From Chidambaram to Cambridge: A life in science (full text)

April 09, 2010 06:10 am | Updated 06:10 am IST

In this charmingly narrated autobiographical essay written for the Nobel Foundation, 2009 Chemistry Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan recalls his Indian roots, the shaping role of his exceptional parents and teachers, the twists and turns of his scientific career, how he staked all on "one risky project" when, in 1999, he took a hefty salary cut and moved to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, U.K. Reasoning that "the structure of the ribosome was the most important goal in my field," he decided to focus entirely on the 30S subunit. The rest, including the Nobel and the Padma Vibhushan, is history.

© Nobel Foundation

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.