In the early 1950s when a young, Caltech-returned assistant professor with a great love for science experiments declared to his students that he was going make them another 'gizmo', the slang mystified them. It wasn't just the strange new words that Satish Dhawan — whose reputation had already been made by then with his research work on shockwaves — used that set him apart but his red shirts in a place where one only saw the faculty in suit and tie, and his easygoing nature.
"Apart from the shockwaves which he made at the lab, I think he made a shockwave on the campus," recounted aerospace scientist Prof.Roddam Narasimha last weekend at to ??a gathering of alumni of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) — among them black, grey and silver beards. "He came in his MG, jumped out of it, raced up the steps, raced down and had a big smile on his face when he said "Good morning to all of you". We were not used to that at all." From the experiments at Dhawan's lab, Prof Narasimha says the big thing he learnt was that 'you can do research in India.'
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Aerospace scientist Prof Roddam Narasimha (left) with Co-Chairman of IISc Alumni Association North America (IIScAANA) Satish Nagarajaiah during the global alumni conference last month. (Picture courtesy Satish Nagaraiah)
The reminiscences of some of its oldest alumni revealed a different side of the institute, but the three-day conference also dwelt on current priorities, particularly its ambitions on the global stage. If it were to get into the league of universities such as MIT and Harvard it had to happen fast, especially when institutes in China and South Korea were able to make it to the top 100, said Prof.CNR Rao, who headed IISc for a decade between 1984-94.
By an Indian measure, the 105-year-old IISc is a venerable old institute but it is, as another of its former directors Prof.P Balaram put it, a very young university by global standards. For that matter, Prof Balaram reckons it would be a long haul for any institution in India to get into the top lists, requiring greater support and understanding, something akin to an Indian team getting into a soccer World Cup finals.
"How has the institute evolved over the century and how has the century treated the institute and the country, is something we must all remember. Otherwise, we will not be able to address this question about improving Indian institutes in any measure," said Balaram. There were three Indian institutes on the Shanghai rankings in 2003 when it came out first, but only one (IISc) remained on it 10 years later. "Today, you have to run very hard to stay in the same place. It's going to be very difficult to overtake others who put in greater resources, have greater public support, governmental support and greater support from their environments."
That's where, he reckons, the alumni living overseas, especially North America, count because their word carried a lot of weight for the powers-that-be and that they should stand up and speak about the importance of supporting such institutions. "Rallies held in Madison Square Garden are likely to have far more influence than any kind of meeting which is held at the IISc."
Over the years, the institute has been looking to expand its reach and expertise, including by partnerships with as many as 22 international universities. It currently has around 50 international students but very few foreign faculty, something it is trying to address. The institute's present director Prof Anurag Kumar also outlined the initiatives towards scaling up infrastructure and connecting more effectively with alumni.
Sure enough, at home, the IISc has a finger in every pie when it comes to projects of national importance. And putting this in perspective were the ISRO chief A S Kiran Kumar, the first project head of the Light Combat Aircraft Kota Harinarayana, atomic scientist Baldev Raj and the DRDO's Naval Systems head V Bhujanga Rao — all homegrown scientists and the institute's alumni who went into detail about its contributions to many strategic sectors.
"The institute should project itself more. There is no science and technology-based project in this country without the participation of IISc," said Prof. G Padmanaban, who succeeded CNR Rao as director in 1994. But he also dwelt on the huge potential for translating research into solutions for key problems like infectious diseases, for example, which is one of the key reasons for India's low human development index ranking.
Agrees Prof Roddam Narasimha, recalling some stalwarts of the institute such as V M Ghatage, an Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd engineer who was lent to IISc to head its aeronautical engineering department in the mid-1940s and who returned to the aircraft maker as its chief designer. "The connections between science at the institute and the industry were actually very close. They have been for some time but I have the feeling they are quite not as close now as they used to be at one time," he said.
