Biosciences in India: Directions, Challenges and Opportunities

An Early Careers Workshop at the Biophysical Society Meeting, February 20th-24th 2010, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
The Early Careers Committee of the Biophysical Society hosted a workshop on Indian Science at the Society’s Annual Meeting in February 2010 at San Francisco. The workshop, Biosciences in India: Directions, Challenges and Opportunities, was designed to inform young biophysicists about the rapidly growing opportunities for research in India. The event led by Prof. Jyotsna Dhawan (Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, InStem ) and Prof. Sudipta Maiti (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, TIFR) covered a broad range of topics and included an interactive question session. The lunchtime session drew a large and inquisitive crowd of graduate students, postdocs and young faculty. The workshop was funded by the Early Careers Committee, with travel support from InStem, TIFR and NCBS.

Prof. Dhawan gave an overview of how Indian science was evolving, highlighting new opportunities while specifically showcasing stem cell biology. Prof. Maiti focused on biophysical research in India, and described how resources, infrastructure and funding opportunities had grown exponentially in the last decade and were no longer rate-limiting. Prof. Yamuna Krishnan (National Centre for Biological Sciences, NCBS) described her experiences in setting up her young laboratory and especially encouraged multidisciplinary researchers to consider jobs in India. 

The discussion period drew a large range of questions, from details about the job application process to the opportunity for multidisciplinary research; from questions on attracting the best graduate students to the balance of salaries and living costs; from enquiries about availability of reagents to the “two-body problem in science”. Indeed it was evident from the questions that there is an as yet unmet need for getting information out to the new generation of scientific leaders. Hopefully the concerted efforts of the YIM meetings along with the wealth of information on www.indiabioscience.org are creating awareness that will spread through word of mouth. Have you told your friends and colleagues yet?

Medha M. Pathak
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA