Sunday, September 30, 2012

Skills and Success

In the interview with Livemint, three professors (BN Jagtap, Satyam Suwas, Yamuna Krishnan) give their opinion on the skills required in science.

The skills for science: “You have to be passionate about learning new things. Scientists are a curious and inquisitive lot. It’s important to ask risky questions. Also, be prepared to fail and to experiment all the time. Through school we learn about Galileo, Newton, Darwin or Einstein, and science seems like an individual pursuit. I always tell my students that science is teamwork.”

The skills for science: “Dedication, passion and perseverance is what it takes to be a scientist. Unless you have passion, you’ll get tired soon. You may not succeed in a few attempts, so you have to keep trying.”

The skills for science: “In terms of attitude, I would say you would need curiosity and passion, knowing how to work as a team, flexibility about the path to reach your goal, and belief in your abilities to realize it.”

Based on my experience, I feel to be called successful, you need the above skills and a couple of other "skills". These "skills" are apparent if you read the interview given by Murali Kartik to Cricinfo,

What's the one question the media should stop asking you?
The one about who I upset in the hierarchy to not find a strong footing in the India squad.

If you were an Under-19 cricketer today, what advice would you give to the teenage Murali Kartik?
Keep your mouth shut.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Bhatnagar Prize

My heartiest congratulations to my colleagues, Profs. Ravishankar, Arindam Ghosh and Mugesh, for winning the Bhatnagar prize this year. All three of them are my friends, have an outstanding academic record and truly deserving of the award. All three of them had won the Swarnajayanthi fellowship earlier.

It is my privilege that I actively collaborate and have joint students with Ravishankar.