Our scientific and industrial leadership have failed miserably: Prof Biman Bagchi

Bengaluru: Recently being accorded with the coveted 2021 Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids by the American Chemical Society, Professor Biman Bagchi, honorary professor at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has made pivotal contributions to the area of dynamics of chemical and biological systems in an academic career spanning more than three decades. He has been a teacher and mentor for a large number of young theoretical physical chemists of India. In a freewheeling interview with The Hans India he shares about his childhood, hobbies and views on the subjects concerning the Research and Development (R&D) in India.

You are selected for the 2021 Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids, by the American Chemical Society (ACS). Could you explain what the research is about? How special is this award for you?

This is a very special recognition in our general area which however is quite broad. It covers both theory and experiment, physical, inorganic and even a bit of organic chemistry because most reactions occur in the liquid state. Also physicists won it in the past. And chemistry is chemical reactions, by and large. This is particularly special and pleasant for me because many of my mentors, Bob Zwanzig, Ben Widom, Stary Rice .. received it earlier. They were/are very very famous scientists. Nobody from India ever before got this award or any ACS -- at least not in the last 50 years.

My research covers wide subjects, not just liquids but phase transitions, proteins and DNA, biophysical chemistry, quantum dynamics and photosynthesis. I have published over 475 papers, written 25 front line highly cited and well read major review articles, and three major books. I myself get surprised when I look back.

The work for which this award is given was carried out fully at IISc, Bengaluru from 1988 to 2000. I was of course doing many problems, as I explained above. But my work on solvation dynamics, ionic conductivity, water at the surfaces of proteins and DNA, theories of liquid dynamics ... got lots of attention. I gave many major lectures in France, Germany, USA on them.

Since the Indian revolution developments in chemistry have transformed entire sectors of the global economy, often providing great benefits to society and quality of life. But with this there have been ramifications on the environment. How could chemical sciences be applied in bettering the environment?

Yes -- this is a serious concern. Our rivers are polluted although things are improving gradually. Chemical industry and pharma industry need lots of water. So the factories are often built in places like Himachal Pradesh and places where there is a mighty river. These lead to pollution and downstream health hazards. The effects are bad. Now regulations are being enforced, awareness increasing.

Chemistry plays such an important role. Your cars have improved because of the catalytic converter put in the car. Batteries preserve your utensils, within your mobile phones .. all designed and fabricated by chemists.

Chemists do not get their due credit. We make the materials. Even all the vaccines that we talk of , use chemistry. Three of my students carried out nice work on Covid19. I am also in the National Team trying to build a Supermodel with predictive power. But hard.

IISc has always been a pioneer in scientific achievements. But India still has a long way to go in terms of R&D and elevating the college's infrastructure where scientific innovations can be achieved. What is your take on this?

Great point. Correct! Very true. We collectively failed in R & D. I was surprised once when in University of Texas, Austin one of our theory students was offered a job and appointed with a fat salary by Samsung. Intel routinely takes chemists .. many. We just do not have the culture. It was actually not bad 20 years ago when, after MSc, students used to join R&D. Now they join the same but in the US, France, Germany and UK.

Our scientific and industrial leadership have failed miserably. Very bad indeed. We failed to reach out. But again a new generation of chemists are trying, so things should improve.

Usually the perception about scientists is that they might have spent their lives in studies. I want to know about your childhood. Were you interested in sports? When you decided that you wanted to dedicate your life to science?

Excellent questions!

I think my father, more than anybody else, shaped my academic and intellectual life. Another important influence came from my mother who herself was continuously going to college and university as a student during my own school and college years. I learned to love poetry from her. She kept an eye on my studies. Despite all my extra-curricular activities, I stood first in the school-leaving board exam in the whole district, with highest marks in Physics in the whole state (among about 200,000 students). Except for my father, and several school teachers, everybody was kind of shocked. I have only one brother, Bidyut, two years older who was nick-named "Lecturer" even when he was ten years old and indeed went on to become a teacher. He has remained delightful company and support, never stopped talking and lecturing, even at this age.

A bit of a turnaround in my academic life occurred when I was in college. The famous Presidency College (now a university of the same name) remained closed for my entire first year of B.Sc. (where I was studying for Honors in Chemistry) due to political disturbances. During this time, I could get busy with a local Science Club and we also brought out a science magazine in Bengali of which I was the Editor. Our motto was to promote science through our own language. The magazine used to sell a few copies but helped me practice writing and kept me quite busy. Also one year of forced vacation allowed me to start studying books on physics and mathematics, as I found undergraduate texts on chemistry somewhat boring.

How did your dream journey begin?

During the continued political disturbance and closure of college and university (we lost more than a year due to late exams and non declaration of results), I became pretty desperate to find some kind of escape. However, my decision to go to Brown University (USA) was kind of accidental. One day while I came out of M.Sc. class, I found a small group of students had gathered around a student two years senior, and they all were reading a letter typed on a nice paper with a "cool" looking seal on top and the writing "If we don't, who will". It was an offer letter from Brown. The student did not go, but I came to know from discussions that several of our seniors had gone to Brown. This triggered me to apply, but there was a lot of legwork to be done and a lot of unfamiliarity, as nobody in my class was applying and nobody from my family had ever been to the US.

Anyway, I did clear the necessary exams and surprisingly received an offer from Brown itself. For me, a dream journey began.

If not in research where can one find you? Does music or movies interest you?

I read a lot. I write a lot. I have two popular level books "Three Donkeys of Malleswaram", and "How to be a good student". U shall find them on Amazon. I have a regular Blog widely read by students and talked about. I USED TO PLAY TENNIS -- WOULD LOVE TO DO IT AGAIN I COOK