Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics the law of conservation of matter. My work in this was to give a mathematical expression for this idea and to work out some consequences.
Q
You were at Cambridge around the same time that Stephen Hawking was. Could you share with us an instance of your interaction with him?
A
Hawking and I were students together and he was two years junior to me. When I was in my third year, he joined Cambridge University as a research student. The story goes that he wanted to work with Fred Hoyle but he declined because he had taken on 7-8 students that year. Hoyle suggested it would be better if he went to some other professor. Hawking went to Dennis Sciama of the same department. Also, we were both vacation students at the Greenwich Observatory for six weeks or so. It was the kind of summer job one takes on to earn some money and learn a bit about observational astronomy. There were a number of students at that Observatory. We once had a table tennis tournament amongst us. He and I reached the finals and I defeated him. But the fact that he was playing table tennis shows that his health was quite normal. He used to take long walks as well. It was soon after him joining Cambridge that his health began to deteriorate. And then he slowly started losing motor control.
Q A
Could you share a fond memory from your time at Cambridge?
In Cambridge, they have a prize called Smith’s Prize, which dates back to the 19th century or even earlier. It is a prestigious prize that has been won by many distinguished scientists. During my time there, I had applied for it, by submitting an essay on my research work. When I sent my essay in, Fred Hoyle’s wife called me one day and said to me that their cat, Tatty, was sitting on my essay, which was lying around. “She always likes the best of things to sit on!”. That was her way of indicating that I had got the prize, even though she was not supposed to disclose this. She knew because all the professors in her husband’s department were the CREDENZ.INFO
judges, so he must have found out and mentioned it to her.
Q A
What was it that motivated you to set up an establishment like IUCAA?
The idea to set up an establishment like IUCAA came from the University Grants Commission Chairman, Yashpal. He had an idea which needed a scientist. I had also independently been thinking that a lot of research was being done in India outside the University structure in autonomous institutions. The University level of research was declining very rapidly and something was needed to be set up. An Inter-University framework was suggested and Astronomy and Astrophysics were sparsely covered, so this was a subject that seemed necessary. This opportunity came at the right time.
Q
IUCAA is now widely known as one of the best research facilities in the country. What has this journey been like?
A
We were lucky to have an imaginative architect, Charles Correa, to work on IUCAA. He wanted to have a building which would reflect what modern Astronomy is, to provide a contrast to his previous work in Jaipur that reflected ancient Astronomy. I asked Charles, who was thrilled to say yes. That is how these buildings came up, which attracted a number of architecture students. I pointed this out to my wife to which she said that the work being done in IUCAA was the aim. My response was that results cannot be produced instantly. I asked our scientific advisory committee how they would rate IUCAA on a world wide scale. They couldn’t give me a reply then. A few years later, I asked them the same question to which they said that it was in the first division of such institutes around the world.
Q
A lot of the books you have written including fiction, make science more accessible to ordinary people. How do you think the rift between common man and science can be bridged further? SEPTEMBER 2016 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 12.1
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