Venkatraman Quotes & Sayings

I think it's important to give young people the freedom to follow their ideas and pursue their interests. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

She is a pebble skipping
over the surface of a lake.
As I once was.
Not a deep sinking stone that leaves widening ripples behind
after it's disappeared.
As I hope to be. — Padma Venkatraman

Unusually for an Indian man of his generation, my father, being aware of my mother's intellectual abilities, encouraged her to go abroad by herself to obtain a Ph.D. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I feel the American's eyes on me, looking as though I'm more than an amputee, a number, a chore. He crosses over to me, his strides large, a broad smile on his lips. "Veda? Did I say your name right?" "Yes, Doctor." "Call me Jim. Please." His left hand in his pocket, he holds his right hand out to me. As though we're equals. "Thank you, Doctor - I mean - just Jim," I say. He chuckles. "Haven't done anything yet." He has. No older man ever invited me to shake hands. No other adult ever asked me to call them by name. He even said "please" although I'm a patient. — Padma Venkatraman

The van lurches forward. My thoughts race back. — Padma Venkatraman

I was born in 1952 in Chidambaram, an ancient temple town in Tamil Nadu best known for its temple of Nataraja, the lord of dance. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Jim was cricket practice; Govinda's the real match. Match. Get it? — Padma Venkatraman

The joyous clamor in my mind drowned out the strange sound outside the car: a humming noise that was gathering speed and growing louder, a roar that was not the waves curling up the beach. — Padma Venkatraman

During the decade following the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA, the problem of translation - namely, how genetic information is used to synthesize proteins - was a central topic in molecular biology. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

You can only go into science because you're interested in it. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Governments and scientists in India need to ensure that politics and religious ideology do not intrude into science. They belong to separate spheres, and if they are not kept separate, it is science in India and the country as a whole that will suffer. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I knew the ribosome was going to be the focus of Nobel prizes. It stands at the crossroads of biology, between the gene and what comes out of the gene. But I had convinced myself I was not going to be a winner. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

The library was my only blessing. Every time I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted. All day, I looked forward to the happy hours I spent in that beautiful room. My guilt over appa's fate was too heavy to carry up there, and I learned to leave it below, somewhere on the ground floor. I left the house far behind as I walked on the path paved by the books, and every evening, baby Mangalam slept soundly on the bed I made for her on the window seat. — Padma Venkatraman

A Culture based on superstitions will do worse than one based on scientific knowledge and rational thoughts — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I think it is a mistake to judge science by Nobel Prizes. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Scientists are not movie stars or politicians who will feel insulted if they are not showered with accolades. Scientists are not interested in accolades. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I'm very grateful to have had many brilliant students and post-docs who have worked with me. Potential is often hard to spot, but a key factor is whether they express a genuine interest in the problem and how they have thought about it. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

My hand slips into his as though it remembers his touch and we've held hands often in a previous life. — Padma Venkatraman

People go into science out of curiosity, not to win awards. But scientists are human and have ambitions. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Everytime I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted. — Padma Venkatraman

I remember reading a 'Scientific American' article about the use of new physical techniques - including neutron scattering - as a method for unravelling the structure of the ribosome. I was fascinated. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Ultimately, biological phenomena involve molecules, and understanding them involves understanding the underlying chemistry. In my opinion, this is a particularly exciting area of chemistry. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I cannot imagine a more enjoyable place to work than in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology where I work. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

If I were to take an undergraduate chemistry exam, I would probably fail. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I am very grateful for the dedicated work and intellectual contributions of generations of talented postdocs, students and research assistants without whom none of the work from my laboratory would have been possible. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

My mother, R. Rajalakshmi, taught at Annamalai University in Chidambaram, and during the day, I was well cared for by aunts and grandparents in the usual way of an extended Indian family. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I'm not sure I can empty myself of wishing for those able bodies I don't own. — Padma Venkatraman

My childhood and adolescence were filled with visiting scientists from both India and abroad, many of whom would stay with us. A life of science struck me as being both interesting and particularly international in its character. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I am still the same person doing the same science. Why are people so impressed when some academy in Sweden gives an award? — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

There's a perception out there that the U.K. has become unfriendly to immigrants. Even if that isn't true, the very fact that that is the perception will make people not even want to come. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Will you go out with me for a cup of coffee?" "No." "No?" "I prefer tea, thank you. — Padma Venkatraman

I think we are intrinsically prone to being irrational and superstitious. A lot of it comes from our fear of the unknown and the fear of a lack of control over our fate. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

We benefit tremendously from the E.U. Britain does very well in getting back E.U. money for the amount it puts in. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

In my mind's eye, my chess pieces had grown into lines of dark-skinned men marching forward, being beaten by a white army and crumpling one by one into my father's waiting arms, bloodstains blossoming across their shoulders. (32) — Padma Venkatraman

We live in an increasingly technological world where the issues are quite complex and based on some complicated science. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Science is an international enterprise where discoveries in one part of the world are useful in other parts. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

It feels like Shiva destroyed my universes of possibility, like He's dancing on the ashes of my snatched away dreams. — Padma Venkatraman

Science today is a highly collaborative exercise, and to convert it into a contest, as the Nobel does, is a bad way to look at science. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Nobody has approached me about an offer to work in India. However, I can categorically state that if they did so, I would refuse immediately. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

My earlier exposure to physics certainly helped me in the use of biophysical techniques like crystallography, the use of computing, calculations, etc. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I realise I have inadvertently become a source of inspiration and hope for people in India simply by the fact that I grew up there, went to my local university, but could go on to do well internationally. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

It's for scientists to lay out the data and lay out what they think, and then it's for the public to make up its own mind. We don't live in a priesthood where some small group imposes its views on other people - that's not the way that science works, and it's not the way a democratic society should work. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I can dance beauty into my body — Padma Venkatraman

I started working on ribosomes when I was a post doc, in 1978, when it would have been impossible, really, to solve it. But, it was just a fundamental problem in biology. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Science is curiosity, testing and experimenting. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

If you go to a second-rate place, and you are first-rate, it is very difficult to do first-rate work because you do not get that critical feedback you need for first-rate work on a daily basis. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I had an excellent math and physics teacher in high school named T.C. Patel, and in the university, I had truly dedicated professors in both physics and mathematics who gave me a sound foundation with which to pursue graduate studies. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

You don't have to climb ladders to reach God. He dances within all He creates. — Padma Venkatraman

Like the women in my family, I've found the women in my lab a hard-nosed, ambitious lot who have gone on to be faculty members at top universities. In my own family, it is my father who is prone to bursting into tears. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Even the best scientists are often insecure and feel the need for recognition. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

How does the new leg feel?' I don't point out their question misses a point: even this new leg doesn't feel. — Padma Venkatraman

The success in the determination of the high-resolution structures of ribosomal subunits and eventually the whole ribosome was the culmination of decades of effort. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

We are all human beings, and our nationality is simply an accident of birth. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

It's not about where you were born or where you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

If a dog barks at the sun, it does not dim the sun's brightness. (44) — Padma Venkatraman

Because friendship is about laughing when the other person is joking to make you feel better. Even if you don't find her joke all that funny. — Padma Venkatraman

The Royal Society view is completely apolitical: it will judge anything based on the evidence. One of the big strengths of the Society is that is it widely perceived as impartial and above the fray. We'd like to make sure it stays that way. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I began studying ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow in Peter Moore's laboratory in 1978. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I want to tell the nurses no scale can measure
the pain of my dreams
dancing
beyond reach. — Padma Venkatraman

There is no room for political, personal or religious ideologies in science. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

There is no magical formula for winning a Nobel Prize. — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

My skin tingles as I step into the music,
give in to the icy thrill of pleasure
that spreads through me whenever I dance,
the pleasure of leaping into a cool lake on a
sweltering day. — Padma Venkatraman