The Department, UW and India: Khorana Exchange Program

Home , Obaid Siddiqi

The Department, UW and India: Khorana Exchange Program by Professor Aseem Ansari Dear Sir/Madam, I have read about your very exciting research on the website and am seeking the privilege of working in your esteemed laboratory, under your excellent guidance…. or so went the request from a faceless, eager, and potentially capable young applicant from India. “Dear Sir/Madam!” had this person really visited my website and failed to unambigu- Aseem's web photograph ously tell my gender from my mugshot? Even if this were true, coming from India, they should have guessed my gender from my fi rst name. My annoyance faded as I recalled a request that I had sent 20 years earlier to a preeminent scientist, Professor Obaid Siddiqi, at one of the best research institutes in India. I had laid bare my soul and waxed on about how this experience would truly permit me to decide whether I should pursue a career in science or, like my mother, become a member of the Indian Navy. I expected an immediate and equally long response Har Gobind Khorana by return mail. And so when just a 10-word reply arrived, I was crushed– even though the message were missing the boat by not establishing a simi- was “I welcome you to join my laboratory for the lar program with India. He smiled and walked me summer.” over to Ken Shapiro (Associate Dean of CALS) Th e experience changed the trajectory of and Kim Santiago (Asia outreach coordinator, my life. I realized that there was pressing need who had organized the A*star evening). “Ken,” for a high quality “match making” program that he said, “Aseem here is volunteering to build identifi ed qualifi ed students and placed them in an Indian A*star program.” I had done no such labs where they would be nurtured and given the thing, but Ken, a charming, mild-mannered, but opportunity to engage in solving exciting prob- very action-oriented Dean for International Pro- lems at the frontiers of science, medicine and grams was not about to let that get in his way. technology. He chatted with me quietly about Indian institutions, post 9/11 visa complications, UW policy Genesis and Ken Shapiro on foreign students, and his interest in connect- Th ese thoughts crystallized one evening at ing UW to as many countries as was possible. the Fall 2005 annual gathering for the A*star stu- Kim would interject whenever we digressed, dents from Singapore. Th e government of Singa- expressing enormous enthusiasm for engaging pore identifi es a handful of outstanding students India and linking the many UW alumni who – “A*star” students – who they then fund from hailed from that subcontinent. college all the way through their fi nal degree (for In January of 2006, at a conference in India Ken Shapiro and Kim Santiago example, a PhD). Th e stu- I heard Arabinda Mitra of the Indo-US science dents have the freedom to and technology forum, or the IUSSTF, extolling choose any institution and the virtues of joint research and exchange of scien- roughly any area of study. tists. “Tired maxims,” I thought, but Mitra jolted Th e students are excep- me out of my cynical state with the magic phrase: tional and an absolute joy to “Money is not a problem. We have money and mentor. are looking for interesting ideas to fund.” Th e At the end of the recep- IUSSTF was brimming with funds and had con- tion, I was standing around tributed to the joint Indo-US meeting that had awkwardly chatting with brought 40 high profi le US scientists to India. Chancellor John Wiley Mitra off ered to seriously consider anything when I pointed out that we consistent with the IUSSTF mission to foster 26 productive and long-term interactions between times to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood. Julius India and the US. Could we get support from the Adler caught me in the act and explained that, in IUSSTF to develop a UW program with India? fact, Gobind had been a faculty member in our Th e answer may take the form of travel awards for department (and the Enzyme Institute) for nearly students and scholars from both nations. a decade. “He did it all here, in that building.” Why then is there no endowed chair in his name Nucleation: Khorana and Adler in the department? Julius shrugged and then in Ken Shapiro was unrelenting in his mission his wonderful way went on to recount some of the to ensure that the program memorable times he had with Gobind. “But you took form. We had several know, he is unwell these days.” It took less than meetings over 2006. Ken a second to suggest that we name the coalescing would pull out his little student program the “Khorana Scholars.” Julius leather bound black book followed through with an email to Gobind to and take copious notes and let him know about this nascent plan. A few then, abruptly, nearly a year days later he informed me that Gobind seemed after the A*star gathering, pleased by the suggestion. Th e “Khorana Scholars he put down his pencil and Program” was born. in a soft but fi rm way he said, “enough talk, let's just Th e pilot project do it.” I asked my colleagues to send me the “Dear But do what exactly, Sir/Madam” letters that they found interesting but and how? Shaped by inces- inscrutable in terms of scholastic aptitude, quality sant grant writing, my of institutions, and such. I pruned a very long list Khorana marker instinct was that approach- to 50 very talented candidates, got transcripts and ing IUSSTF without “preliminary data” was pre- letters, and narrowed it to about 10 candidates; mature. Moreover, the college (CALS) had just phone interviews cut it to 5 fi nalists. In the end told us that they had no money for a non-essential we matched fi ve students with fi ve colleagues. program. “So start a pilot project that I will fund To my horror, one colleague erupted, “But this from the tin can under my pillow,” Ken coun- student was ranked a thousandth in the entrance tered. Walking back from that meeting I nearly exam!” I rushed to explain that nearly 400,000 ran head-on into a no-nonsense metal marker students prepare for nearly two years to take the that honored the work of Har Gobind Khorana grueling IIT-JEE (Indian Institutes of Technology at UW. Th e marker declared that Khorana won - Joint Entrance Exam) and only the top 1-2% get the Nobel prize at UW in 1968 for his work in into these elite institutions. Th e Infosys chairman deciphering the genetic code. He went on to famously quipped “IIT rejects” win top honors Gobind with Julius and make synthetic genes. No scientist from India is at Caltech and Harvard, so a rank of 1000+ from David Adler complete if they don’t know these factoids from the best IIT was actually quite respectable. In the moment when they are the end, Ken could fund only three students. To anointed as “science majors” help the program take its fi rst tentative steps, the in their late teens. Th ey may department chairperson Elizabeth Craig gener- not know what the genetic ously off ered a supplement of $1000 per student– code is or what a synthetic an amount that made an enormous diff erence in gene may be or how this the students’ ability to buy food. led to the birth of modern molecular and chemical biol- Th e pilot project was on! ogy, but by God, we know of Khorana’s greatness and that Transformation he did transcendental things Graduate students from the host labs at at MIT. UW made the visitors feel welcome. Jackie Read- So why was this ing warmly introduced them at the departmen- unyielding marker claiming tal retreat and Jeet Kalia, a former IIT gradu- that he had cracked the code ate, took them under his wing. We took pains at UW? I re-read it a couple of to place them in nurturing and exciting labs at 27 had gone to Uganda with James and was tremen- dously moved by the work. Greatly impressed, I wondered if the Khorana program should also seek to incorporate a similar “exchange” compo- nent to take UW students to India? Th e program thereafter was rebaptized the “Khorana Exchange Program.”

A whirlwind through India At the end of summer 2007, with the pio- neering Khorana fellows back in India and my tenure process in full swing, Ken gracefully stopped asking me to more meetings. As soon as a positive departmental vote on my tenure came through, Ken suddenly reemerged from the shadows with the request that we visit India. Our goals were ambitious– we wanted to iden- tify partner institutions in India, gauge the interest of these institutions in a scientifi c exchange program, learn about areas of relevance to Indian scientists, engage the Indian government and lay Mukul, Ishan and Arpita, the fi rst group of Khorana Scholars the ground work to formally launch the program UW. Arpita Mandan worked on RNA-protein in the fall of 2008– all this in time for the 40th molecular recognition (in Marv Wickens’ lab), anniversary of Khorana’s Nobel Prize award. Ishan Chaturvedi spanned a couple of labs At this stage we reconnected with Kim San- working on nanofabrication with Franco Cer- tiago, who arrived with a list of alumni going rina in engineering and Robert Blick in phys- back to when India was still part of the British ics, and Mukul Garg worked on bioinformatics Raj, and Mahatma Gandhi had not yet returned and microbial genomics (in Bob Landick’s lab). from South Africa to spur on the Indian freedom At the end of their 10 weeks they were fi ghting movement. In looking at the alumni list, Sankar tooth and nail with the IIT administrators to stay Adhya’s name jumped out at me. A prominent on another week and another day and another molecular geneticist at the National Cancer Insti- hour… Finally, they could stay no more and they tute in Bethesda and member of the prestigious gave their presentations to the department. Th e National Academy of Sciences, I had known subsequent windup meeting with Dean Shapiro him from the start of my graduate career. I asked was especially touching. him for advice and he suggested we contact Dr. Mashelkar, (a visionary former head of the Coun- Exchange cil for Scientifi c and Industrial Research (CSIR) An amazing and quite diff erent program and Dr. Balaram, another leading scientist and soon came to my attention. James Ntambi, has the director of the Indian Institute of Science created a remarkable program takes a group of (IISc) in Bangalore. Th e latter institution seemed students to Uganda and intimately introduces like a natural home for UW students, because of them to various health and nutritional issues its scientifi c excellence, academic breadth, set- facing the populace (see page 5 in this newslet- ting in the former royal botanical gardens in the ter, for his update). Students take a class in the lovely city of Bangalore, and the sheer volume of fall semester and then over the winter break, the UW alumni on its faculty. under James’ tutelage, attend workshops and Working non-stop for two and half months, work in camps in Uganda. Many students fi nd it Ken, Kim and I lined up 50 meetings that we a transformative experience: some have gone on would have in 7 cities across India over a span to start their own non-governmental organiza- of 14 days! We met with Directors/Chancellors, tions to continue work on the projects that they Deans, Department chairs, and students from encountered during their trip. Ken Shapiro too over 12 academic institutions - and even explored

28 experimental farms. We met with the former to bankroll the program - completely unsolicited. Prime Minister (Mr. I. K. Gujral), the current cabinet Minister of Science and Technology (Mr. A new and ambitious identity Kapil Sibal), and heads of the major scientifi c From our discussions with friends and poten- organizations (CSIR and the Dept. of Biotech- tial partners, three major objectives emerged: nology). As we crisscrossed India, ministers, gov- ernors, academicians, industrial giants, alumni 1. Provide Indian and American students with - nearly everyone - added new dimensions to our a transformative experience objectives. Th e breadth of excellence across UW allowed us to fl esh them all out. In Bangalore, 2. Engage in Indian rural development we met with Obaid Siddiqi, who nearly 20 years earlier had started me on my academic path. 3. Increase interaction between academia and None of this would have been possible the private sector between the two nations without the help of alumni and friends such as Krishna Ella of Bharat Biotech, who went out Th e third objective illustrates how the objec- of his way (literally, he came to Delhi and Banga- tives of the program were shaped by suggestions lore from his company head quarters in Hydera- of the people we met. In a meeting arranged bad) to arrange and shepherd the meetings with by Raj Rajaram we presented our objectives to the government. Dipankar Chatterji, at IISc, Sam Pitroda, who then strongly encouraged us allowed us to introduce the Khorana program to aggressively engage in rural development. Th e to biomedical scientists from all over India and Indian consul-general in Chicago (Mr. Ashok the Pacifi c Rim at the Asian Conference of Tran- Attri) seconded that notion and another dimen- scription (ACT-X at Bangalore). And through sion to our program was added – rural develop- the courtesy of Raj Rajaram, a member of the ment in all its avatars is now a major objective of UW alumni board, and Sam Pitroda, the chair- the Khorana Program. Soon after our fi rst visit man of the Indian National Knowledge Com- we were immediately invited back to India by mission, the program was given a prime time Mr. Rahul Gandhi and the Rajiv Gandhi foun- showing by Srinivasa Rao at the annual meeting dation to fl esh out this objective. of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Th e Khorana program, we anticipate, will with its 5000 attendees. S. Viswanathan, who provide a life-enriching experience for students visited UW and was the fi rst to suggest that we from both nations, build bridges between work with his foundation on agricultural pro- scientists/institutions and lead to virtual and ductivity, invited us to present the program to seamless scientifi c communities across the world. the Governor and the former Governor of Tamil If it continues along its current trajectory, and if it Nadu and a slew of infl uential agricultural tech- garners further support from friends and alumni, nocrats. Masood Akhtar, a Madison-based the program will grow beyond undergraduates, entrepreneur who was once with Forest Products beyond summer exchanges, beyond chemical lab, set up meetings with the Vice Chancellor of biology, beyond the current boundaries and his alma mater and in an inspired moment he would make UW the focus of a much broader even off ered to fund a Khorana fellow from Ali- program between US and India. Th e scope may garh to Madison. Finally, in Delhi, we benefi ted match that of the Fulbright program but with an from the charm and hospitality of Ravi Khanna emphasis on Science, Medicine and Technology. who helped fi re up an informal alumni meeting. Th e challenge now will be to make the Khorana Trained as an electrical engineer at UW, this real program self-sustaining and retain its nimbleness estate magnate also expanded our horizons with to adapt to new and unanticipated areas of discussions of metaphysics and nature of con- interest and most importantly, to maintain its sciousness – between libations that foster fl uidity excellence. of mind. More information on the program can be Finally, as tangible evidence of the wide- found at the following website: spread enthusiasm for the program, the Indian government’s Minister Sibal and UW’s Chancel- https://www.biochem.wisc.edu/faculty/ lor Wiley, both known for fi scal prudence, off ered ansari/khorana_program/