The new president of the Australian Academy of Sciences talks about his hopes for Australian science during his term.
Dr Jagadish Chennupati was never supposed to be a physicist. As a child, his favourite subject was maths, and going to school in India during the 1960s, good grades in maths meant you’d go on to study engineering at university.
“If you were good at biology, you became a doctor. If you were good at maths, you became an engineer. That’s just how it was back then,” Chennupati told The Brilliant. But his grades began to dip in his teenage years. “I goofed around a bit too much. That meant I couldn’t do engineering, so I pursued a bachelor’s in applied physics instead.”
Chennupati’s pursuit of physics and later nanotechnology would see him leave his home village of Vallurupalem in Andhra Pradesh to work in the sprawling metropolis of Delhi, before going to Canada and then Australia. He became the new president of the Australian Academy of Sciences in May – the first person of Indian heritage to take on the role. “If it inspires others that a boy from a small village can reach the pinnacles of Australian science, then that serves a good purpose,” he says. “But I also hope I was chosen for my abilities.”
After graduating with a PhD in physics from the University of Delhi in 1986, Chennupati spent three years as a lecturer teaching electronics. But he really wanted to work in lab at the coalface of new discoveries. It was a bumpy start getting there, however.
“There was no internet or email back in the 1980s, so it was really hard to hear about opportunities,” he says. “I was applying to all the positions at the back of Physics Today, but the magazines were old by the time they got to me in India.”
By the time he could submit an application, the role had invariably been filled.
“People outside of India didn’t have knowledge of the institutions on my CV either,” says Chennupati. In short: it was an uphill battle.
An international career path
In total, Chennupati counted about 300 rejection letters as a young researcher. He says it was hard to take on the chin at the time, but hopes there is a lesson in it – that tenacity can pay off.
He eventually heard from a friend about an opening for a post-doctoral fellowship studying magnets at Queens University in Canada. He managed to get his application in on time and got the role, even though he didn’t know much about magnets.
Chennupati recalls spending much of his weekends doing background research to prepare for the experiments, but after just two years, he’d published 10 academic papers, which helped him to make a name for himself.
“I really wanted to prove to my boss that he didn’t make a mistake in hiring me, despite me not exactly being an expert in that field,” he says.
In 1990, Chennupati moved to Canberra to be a research scientist at the Australian National University (ANU). “My wife and I moved with a two-month-old baby and a two-year contract,” he says. “We never thought we’d stay past two years, but ANU has been very good to us and offered me a permanent position.”
Chennupati’s research at ANU has focussed on nanotechnology. “We make the smallest lasers in the world,” he says. “We can put about 20 in the width of a strand of hair. Smaller lasers consume less energy and can be switched on and off faster, which is good for communications.”
The aim of his work is to improve the speed and energy efficiency of signals between computer chips.
A knowledge-based economy
Applied research such as this offers Australia a prosperous future, says Chennupati. It’s something he’s keen to foster during his tenure as Australian Academy of Sciences president.
“At the moment, we’re a resource-based economy and I’d like to see us move towards a knowledge-based economy because that’s where the opportunities are,” he says. “We need to develop a national strategy to make this transition.”
Part of that involves building Australia’s research capacity in key fields.
Australia’s vaccine-supply woes during the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of this, says Chennupati. A lack of manufacturing capacity meant Australia had difficulties securing Pfizer vaccine stocks amidst an international scramble for the jab. The government had to lean on the United Kingdom to loan it 4 million vaccine doses.
While that sort of collaboration is to be applauded as a short-term solution, it did show a major gap in Australia’s strategic infrastructure, says Chennupati.
“That sort of manufacturing technology and national capability would be useful for future pandemics,” he says. “Self-sufficiency is important.”
In his capacity as president, Chennupati says he’ll be pushing the federal government to commit to a strategy of long-term investment to ensure Australia’s technology and science industries are well placed to deal with future challenges.
“I also want to create hope for the younger generation,” he says. COVID has had a huge impact on universities, with many of them firing people due to financial issues. Young people were especially vulnerable there. We need to create opportunities for young people in science. They need to feel a sense of hope and desire to stay in Australia and contribute to Australian science.”
Without a highly skilled, science-trained workforce, Chennupati’s desire for an Australian knowledge economy will be difficult to realise. That’s why he hopes to create a series of grants specifically designed to help early-career researchers.
“In the UK, they’ve got specific programmes targeting young people in calls for funding proposals,” he says.
If Australia had a robust funding system that actively sought out younger researchers, it would help those researchers access the resources they need to publish papers, offering them the same leg up he enjoyed following his time researching magnets, says Chennupati.
“If your name isn’t known within your field, how can you get a break?” he says. “It’s tough starting your career in science.”
Article by Benj Plackett