Nurture the talent

Its our Founder's day in my Indian Institute of Astrophysics today. We had a public lecture by Prof. C N R Rao, the eminent Scientist. Check more about his excellent research career, the extraordinary awards he has received and other information on his website. The Auditorium was housefull and we had standing audience!

In a fantastic talk on "Science in India, a personal recollection", he spoke with all humor the ups and downs in research. His 50 years of experience in building research institutes, guiding students, was evident. He stressed the need on nurturing and encouraging talent in all possible ways for study of Science. He said the funds are now available, in contrast to 40-50 years ago, and we need to give quality results. He asked us, the researchers, to abandon mediocracy and choose the most interesting, important, problems for research. He said, we need those "nutty fellows", the bright young minds, who don't care what other people think, and get themselves immersed in study. He said, we can't discipline scientist like in military, but we need to bring the best of the young minds by taking them beyond their comfortable capcity.

He cited how, even with limited facilities and funds, even in old days there used to be some scientists who would do their best work, and it would meet the international standards. Talking about our Founder, he said, Vainu Bapu was a very methodical and eloquent speaker, and always insisted on excellence.
More about my Institute, check on the website.
Tomorrow also we have a nice talk on "My experiences in space". A talk by an Astronaut! Come and book your space before time, as I know the auditorium is likely to be housefull as today!