Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, President-elect of Britain's Royal Society
Britain's prestigious Royal Society will try to foster greater interaction between India and the UK, said India-born Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, President-elect of the society, today.
"I would like to foster greater interaction between India and Britain through the Royal Society," Dr Ramakrishnan, popularly known as Venky, said at a luncheon hosted in his honour by the Indian Journalists Association.
Dr Ramakrishnan has been confirmed as president-elect of the Royal Society and will become the first Indian-origin scientist to take up the post on December 1 this year.
Describing his new assignment as "both challenging and exciting", Dr Ramakrishnan said he accepted the offer because "it is a chance to repay my debt to Britain, for fostering my life in Britain".
He noted that Indian Nobel Laureates like Sir CV Raman, Dr Chandrasekhar and Sir Khurana were members of the Royal Society before they became Nobel Laureates.
"India is the only country which enshrined in its Constitution to encourage scientific temper in the country," said the 63-year-old structural biologist who shared the 2009 chemistry Nobel Prize for discovering the precise structure of ribosomes - the molecular machines that manufacture proteins inside all living cells.
Among those present on the occasion were leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and Kartar Lalvani, Founder Chairman of the Vitabiotics, the largest Vitamin selling Company in Britain.
The Royal Society dates back to 1660 and its president is a key advocate for science in the UK and the world.
Previous presidents of the Royal Society have included Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy and Ernest Rutherford.