CHINTAMANI N.R. RAO Research Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

"I don't like to spend time at gab fests. At my stage in life, I have too little time for research to indulge in these things,'' he is explaining to somebody over the phone why he must decline an invitation to be part of a felicitation function. It's a December Sunday morning, and I am at the office of Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao at the sprawling Indian Institute of Science's campus in Bangalore. The man on the phone looks every bit what, I am told, he is: a distinguished professor. He is dressed in a rather trussed up shirt, his thin frizzy hair fluttering to the ceiling fan's slow rotation.

While there is nothing formidable about his appearance, I can feel a mild, child-like fear creeping up on me. It's the same fear that one experiences if you are a poor student and have been ushered into the office of your school principal to explain your performance. It's not raw fear, but one that springs from reverence for the other person and a sense of your own inadequacy. And in this case, it would be presumptuous for most scholars-forget me-to even hint at some kind of an intellectual parity with Rao, the Linus Pauling research professor and President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

Try matching this for credentials: Rao has not one or two but 28 doctorate degrees from nine international and 17 national universities; he has authored 36 books and written more than 1,200 research papers; he is a fellow of 24 major science academies (unlike a membership, a fellowship is only on invitation); he is on the editorial board of 15 professional journals and the editor of two; he has won 20 international awards (Marlow Medal from the Faraday Society and the Hevrosky Gold Medal from the Czech Academy of Sciences to name two, besides Padma Vibhushan and the C.V. Raman Award for experimental research); he is currently the President of Third World Academy of Sciences; he has been a scientific adviser to the Prime Minister of India, Director of the Indian Institute of Science and is the current chairman of IIT Kanpur; he has been a member of every-yes, every-single scientific and technology committee set up by the government of India in the past 30 years. Last but certainly not the least, he is considered a world authority on solid state and materials chemistry and is routinely tipped to be the next Nobel Prize winner from India. Says Tony Cheetham, Director of Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara: ''The work done by Prof Rao is extremely fundamental (to) our understanding of material sciences.''

Despite his towering stature in the world of science, Rao loses no time in putting me at ease. It's his wife's birthday today, he informs me, and he's planning to take her out in the afternoon. ''Even at 69,'' says Rao, ''I am a romantic at heart. It's my wife who has borne the brunt of my odd working hours,'' he says. The easy banter, the enviable ability to balance serious scientific work with a zeal for life comes easy to Rao. People in his trade may be in awe of him, but the man himself loves being in the company of young students. Why? Simply because he believes that Indian mind and Indian capabilities are the best in the world and as a professor it is his job to help young, enthusiastic minds make India a scientific superpower. ''The average Indian psyche is defeatist and negative, we have to change that to succeed,'' he says.

People who know Rao say that his zeal for science and its education is not new. But Rao, who graduated with a BSc. degree from Mysore University in 1951, gained recognition when he was a doctoral student at Purdue University in 1958, for the work he did in the study of structure of molecules using electron defraction of gases. From then on, it has been a research journey, studded with recognition and awards-the Marlow Medal in 1967, the Bhatnagar Prize in 1968, Padma Shri in 1974, Padma Vibushan in 1985....

Even at IISC, which he joined in 1959, eventually becoming its director between 1984 and 1994, Rao is credited with expanding the institution in terms of both its academic activity and infrastructure. Says G. Padmanaban, Honorary Professor and Emeritus Scientist, IISC, who succeeded Rao as the director: ''Honestly, I felt nervous getting into his shoes.''

Rao's bigger preoccupation, which has turned into a crusade of sorts, is trying to help India realise its scientific potential. ''I do not belong to the doom and gloom school of thought,'' he declares. ''I feel that we've only scratched the surface of India's potential in science and technology. By 2030-I may not be alive then-but I am sure India would have become the knowledge storehouse of the world.''

For that to happen, Rao says, the country needs to change its education and research system. He contrasts the government's success in space and atomic research with the state of institutes of higher learning, where ''infrastructure is crumbling and the quality of research output mediocre at best.''

His solution: Give the private sector a greater role in most areas, and make sure the government focuses on those where the private sector has no commercial motive to invest in. At the same time, he maintains that it is a mistake for the government to withdraw from higher education. Reason being that there is no varsity in the private sector in India that is world class.

But it's not as if Rao thinks the private sector has either all the answers or doing all the right things. He cites his own case as an example. Although Rao is considered a worldwide authority in the area of solid state and materials chemistry-the University of California pays him $20,000 for the one month he teaches there every year-it is American and Japanese companies that tap him, not Indian. ''Not a single Indian company has come to me and said 'Prof. Rao, here is a problem that we are not able to solve. Can you help us?'''

A greater emphasis on result-oriented research, better industry-academia cooperation, and greater appreciation of patents and intellectual property rights, says Rao (ironically, despite 1,200 research papers, he has no patents to his name-that's because, he says, during his era there was no patenting culture and taking out patents cost $10,000 a pop), will help make scientific research more effective. Besides generating IP and patents, he adds, it is their commercial application that must be emphasised. ''Education and healthcare are the twin arcs on which India can power its way to a globally significant role,'' he feels.

At an age when most people have hung up their boots, what keeps Rao going? Rao relates an anecdote to answer that question: ''I was working with a student on nano tubes. I suggested that we make the first nano crystals of Gallium Nitride, which is a semiconducting electronic material of the future. After two months of trial and effort, one night the student cried Eureka! It had worked. Like a child with a new toy, I could not sleep properly for two weeks.''

Now you know why a mere felicitation ceremony pales in comparison to the sheer thrill of discovery. Even if you are 69. And even if you've achieved more than what most ever will.