Baroda boy to be new president of Royal Society, joins league of Newton and Rutherford

When Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman (Venki) Ramakrishnan takes over as the president of the Royal Society in December this year, he will be occupying the same position that was once held by Isaac Newton and Ernest Rutherford.

The 350-year society is the oldest scientific institution in the world and the list of its current Fellowship reads like virtual who's who of global science, featuring some 80 Nobel laureates and biggies like Stephen Hawking and Tim Berners-Lee. Venki was confirmed as the President - elected by the society on Thursday night. He will be the Royal Society President for five years. There have been 60 presidents since the society was founded in 1660.

Sir Venki, currently deputy director of the Laboratory for Molecular Biology in UK, was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 2009 for his work on ribosomes. He grew up in India and did his BSc in physics from Baroda University, and doctorate from Ohio University in the US. After a distinguished scientific career in America, he moved to the UK in 1999.

Observers see Venki's international experience and varied scientific and academic background as his strength.

"It is indeed wonderful news for Indian science and scientists that an Indian has been elected to head the society. It shows that only merit, not other considerations, matter in the world of science," commented R A Mashelkar, a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and former director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Currently, about 20 Indian scientists are Fellows of the Royal Society.

Very few people would know that the first Indian to become an FRS was Ardaseer Cursetjee, an engineer from Bombay, in 1841.

The Royal Society has had a key role in shaping science and technology policies soon after the independence. All key scientific advisors of Prime Minister Nehru were FRS - Homi Bhabha, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. Nehru relied heavily on the advice given by AV Hill, Biological Secretary of the Royal Society and Nobel laureate PMS Blackett, in the matters of organizing scientific institutions in independent India.