C.N.R. Rao is the national research professor, honorary president, and Linus Pauling Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, India. From 2004 to 2014 he chaired the Scientific Advisory Council to India’s prime minister. Rao’s research interests focus on solid state and materials chemistry, with notable contributions in transition metal oxides, high-temperature superconductivity and nanomaterials.
He delivered the Eugene Wigner Distinguished Lecture Sept. 21, 2015, on the topic “Inorganic Graphene Analogues.” We asked him about advanced materials and research environments around the world.
1. Over a long, illustrious career, you have worked with a wide variety of advanced materials, including superconductors, carbon technology, nanotechnology and others. What strikes you as most promising at this time?
There are many areas, particularly in nanotechnology. For example, graphene has possibilities in electronics, medicine and a number of areas. The same is true of other areas of nanomaterials. Nanomedicine is going to be a very big thing, for example in finding a cure for cancer or creating artificial organs.
The second, of course, would be energy technologies, where we have to find substitutes for existing traditional energy sources. There I expect a lot of interesting things to happen.
2. You have worked with scientific institutions around the world as well as in your home country of India. How would you compare the research environment in India and, for example, the United States?
I came to this country 60-odd years ago to do a Ph.D. India was just coming up. We had just got freedom at the time, and we were in a very poor condition. There were hardly any institutions which could give the facilities for a proper Ph.D.
But today there are a large number of institutions providing good facilities for undergraduate and graduate training. In spite of that, when it comes to the quality of science being done, India doesn’t figure anywhere near America. America is still the No. 1 country and is doing the top-quality research.
In quantity of research, India is doing a lot. But in quality, nobody can beat the United States. Sixty percent of the top research in the world is done in the United States today. India probably does 1 or 2 percent. In India, we are building institutions. Things are looking better. We are funding science. But still we have a long way to go.
3. You also have much experience working with colleagues at American national laboratories. Where do you believe DOE should focus its efforts in materials research?
I feel that the Department of Energy should increase their international activities a bit more. They should give international fellowships for bright young people from elsewhere coming and working here. And this kind of thing may, in fact, lead to greater results in crucial areas. I think we should have much more of an international component to research funded by DOE.
Secondly, I think they should create joint programs between institutions—for example, a good institution in India and a good institution here working together jointly on some problems.
4. Why was it important to visit ORNL, meet with researchers and participate in the Wigner Lecture Series?
For those who come from my generation, Oak Ridge has been very well known. In science, they’re a name to contend with. In the old days of the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge was very important—a key center for atomic research. I’ve always had the highest regard for someone like Wigner, who was the director of this place.