E-Paper
Indian-American joins National Academy of Engineering
Subhash Mahajan, an engineer from Amritsar, recently joined the ranks of America's NAE and the NAS.
He has an airy, austere office. A large model of red and grey atoms - a testament to his passion - stands on his file cabinet. He looks remarkably unassuming in a big leather chair, but as he swivels around, in his calm smile you can read the story of a life undefeated. He is pressed for time but speaks unhurriedly with the confidence of a man who knows that when he talks people listen.
Subhash Mahajan was 21 when he came to America in 1961. In less than half a century, he has realised the American dream to its utmost. From Indian Institute of Science to America's elite academy of engineers, Mahajan has lived a life most people only read about in biographies of the celebrated and successful.
This brilliant engineer from Amritsar recently joined the ranks of America's National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Popularly known as the "engineering Oscars," it is the highest professional distinction accorded to engineers and scientists in the United States. He joins some 2,000 peer-elected engineers, including 50 Indians, who are among the world's most accomplished engineers. His name is now forever etched with the likes of Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca and Lou Gershner.
The Indian members of NAE and NAS are no less distinguished. They include Nobel Laureates Hargobind Khorana and Subrammanyam Chandrasekshar, Amar Bose (of Bose corporation), former Bell Labs President Arun Netravali, C Kumar Patel, also formerly of Bell Labs, Raj Reddy of Carnegie Mellon, and Tom Kailath of Stanford University.
Mahajan was chosen for his seminal work in studying the origin of defects in semiconductors and their influence on device behaviour. His research has several potential public applications. It could help improve bio-terrorism efforts through the use of portable devices that allow short-wavelength ultraviolet light to analyze molecules for greater efficiency, effectiveness and safety. It could aid information technology by the transmission of data through glass fibers using lasers, allowing for more information transmittal at a cheaper cost. Cheaper telephones, compact discs with a higher density storage capacity, cleaner water, and more efficient traffic regulation are other possibilities.
It might sound flippant but weather has played a big role in Mahajan's illustrious journey from India to America.
After a bachelor's degree in science from Punjab University and a bachelor's degree in metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, he went to Burnpur, Asansol, for training in a steel plant. "It was 120 degrees outside, 140 degrees inside. I decided this is not the kind of life I want," he says. This decision led him to Mumbai. "But it rained here all the time." So he packed his bags and flew far from the heat and the rain into the moderate clime of California.
Mahajan had admission to MIT but Boston's cold deterred him. He chose to go to Berkley where he completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering. Eventually, rain and cold caught up with him when he started working in England for the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
From England, midway between America and India, he hoped to return to India some day. But America had bigger plans for him. Even before India could exert an influence, AT&T Bell Laboratories pulled him back into the US.
