Use Science to Improve Life of a Common Man: Sudha Murty

Sudha Murty, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation addressing at the IISc Alumni Global Conference at the J N Tata Auditorium on the topic of 'Reminiscence' recalls her student’s days in the IISc.  She said, ““What really matters is what you have done to your fellow human beings”, she said and adds that until I joined IISc, I hadn’t visited Bangalore at all. In IISc, Prof V P Sen Gupta and his wife Nandini were very friendly, and gave me the warmth I needed”. According to her, there were fourteen women students in IISc at that time. Speaking about science, she said, “The ultimate purpose of science is to improve the life of a common man”.

Prof G Padmanabhan, former Director of IISc, shared his days as the Director of IISc. Urging IISc to translate its research so that it can touch people’s lives, he said, “We have a great opportunity to translate. We need to translate science. Science should be applied”. He felt IISc could start ‘Translation Centre for Infectious Diseases’, which can have a great impact.

Prof Roddam Narasimha, one of the leading Indian scientists, and IISc alumnus, spoke about his association with IISc which has lasted more fifty years. “I visited IISc for the first time in 1951, and saw an aircraft parked under a tree. I touched it, and found it beautifully curved. I immediately decided to study aeronautics”, he said, while explaining his fascination with airplanes. He showed a lot of old photographs, and recalled a number of people who made a big difference to his own life and aeronautics in India. Speaking about Prof Satish Dhawan, he said, “He was a remarkable person in many different ways. He was different from others”.

Prof S Ranganathan, who worked on metallurgy in IISc, recalled his undergraduate days in the Institute. “In those days, we got the undergraduate degree in two years, and at the end, we had to give a lecture”, he said. He also proudly said that the foundation stone to the building of Department of Metallurgy was laid by none other than Sir M Vishveshwariah. His first visit to IISc was in 1961, to attend the Gandhi Memorial Lecture given by Sir C V Raman, in which Raman spoke about diamonds.