There is no need to fear nuclear science or nuclear energy as in medicine it is already being used, said K.N. Vyas, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, in Chennai on Sunday.
"Bhaba Atomic Research Centre develops a large number of radiopharmaceuticals which are injected into the body to diagnose ailments. If a person can take radiopharmaceuticals as an injection then there is no reason why one should be afraid of a nuclear reactor which is 50 to 100 km away," he contended.
Mr. Vyas, who was conferred the honorary Doctor of Science degree at the 15th Convocation of SRM Institute of Science and Technology, in his acceptance speech, suggested that students gain expertise in at least two fields as it would help them to move from one field to an unrelated field in an era when work had become multidisciplinary. "It will give you better satisfaction of doing work," he said.
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The honorary degree was conferred by SRM’s founder chancellor T.R. Paarivendhar.
A. Rajaraman, Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, ISRO, who distributed the degrees to the graduands, urged students to rely on their training and academic skills to face challenges the world would throw at them.
He likened the graduands to debutants in a cricket match who learn to cope with the challenge and urged them to rely on the academic skills and training gained in college.
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He said students should have an ambition to achieve the impossible but must translate the ambition.
"We put up ambitious projects at ISRO and the collective performance of all helped to achieve what we wanted. All high performers put up ambitious targets. You may not achieve your target, you will be a high performer even if you achieve 80% of the target. Benchmark with the better in the field or organisation," Mr. Rajaraman said.
SRM Vice Chancellor Sandeep Sancheti said 14,759 candidates were awarded degrees and diplomas at the convocation. As many as 8,920 and 90 PhD degrees were also awarded.