Date:10/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101050750300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call to pursue science with passion

Meera Srinivasan

Programme was organised by Science and Technology Centre

— Photo: S.R.RAGHUNATHAN

EXPERT’S VIEW: Satish V. Kulkarni, counsellor for science, technology, environment and health affairs, Embassy of the United States, New Delhi, interacting with students at the programme organised by Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Science education has tremendous scope for exploration. It is important for students to pursue science with passion, according to Satish V. Kulkarni, counsellor for science, technology, environment and health affairs, Embassy of the United States of America, New Delhi.

He was addressing students at a programme organised by the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre here on Tuesday.

The United States and India face similar challenges in Science and Technology education and research, he said. Highlighting some of the issues facing science education in the United States, Prof. Kulkarni said science and innovation was in a stall. There was also a paucity of good teachers, as in India, he pointed out. There was a need for ‘K-12’ (kindergarten to class XII) science and math education, he said.

Speaking on trends in science education, he said it was important for students to stick to a chosen discipline and specialise in that. “There is a tendency to switch to more lucrative areas after a point…if everyone takes up the more lucrative jobs, we will not have enough teachers and researchers,” he added.

Astronomy and astrophysics were other areas that had a lot of scope for research, he pointed out.

Problems such as climate change, health issues and renewable energy and sustainable development were not country-specific.

They were global in nature. It was, therefore, important for students to pursue sciences with passion, and attempt finding solutions to such problems, Prof. Kulkarni said.

Nanotechnology

“Nanotechnology, for instance, is an area where India and the US can collaborate. India has a tremendous potential to impact science and technology,” he said.

He added: “In many new technologies, it is common to overestimate what can be done in the next five years and underestimate what will happen in the next 50 years.”

M. Anandakrishnan, chairman, Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur, who spoke earlier, said that good science education acquired at an early stage could be of use in any discipline that a student pursues at a later point, be it management or information technology.