Volume4 Issue 2

November 2014

PHOTO GALLERY

Editorial

Photographs by Ms. Radhika Rao. FYBSc Division A.

Life E- Newsletter Publushed by:
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Under the guidance of Dr. Harsha Mehta, Dr. Smita Durve and Mr. Madhavan Gopalan
EDITOR
ASNA INAMDAR

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

ADITYA GUPTA

WEB PUBLICITY
VIDHI SHETTY

By Asna Inamdar (S.Y.BSc)

The year 2014 is coming to an end and it has
been such an amazing learning experience for all
of us here at S.I.E.S. The year has seen a lot of
amazing research work in the eld of medicine
and physiology. Keeping with the theme of the
year, we would like to focus on a young and
vibrant reacher Dr. Shubha Tole. Recently, Dr.
Shubha Tole, neuroscientist at the TIFR has
received The Infosys Award in Life Sciences
2014 for her pivotal work on the brain and its
functioning. She has inspired a lot of people
through her contribution in neurology and
research work. To apprise students about her
signicant role in science, we have, in our
newsletter, covered an interview of Dr. Shubha
Tole, in which she gives us an insight of her
journey to becoming one of India's renowned
female scientists.
The year 2014 has also seen three people
sharing the Nobel Prize in Physiology and
Medicine. A married couple from Norway has
won the prize for their discovery of the brain's
internal GPS. Their work, which collectively
spans four decades, revealed the existence of
nerve cells that build up a map of the space
around us and then track our progress as we
move around.

The groundbreaking research transformed

neuroscientists' understanding of the brain's
ability to navigate and answered a question that
had stumped scientists and philosophers for
hundreds of years: how do we know our place in
the world? John O'Keefe, of University College
London shared the prize for his pioneering work
that identied place cells in the brain that map
the environment.
I would like to conclude by asking all to read an
online article Scientist and mommy by Dr.
Shubha Tole which is an inspiring story of her life
as a scientist and mother of two children, how
she is successfully managing it.

Dr. Shubha Tole

, a
neuroscientist, Professor and
Principal Investigator at the
Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research in Mumbai, India is
one of the most renowned
female scientists in the
c o u n t r y .
She is a recipient of the
Research Award for
Innovation in Neurosciences
by the Society for
Neuroscience
Interview on page 2..

1. How have your teachers inspired

you in your journey?
I've had some really inspiring
teachers who encouraged students to
think logically and welcomed
questions. Remember the standard
give reasons for question in Std 6
science? My wonderful teacher Mrs. Jennifer Naronha
would say write just 3 sentences, but make them 3
good sentences. First state the problem. Then analyze
it and connect it with your solution. Then conclude in
your last sentence.
In college, Mr. Alex Castellino gave us an exam in
FYBSC Biochemistry for which we could well have had
our books beside us, it wouldn't have helped if we hadn't
understood the material in class. Dr. Sheela Dhonde
was one of the most inspiring teachers in college- she
was able to draw us into the excitement of biology- by
making us feel we were the ones making the discovery
we were learning about in the textbook. This is
precisely what science teaching in India lacks- the idea
that science is an ongoing active process, not a product
packaged in textbooks and needing to be memorized.
Fr. Lancy Pereira encouraged us to dream, to nd out
who we were and what we really wanted to do with our
lives. This I think is the hardest thing for a young personto discover themselves and claim as their own identity
what they nd within themselves. Most are willing to
have someone else decide for them- I'll see what
marks I get and then I'll decide- so they let the marks
limit their options without even examining whether they
wanted those options in the rst place.
2. How supportive was your family in your decision to
become a scientist?
My parents raised me to think, explore, plan, and
make my own decisions. So whatever career path I
decided, they would have shared in the excitement of it,
celebrated my successes and supported me in the low
periods. My mother had hoped I would become a
doctor, and my father had thought I would do well in an
IIT. But when I chose neither, they were wonderfully
supportive. They saw early on that what mattered was
that I was happy, engaged, and passionate about my
eld. During my B.Sc. at St. Xaviers, I lived with my
parents, and each morning my father would come into
my room with his cup of tea and I would chatter on about
some new biochemical pathway we were learning
about, or about how antibodies are made, or whatever.
He was trained in physics and engineering, I don't know
what he made of it all but I remember his twinkling eyes
mirroring my excitement about what I was learning.
3. Do you feel the current generation is oriented
towards research?
I think the current generation has a vast number
of choices before them, now ever more than before.
But they are as confused or unable to realize what they
want to do as previous generations. If you haven't got
the courage or the motivation to explore your own
thoughts, what matter whether there are 5 choices
before you or 50?

4. We will be glad to know about your students who

have done exceedingly well after the completion of
their degree.
Thank you for asking. Most of the students who
did M.Sc. in my lab have gone to excellent PhD
programs. Those who did their PhDs with me have
gone on to post doctoral positions in excellent labs. The
rst of my students Bhaskar Saha has returned and is
teaching Life Sciences at St. Xaviers college. So it's a
full circle! Occasionally a student has made an unusual
choice- for example Lahar Bhatnagar who did her M.Sc.
with me and was very clear from the beginning she was
not headed for a PhD. She had a clear plan: she wanted
to start her own company in biosciences equipment, to
support bioscience research in India. And she's done
exactly that- she's used her research experience
effectively to understand the needs of her customers.
Another student, my rst M.Sc. student Sarada
Bulchand, got her PhD from Singapore, and is now at
TIFR as a scientic communications ofcer. She was
always enthused about the communication, teaching,
and public outreach aspect of science so she's using
her training in that way. Other students and post-docs
have taken up jobs in the industry. Many things are
possible and my students have utilized their
opportunities well.
5. Lastly, can you conclude the interview with a
message for the young and aspiring scientists?
This message is for all students, but particularly
important for girls:
Don't pre-compromise your dreams by not even
aiming high. Many students, particularly girls dont
allow themselves to even WANT something they think
they won't be allowed to do...they think, why dream of
it if I won't get it. But you know what? when you are
40 years old, NO ONE will care what you did or didn't
do, or how it "looked" or what people said...you owe it
to yourself to be able to look back and know that you
followed your dreams and aimed high. And you owe
it to all the girls of the coming generations to help
push some barriers. After all we have the privileges
we have today because other girls pushed down
barriers which is why that we don't have to face them
today. Think not only of what you can do for yourself,
but also how your actions might help other girls you
interact with, and others who follow in subsequent
years. Each small action adds to the collective
progress....my nal thought is a quote from a book by
Richard Bach: "accept your limitations and they're
yours.
Your generation should collectively and
individually push at barriers that limit your thoughts
and your options. And support each other when you
see someone struggling to do this!
And to all students: do not let your syllabus
dene the limit of what you will learn in life. The
syllabus is the LOWER limit, not the upper limit on
what you can learn! Don't expect your teacher to
provide answers- use the internet to its maximum.
Your teachers are there to point the way- do your own
walking and take charge of your own progress.

The above article is an unedited document from

www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/med_image_press_eng.pd