Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, more famously known as Prof Venki, has began his five year term on Dec 1, as the President of the Royal Society, one of the foremost fellowships in science, engineering and medicine. He is the first Indian to acquire this esteemed position.
Prof Venki was born in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India to C. V. Ramakrishnan and Ramakrishnan Rajalakshmi. Both his parents were scientists, and his father was head of department of biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Ramakrishnan moved to Vadodara (previously also known as Baroda) in Gujarat at the age of three, where he had his schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary, except for spending 1960–61 in Adelaide, Australia. Following his Pre-Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he did his undergraduate studies in the same university on a National Science Talent Scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1971.
In a lecture in January 2010 at the Indian Institute of Science, he revealed that he failed to get admitted to any of the Indian Institutes of Technology or the Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
Immediately after graduation he moved to the US, where he obtained his PhD degree in Physics from Ohio University in 1976. He then spent two years studying biology as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego while making a transition from theoretical physics to biology. Prof Venki was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 and knighthood in 2012. He is a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Speaking to Asian Voice in September about his profession, Dr Venki added, "The public generally support science, but more needs to be done to engage people with current research as well as the history."
There have been 60 presidents of the Royal Society since it was founded in 1660 including Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy and Ernest Rutherford.
In his last interaction with London-based Indian journalists at a lunch reception in Bombay Brasserie, hosted by the Indian Journalists' Association and Prof Yusuf Hamied, Ramakrishnan said he saw his new role at the Royal Society as “a chance to repay to Britain and society for fostering my science for so many years”.
“I would like to encourage short and long-term visits by Indian scientists and students. I would like to encourage India to focus on electron microscopy,” he added.
