We couldn’t afford many things, but we had education. My father was a headmaster and later became an education officer. My mother was fantastic: she … - Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao

University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is one of the most outstanding universities, and the Chemistry Department there ranks first amongst the universities of the world in research performance. This department was established by G.N.Lewis, who is considered to be the father of modern chemistry.

Fifty years is a very long period. The first 30–35 years – we could call this period as one when India equipped itself to face important problems. For example, we built institutions such as the IITs and the National Laboratories...We need much better infrastructure facilities and we must work on more difficult problems. Unfortunately, we have been used to working on problems that are somewhat repetitive. If we want to be at the cutting edge, we have to be innovators and originators.

Atoms were originally proposed as an idea. Although their presence was proved by various means, people did not think that they could see them directly. This was so until recently. We are now able to directly see atoms by employing powerful microscopic techniques.