean and started an intensive study of the scientific literature which provided him the initial conditions for his scientific career. With this experience, he also changed the research topic to stratospheric chemistry. It is extraordinary that even though his earlier circumstances did not permit him to take up the pure science studies, his inherent passion enabled him to achieve at the highest level on the pure science related to atmospheric science. Here is a scientist who coverted all the challenges into opportunities in pursuit of his life time mission.

Scientific Magnanimity: Now, I would like to narrate an incident which took place during a function conferring Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India?s first Green revolution, with Dr. M S Swaminathan Award, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Borlaug, at the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody gathered there.

When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India?s advancement in the agricultural science and production and said that the political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and Dr. M S Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were the prime architects of First Green Revolution in India. Even though Prof Norman Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green revolution, he did not make a point on this. He recalled with pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution in India. Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting in the third row, fifth row and eighth row of the audience. He identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr S K Vasal, a maize specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist. He said, all these scientists had contributed for India?s and Asia?s agricultural science. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm. This action of Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as ?Scientific Magnanimity?. Friends, if we aspire to achieve great things in life, we need Scientific Magnanimity to focus the young achievers. It is my experience that great mind and great heart go together. This Scientific Magnanimity will motivate the scientific community and nurture team spirit.

Conclusion

With this background of unique traits of great minds, dear young friends, now it is time for all of you to have a great dream in life, dream transforms into thoughts and thoughts result into action. Now I would like to administer an oath on courage:

COURAGE

Courage to think different,

Courage to invent,

Courage to discover the impossible,

Courage to travel into an unexplored path,

Courage to share the knowledge

Courage to remove the pain

Courage to reach the unreached

Courage to combat the problems

And Succeed,

Are the unique qualities of the youth.

As a Defence Scientist, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my scientific and technological missions.

My best wishes to all Defence scientists for success in their mission of providing state-of-the-art systems to the Armed Forces.

May God bless you.