Nobel prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan makes TN proud

US Scientist Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has made his native State Tamil Nadu proud by winning the nobel prize for chemistry.

He is the third scientist from the State to win the great Honor after C V Raman in 1930 and Dr S Chandrasekhar in 1983.

Venki Ramakrishnan as he is called, studied Pre University course from Annamalai University in Chidambaram. In 1971, he obtained his B Sc in Physics from Baroda University. He did his Ph D in Physics from Ohio University in 1976. Between 1976-78, he was a graduate student in Biology from University of California.

Born in India, Venki became a US Citizen. He has won several awards and honors. He has also co-authored several books in bio chemistry. He had worked at various universities. He was a post doctoral fellow in the department of chemistry in Yale University ( 1978-82).

Later, he served at various versities including University of Utah and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England. Since 2008, he has been a fellow at Trinity college, Cambridge.

In an interview, Venki had said it was in high school that he really became interested in science and thought it would be a good career for him. " I have to confess that my parents were both scientists so I was exposed- so this may sound a bit like a farmer���s son becoming a farmer, but, I don���t think they particularly pushed me- if anything my father would have preferred that I become a medical doctor", he said in the interview.