Dr. Ron Valle, vice president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and executive director of the Genelia Research Campus, greets the crowd as he is shown on the large screen before his lecture on ‘Amazing Molecular Motors’ during the Distinguished Lecture in Life Sciences during TNQ were shown. At the JN Tata Auditorium in Bengaluru on Friday, January 13. Photo credits: K. Bhagya Prakash
Ron Valle, Vice President, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Maryland, USA and special speaker of the TNQ Distinguished Lectures on Life Sciences – 2023, said on Friday that curiosity-driven basic research in India is essential and should be encouraged.
Addressing students and researchers on “Amazing Molecular Motors” at JN Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Dr. Ron said, “Curiosity-driven basic research is essential and I think we need to do more of it in India and the world.” US has to be promoted because it is the engine of the future.
enthusiasm for science
He also told the audience, especially students, that they don’t need to make a famous discovery to feel that sense of excitement.
“I remember when I was in high school, I set up a lab in my basement and I had a little question I was trying to answer… There was something really thrilling a thousand-million times over, but to come up with a question of your own to solve and learn something new that no one else in mankind ever knew. That piece of knowledge, however small, it was something That’s what you deal with and you solve. I think that’s the joy of science and you know the incredible excitement of discovery,” he said.
curiosity and persistence
Dr. Ron said that the key qualities that make a great scientist are curiosity and persistence.
“Some people ask me what it takes to be a great scientist and I would say it is curiosity first and foremost. If you can keep that element of curiosity burning whether you are a high school student or a graduate student or head of the institute, it is fundamental to science. Another quality which is very important is persistence. Not every experiment works. I would like to say that nature does not give up secrets easily and you sometimes have to do many experiments. problems, or find new ways to approach a problem,” said Dr. Ron.