Students should consider teaching as a career before they consider an IT job, said Krishna B. Athreya, distinguished professor emeritus, Iowa State University.
Speaking at the third Alladi Ramakrishnan Memorial Lecture here on Monday, Prof. Athreya said a “lot of people not good these days are occupying positions in New Delhi.”
“The methodology of developing science in a nation varies. Jawaharlal Nehru invited good people, gave them authority. Bhabha was able to develop Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Mahalanobis founded Indian Statistical Institute with a modus operandi of developing science,” said Prof. Athreya.
Nehru’s model worked well, he added, emphasising the need for a similar procedure by the government for development of science as well as for innovation in the nation.
Prof. Athreya also recalled some of the fundamental contributions of Alladi Ramakrishnan, including the method of product densities in the theory of probability and stochastic processes. These have applications in cascade theory and branching processes. He discussed recent major developments in these important areas of research.
“In 1956, Nobel Laureate Werner Heisenberg was much impressed by Prof. Ramakrishnan’s work on stochastic processes. Based on Heisenberg’s recommendation, Springer-Verlag offered a contract to write an article in the prestigious Handbuch der Physik,” said Krishnaswami Alladi, professor at the University of Florida. He presented a copy of the article to Prof. Athreya.
