Healthcare and Science thomsonreuters.com

I became interested in science in Class 8 or 9 at school and so from a young age I was attracted by the colors, sounds and smells of chemistry. Over the years I believe it has become less practical in the way it is taught, but chemistry is about the real world. I certainly learned many things through my studies and I was very lucky to win a place to complete my PhD in the United States.

A friend's mother had mentioned her son was studying in Chicago and that I should go there too so I applied to Illinois only to find out later that the son was actually at a completely different university! As luck would have it I had been accepted into one of the best chemistry departments in the world.

David Curtin, my tutor, is a man a few words but what he did tell me was very valuable. He said for me to pick a subject that was different to others, different to him because he was established and, rightly or wrongly, he would always be considered to be the higher authority.

On returning to India I began looking into crystal engineering; how molecules are brought together and what influences the chemical reactions in solid objects. At Hyderbad University I was the 25th faculty member to join so we were very new and quite poor but this afforded us a beggar's freedom — nobody was really paying attention to us so we could get on with the business of research.

I am best known for giving weight to the central principle of how organic solids are put together. There are two elements that can help you as a scientist: timing and instinct. Knowledge in this area showed us a great many uses — for example lasers, magnets and conductive devices.

Second is my work in weak hydrogen bonds. Everyone knew about the strong bonds — they are easy to spot but weak bonds are like a shadow. So I looked into their purpose, calling on biology to lend a hand. In biology 'weak' is very important and I submitted a number of papers that theorized on the distinctive influences these weaker bonds have in structural chemistry.

Links between crystal engineering and weak hydrogen bonding have shown us new applications in the pharmaceutical industry. For example ;polymorphism is often characterized as the ability of a drug substance to exist as two or more crystalline phases that have different arrangements and/or conformations of the molecules in the crystal lattice. A good example of a non-pharma polymorph is carbon; in diamond, graphite and buckyball it has three different forms yet all with the same chemical structure.

In my early years I published some papers that I look at now and think 'how primitive!' but this is all part of being a scientist to develop, to be allowed to make mistakes and to have the freedom to ask questions that may take you to another realm.