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VOL. XXIV NO. 22, March 1-15, 2015
A vision comes true
by Sriram V.

(Continued from last fortnight)

Professor Alladi Ramakrishnan.

Krishnaswami Alladi concludes the story of the birth of MATSCIENCE, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the efforts of his father, Professor Alladi Ramakrishnan, and the role of his Theoretical Physics Seminar in the creation of this Institute in Madras on January 3, 1962.

R.A. Gopalaswami, Chief Secretary of the Government of Madras, who had a strong leaning towards the mathematical sciences, asked Father on December 5th to formulate the aims and objectives of the proposed institute, at the suggestion of Minister C.  Subramaniam. Father was ready for this crucial moment and supplied the requested document the next day. Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Prime Minister had begun seeking opinions on initial proposal which Father had sent him through C. Subramanian soon after the meeting with the Prime Minister at Raj Bhavan on October 8th.

There were two aspects in which C. Subramaniam played a crucial role in the ultimate decision: The first was to convince the Prime Minister that a new institute was necessary, as had been proposed by Father. The second was that it should be in Madras. C. Subramaniam later wrote:

“The Prime Minister referred the matter to Dr. Homi Bhabha for his advice. Unfortunately, Dr. Bhabha was not very enthusiastic. His contention was that the available limited resources would have to be utilised for the existing institution, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

The MATSCIENCE Institute in Chennai.

“When the Prime Minister passed on the opinion of Dr. Bhabha to me, I requested him to arrange a meeting between me, Dr. Bhabha and himself to discuss this matter. The meeting was arranged and I argued my case for a separate institution in the South, particularly when talented students in the South were not getting opportunities for pursuing their interests because of the limited number of students admitted to TIFR. I also emphasised that mathematical sciences did not require heavy investment. Panditji also showed his inclination to accept my point of view.  So Dr. Bhabha also gave his consent. Thereafter steps were taken to establish what is now well known as the Institute of Mathematical Sciences....For the purpose of emphasising the importance of this Institute, and for its proper funding, I thought we should have Jawaharlal Nehru himself as the Patron of the Institute. When I mentioned this to him, he gladly agreed. I requested Dr.  Bhabha to be a member of the first Governing Body of the Institute (and he agreed).”

With the approval given by the Prime Minister, steps were taken at a rapid pace to create an Institute in the next two weeks. Prof. Ramakrishnan later wrote:

“December 7th was a significant day. I met Mr. Subramaniam and the Chief Secretary, both of whom agreed to the creation of the Institute. Meanwhile seminars were going on with unabated vigour in Ekamra Nivas....

“On December 20th, I met Mr. Subramaniam at the Madras airport on his return from Delhi. What a thrilling moment it was when he informed me that the Prime Minister had agreed to be the Patron of the Institute! On December 22nd at 1:30 pm, I was called by the Education Secretary, K. Srinivasan, who issued an order of appointment to me as the Director of the Institute. What a providential coincidence that it should be the birthday of Srinivasa Ramanujan! I met the great astrophysicist Subrahmanyam Chandrasekar (of the University of Chicago) the same evening to inquire whether he could inaugurate the Institute on January 3, 1962. He agreed to do so provided we obtained suitable air reservations for him  (to return to the United States) the next day. What a simple request from so great a man!”

On December 22nd, there was a music concert in the Seminar Hall of Ekamra Nivas for the delegates of the Annual Symposium on Cosmic Rays. The concert originally intended for the symposium delegates turned out also to be a celebration of the news about the launch of MATSCIENCE!

The next day, Father tendered his resignation to the University of Madras.

Time was short, with barely ten days for the inauguration. Overnight, more than a hundred letters were typed and sent to scientists all over the world announcing the launch of MATSCIENCE, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. From December 27th onwards, telegrams started pouring in from Nobel Laureates and other eminent scientists heralding the creation of the new Institute and congratulating Father on his appointment as its Director. These congratulatory messages included several from Nobel Laureates.

Prof. Ramakrishnan later wrote: “What a thrill and excitement it was to greet the New Year (in this fashion), and for the Institute to be inaugurated on January 3rd by Professor S. Chandrasekhar at a public function presided over by its primary supporter Mr. C. Subramaniam. I could not sleep the whole night as cablegrams of greetings were being delivered every hour and through the night from various parts of the world. I was too excited to prepare my inaugural speech, and I decided to deliver it extempore under the inspiration of the exalted moment.

“The Institute was inaugurated at 9:00 am in the Old English Lecture Hall of the Presidency College where I had listened to many lectures during my study in the Honours Course. I gave my speech stating it was a dream fulfilled. ...It was a reflection of the past, an estimate of the present, and a peep into the future of science in India.”

Father was an orator par excellence, and I have enjoyed hearing many of his outstanding lectures and speeches over the years, both in India and abroad. His speech The Miracle has Happened at the inauguration of MATSCIENCE was the finest he delivered in his life! As a six-year-old boy, I was in the front row at the Old English Lecture Hall listening to this speech which still resonates within me. The speech was delivered extempore, as was his style, and later reproduced from a recording.

The academic work of the new institute began immediately with a lecture by Professor Chandrasekhar on gravitation in the physics lecture room where he and his illustrious uncle Nobel Laureate Sir C. V. Raman had studied as undergraduates. MATSCIENCE was initially given two rooms in the Presidency College where it functioned for two years before moving to the Central Polytechnic Campus in Adyar in April 1964.

All members of the Theoretical Physics Seminar as of January 1962 joined the new Institute at various levels – R. Vasudevan, N.R. Ranganathan, T.K. Radha, G. Bhanumathi, S. Indumathi, R. Thunga, V. Devanathan, G. Ramachandran, K. Venkatesan, A.P. Balachandran, K. Ananthanarayanan, K. Raman, and R.K. Umerjee. They all continued to give seminars vigorously in the new premises of the Institute. But from time to time, Father and his students held seminars in the evenings at Ekamra Nivas for a few years after the creation of the Institute.

Perhaps the first few years of the Institute were the finest in terms of vibrancy of the Visiting Scientists Programme. Professor Rosenfeld who visited the Institute in 1963 expressed wonder on how so much was being done in such modest surroundings and with an even more modest budget. He also said that in every place in Europe where he had earlier been, there was someone who had visited, or was intending to visit, MATSCIENCE. The Institute was formally registered on Friday, July 13, 1962. The Institute moved to more spacious accommodation on the top floor of a building in the Central Polytechnic Campus in 1964 and, finally, to its own premises in 1969 where it continues to function today.

(Concluded)

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A vision comes true
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