There is no need to fear nuclear science or nuclear energy, as it is already being used in medicine, said K.N. Vyas, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, in Chennai on Sunday.
“Bhaba Atomic Research Centre develops a large number of radiopharmaceuticals, that are injected into the body to diagnose ailments. If a person can take radiopharmaceuticals as an injection, there is no reason why one should be afraid of a nuclear reactor that is 50 to 100 km away,” he contended.
Mr. Vyas, who was conferred the honorary Doctor of Science degree at the 15th Convocation of the SRM Institute of Science and Technology, in his acceptance speech, suggested that students gain expertise in at least two fields, as this would help them move from one field to an unrelated one, in an era when work had become multidisciplinary. The honorary degree was conferred by SRM’s founder-chancellor T.R. Paarivendhar.
A. Rajaraman, director of the 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 academic skills and training gained in college.
He said students should have an ambition to achieve the impossible, but must then translate the ambition.
“We put up ambitious projects at ISRO, and the collective performance of all helped us achieve what we wanted. All high performers put up ambitious targets. You may not achieve your target, but you will be a high performer even if you achieve 80% of the target,” 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 degrees and 90 PhDs were awarded.