Media Release

Bengaluru, Jan 21: January 19, 2019, will be etched in golden letters in the history of St Joseph’s College – Autonomous, Bengaluru. The Post Graduate Chemical Society of the college celebrated the spirit of Science with Nobel laureate Sir Venkataraman Ramakrishnan addressing the students in his talk titled, ‘The quest for the structure of the machine that reads our genes’.

He was received in the campus by Fr principal Fr Dr Victor Lobo and senior faculty of the college. He planted a sapling in the college campus to mark his visit. The plant species Madhca insignis, a tree endemic to Karnataka though declared extinct by the IUCN long ago, was rediscovered near Kumaradhara river in Dakshina Kannada region.

The programme started with college anthem followed by welcome. He was introduced by the coordinator of Postgraduate department of Chemistry and PG Chemical Society Dr Ronald J Mascarenhas. Fr Dr Victor Lobo, principal, Dr Ronald Mascarenhas, Dr H Jayasankar (HOD) and Damini S shared the dais with Nobel laureate on this historic occasion.

This was the second time a Nobel laureate was visiting St Joseph’s College after Sir C V Raman in 1937. Over 1700 students, teachers, scientists, research scholars, and invitees attended the event in the auditorium of the college with live streaming facilitated in two other halls. Sir Venki, as he prefers to be called, took the audience through his journey of deciphering the structure and function of the ribosome- the gene reading machine- through his lecture. He spoke about how despite having a PhD in Physics from the University of Ohio he chose to make a switch to the field of Biology since he believed that staying in Physics would not enable him to make major contributions to the field of Science. He found Biology more promising. Despite being offered a post-doc in Biology, he chose to do a graduate programme in Biology at the University of California, San Diego. He spoke about the magnanimity of Prof. Peter Moore at the Yale University who accepted him as a post-doc student and also arranged for funding to initiate his research on ribosomes.

He also spoke about how he went on to learn X-Ray crystallography at the Medical Research Council of Molecular Biology, England which helped him immensely in his work. Having worked on the 50s subunit of the ribosome and with two groups already working on the same, he chose to tread a different path and began working on the 30s subunit with 2 PhD candidates. He also added how a chance meeting with Ada Yonath helped him in this field of work. He then spoke on how he was able to visualise the structure of the proteins of the 30s subunit which however did not throw light on its functioning. He compared this to knowing the parts of a car but not understanding its position and function in the working of the car.

His efforts to crystallise the entire ribosome faced a few roadblocks but he was eventually successful in crystallising the sub-units.

Talking about the importance of learning in today’s world, he emphasised on the importance of understanding the multiple dimensions of a human personality. He opined that one could be good in science; another could be good in art, music or anything else for that matter but that did not make the other person any lesser.

He advised students to always keep their options open, even if it meant learning completely new skills. He also expressed his views on the role Geld (money), Gestrick (skill), Geuld (patience), and Gluck (luck) played in achieving success.

The last part of his talk focused on how awards and recognitions changed the way Science is perceived. He said tagging rewards to learning made it a mere sporting event and not so much of a pleasure / learning experience. Sir Venki Ramakrishnan stressed on the idea that learning must be driven by curiosity and passion, not by the lure of rewards and this understanding needed to be inculcated in students at the level of school.

The talk was followed by an interactive session with the students and Sir Venki Ramakrishnan chose three students who asked the most thought provoking questions and was rewarded with books of various authors autographed by the Nobel laureate.

Starting this year, to celebrate this spirit of Science, the college has instituted a new award called ‘Nobel Laureate Sir Venkataraman Ramakrishnan Award’. The award will be presented every year on College day to a student showing highest potential for research in Science at the Post graduate level. In this manner, the college endeavours to disseminate the great inspiration the college has received from Sir Venkataraman’s visit.

Brief profile of Sir Venkataraman Ramakrishnan

Dr Venkatraman ‘Venki’ Ramakrishnan, born in 1952 is an American and British structural biologist of Indian origin. Soon after his graduation in Physics from M S University of Baroda, he moved to the US where he obtained his PhD degree in Physics from Ohio University in 1976. Being drawn by the revolution in molecular biology, Dr Ramakrishnan studied biology as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego. He pursued research in this area as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale University. After his post doctoral fellowship, he continued to work on Ribosomes and in 1999, he moved to Cambridge, England to work at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. His lab published a 5.5 A0 resolution structure of the 30S subunit. Later, his group determined the complete molecular structure of the 30S subunit of the ribosome and its complexes with several antibiotics. Many of today’s antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes. Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics. For his crucial contributions in determining the Ribosome structure, he shared the Nobel Prize in 2009 with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”. He is also the recipient of India’s second highest Civilian Medal Padma Vibhushan awarded in 2010 by Government of India. He is the 61st elected president of the British Royal Society and began his 5-year tenure of that prestigious body in 2015, being the first Scientist of Indian origin ever to occupy this esteemed position.