BENGALURU:One is a computer scientist who is making significant contributions to the fields of computational biology and pattern recognition techniques. Another is a leading light in the field of organic chemistry who has greatly enhanced insights into cell function and DNA.
What’s however common between the two is the fact that they are both winners of the Infosys Prize, 2017 and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest government awards recognising science achievements in the country.
CE interacted with the two scientists - Prof Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Director, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (winner in the engineering and computer science category) and Prof Yamuna Krishnan from the Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago (winner from the physical science category) to talk about their work, education system in the country, and and their passion for the sciences
Prof Sangamitra’s developed a clustering technique that has enhanced search and optimisation capabilities. In computational biology she developed an algorithm for performing fast global sequence alignment that has potential for use in large genome alignments as also in other domains like web-mining. Excerpts from an interview-
What led you to science?
From my childhood I liked doing Maths and Physics. The main thing that I liked about these subjects was that there was very little to memorize - things sort of followed logically. This love led me to leave engineering option that I had after class 12 and take up BSc in physics at Presidency College, Kolkata. However, I felt a need for change after my B. Sc and took up B.Tech from Calcutta University. I took to Computer Science just like a fish to water. And then one followed the other, and I am here today.
What do you think are the challenges for women in science?
Child birth, taking care of a young one and some amount of family/social pressure, are some common things women ave to face in all fields and I am no different. But my stubborness to do what I want and the family support system worked beautifully for me. There is very little expectation from women in terms of an independent career. The education system from childhood also instills certain gender stereotypes in a child’s mind. Solutions to these deep problems are not easy to find but are necessary. The society is taking baby steps in this direction.
How does science education abroad fare, compared to that in India?
The main difference is the hands-on and practical approach in the developed countries, vis-à-vis the memorizing approach in India. I believe children should study maths and the languages until the age of 10. And they should learn about nature by going out, watching the sky, keeping notes on how trees grow, planets move, egg hatches and what not.
What can be done to produce more Nobel Prize-winning scientists from India?
One follows ones passion, and the honours and prizes come along the way. There are many great scientists who have not won the Nobel Prize, yet their contributions are invaluable. Science has to be done for science’s sake. The infrastructure has to be dramatically improved not just at a handful of Institutes, but in many universities. In addition, private funding is necessary as government cannot possibly bear the expenses fully. There must be more accountability at work and bureaucratic regulations need to be relaxed.