I waited eagerly for the newspaper this morning. It wasn’t the IPL score, weather or other gory front-page news that I was after. I wanted to read the second part of the autobiographical essay by Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Hindu ran this essay titled “From Chidambaram to Cambridge: a life in science” in two parts. It will be published by the Nobel Foundation in a few months.
The essay is inspirational and told in a disarmingly honest way by this distinguished scientist who spent all his life in pursuit of new discoveries. His story is unusual not just for his achievements and a career in science that took him from India to USA to UK, but for his acknowledgement of those people who he encountered in his journey and shaped his thoughts. He mentions his parents, Ph.D.s themselves who moved from Chidambaram to Baroda with stints in the USA, Canada and Australia. He attributes the revival of his interest in studies to the dedicated Math and Science teacher in school and other significant faculty members in Baroda. His humorously describes his tenuous tenure in graduate school in the US where he finally pulls himself together to get a Ph.D. in Physics followed by further rigorous research as he moves into a field that is new to him, biology. The second part of the essay goes into the details of his move to Cambridge to pursue the experiments that finally won him the Nobel prize for his work in identifying the structure of the 30s subunit of the ribosome.
There is much to learn from this story – primarily that individuals can go on to achieve public success but the seed of curiosity is sowed and nurtured by dedicated teachers who follow their passion diligently. Family support, in this case, parents who themselves were distinguished and encouraged Venkatraman to do better (his father congratulated him for his publication in the prestigious journal Science, and exhorted him to work harder and publish in the other equally exalted journal, Nature) and a spouse who stood with him through the major move from US to UK in the quest for the structure of the ribosome. Choices, sometimes hard ones, like uprooting family and intentionally taking a pay cut do what truly moves you. Persistence, in the face of competition and disappointment is another essential quality.
But what I liked best was his statement that “people go into science out of curiosity, not to win an award. But scientists are human, and have ambitions.” The need to be recognized for your efforts is among the basic needs for all of us. It is a big step to admit it. But the satisfaction and joy that accompanies honest work is what helps all of us (scientists included) to keep going in all those private moments which neither the press nor parents can share. Public success is validation of your private victory. Prizes and awards are symbols bestowed by the general populations in acknowledgment of your efforts. Sometimes we confuse the two. Thinking, striving, working is what provides the daily fuel for your life. The trophies signal that you have arrived. Arriving without experiencing the process is of no value. But enjoying the path and the view as you run your race is its own reward.
As Venkatraman says “ as the years went by, it seemed to me and many other scientists that there would never be a Nobel Prize for the ribosome because the problem of choosing three people out of all the contributors appears insurmountable.”
Not all of us can go on to win prominent prizes but each of us can definitely be successful. This is why it is important to read the stories of the winners.
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article391164.ece
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