Strong Motivation & Interest is needed for research.

Dear Friends,

I want to say some of my ideas on the importance of strong motivation & interest needed for a researcher.

We can see many scientists, who won Nobel prizes and big scientific awards, might not have studied the same subjects & might not have did doctoral degree in the field in which they got Nobel Prizes. Its very clear that the subjects that we are studying in college  or school is not going to be our fate, unless we are interested in that field. There are two professors in my college life who made me to realise this..

One is Prof.Yury Gogotsi from Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia. He used to say, motivation is the strong factor that makes you to achieve something great. THE WORD 'MOTIVATION' I MEAN HERE IS INTERNAL MOTIVATION, FROM OUR INNERSELF..HERE IT CAN BE RATHER CALLED AS INTEREST. Sometimes some speech from great people can make us to realise the meaning of this word. If one is motivated from outside everytime, it cannot sustain for long.So we need to have our own interest to achieve some specific goal..Ofcourse some sort of initiation is needed to give a startup..This cannot come right from birth..We all are not Ramanujam or Einstien. 

There is another Professor from Swiss Federal Ins. of Tech., Prof.Michael Graetzel, who also said that motivation & interest can take you to the place where you want to go..

If we set a vision or goal to achieve some specific target, we will start to work in vast majority of fields to achieve that target...Here we wont feel that I am a chemistry student, so I cannot do mathematics or I am an electronic engineer, so I cannot work in biology or so..We will keep working in any subjects to reach our goal..Its really true that if we fix our destination, we wont dare to travel in any path to reach that destination..Its all again depends on how much we are interested & motivated in reaching our goal.

But in India, students are not given enough opportunity to identify their goals..However strongly motivated or interested, one need some sort of constant encouragement (from professors probably) till they realise that failures are the part of research life. Without encouragement, those failures at initial stage of research life make us feel wierd and sometimes we may give up our goal..Infact I feel no such encouragement are given for young researchers in India..Always senior people's ideas dominate and youngsters ideas are never been utilized....If a student say some interesting idea to solve a problem, most of professors(not all) do not care and reject those budding scientific ideas..This is how Indian students are being brought up to the society, whom are considered, the pillars of future India....

But still, there are many good advisors and motivators(Research advisor most often) and because of them India is atleast sustaining the world's competition....

And, if a student(in India) secures low mark in exams, then the society affix a big stamp on them saying, he/she is worthless..I feel its not true in all the cases..Sometimes, the student might not have interested in that specific subject in which the exam is being conducted or he/she might have become nervous in examination atmosphere...Or he/she might not have liked the professor(sorry to say this, but its true.I myself have experienced this) who taught the subject and I can keep saying or .. or .. or...But the interest of those students need to be identified by some career counselling and they should be encouraged to work on their interest...I feel, this sort of motivation is very very important...If a student work on his/her own research interest(& prepared to work hard),  they will be the best in the world....

I remember some lines from the Nobel Lecture of Prof.Harry Kroto(Univ of Sussex..He was awarded Nobel Prize for the discovery Carbon Fullerenes, the third allotrope of Carbon).....

"My advice is to do something which interests you or which you enjoy (though I am not sure about the definition of enjoyment) and do it to the absolute best of your ability. If it interests you, however mundane it might seem on the surface, still explore it because something unexpected often turns up just when you least expect it. With this recipe, whatever your limitations, you will almost certainly still do better than anyone else. Having chosen something worth doing, never give up and try not to let anyone down."

(Source : www.nobelprize.org)

So we, young Indian researchers & students should not give up our interest & motivation in reaching  a goal.......

I feel, with this enthusiasm, we can achieve some great things in future which can make our  country as a best research hub in the world....

Aravind.