Venkatraman Ramakrishnan's dad narrates son's journey to the Nobel

Can a science journal change one's life dramatically? It sure can, says professor CV Ramakrishnan, father of Nobel Prize winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. It was Scientific American, a popular US biological sciences journal, which turned his son's thinking towards that branch of science -- and the rest is history. Incidentally, Venki had then done his BSc in Physics and Mathematics.

Delivering a lecture on his son's meritorious journey to the prestigious award at the Nirma Institute of Management Studies at Nirma University, octogenarian Ramakrishnan said that Venki earned his graduate degree in Theoretical Physics from Ohio University. He studied all the aspects of physics -- maths, computer science and information technology among others.

"At that time I think he was reading Scientific American because, although the language in that magazine is simple, it carries various researches on different themes of biological sciences. It seems that it made Venki think about getting into the biological science domain. This was in 1975-76."

"He also got married at this time and had two children. But he also wanted to get a good background in biological science and one university was prepared to admit him for a doctorate in Biological Science. He got a scholarship of $3000 per year. That sum of money was insufficient, but his American wife told him to go ahead. Thus encouraged, Venki did all the integrated courses for two years while his wife managed the family while enduring great difficulties. She stopped eating processed foods and grew vegetables in her garden to save money."

"After completing the courses, the prestigious Yale University offered Venki a scholarship of $30,000-40,000 to work on ribosome. So went there. Incidentally, the person with whom he started working on ribosome was also one of the scientists who was considered for the Nobel Prize."

"Venki moved to Utah University as a professor of biochemistry and this is how the man who started with physics began teaching biochemistry. Later on he found work on ribosome. It would take several years to make progress."

"At this juncture, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, a small but prestigious institute in Cambridge, England, approached him. The institute is a two storey building with 20-25 people working on various research projects. However, the institute has so far produced 15 Nobel laureates including Frederick Sanger who won two Nobel Prizes."

The professor went on, "The advantage of the institute is that it has got brilliant minds and scientists get full freedom and latest equipment. Though the salary is average there, Venki accepted the offer."

"To succeed in his kind of work, Venki had to have knowledge of biochemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science. Because of this, he could make a discovery in nine years with the help of the laboratory while similar kind of work takes 30 years at other places. If you want to produce a scientist in this kind of inter-disciplinary researches which can be used for human as well as other systems, then you have to produce students like Venkat Ramakrishnan," the professor concluded.