Bengaluru: Professor C.N.R. Rao reminds one of their favorite professors in college, grey haired with brown rimmed glasses perched halfway down his nose and a smile that instantly puts one at ease, it is no surprise that the author and Bharat Ratna is among the most respected and well known scientists in the country. While his first love is research, his second is sharing all that he has learnt from teaching.
At the launch of his latest book, A Life in Science, based on his journey in the field of science, Prof Rao said he will not give up his research work for anything in the world. “I started my journey 65 years ago and it has been a wonderful life, in terms of innovation, exploration and it gives me the greatest pleasure. Not just because I am working but also because of the young folk that I meet.”
On the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, he nostalgically said, “I’ve lectured on this exact podium so many times, it feels comfortable. I remember when we first came here many years ago, we were not very well off. It took us 25 years to get a lab of our own for research. Times are different now. Now, they know me as an old man. But sow a seed and it becomes a sapling; which becomes a tree and it transforms into a forest. But in this case, the forest has become a continent.” Grinning like a child, he said, “I have always longed to see my name in print.”
The book was released by Justice Shivaraj Patil, who said, “Darkness only enhances light. Mr Rao is a lamp whose light is only spreading further in the face of darkness.”
