Physics Dept
Significance of Research Day: Research day is a time to exhibit aptitude for research scholars and it is an occasion for the students to be inspired by scientists and their achievements. It is an opportunity to get motivated to do greater things. The immediate purpose of research in an academic institution might be to earn PhD. PhD is just a license to conduct further research on your own, after being trained and groomed by the research guide. In Germany, one has to produce another research work after the doctoral dissertation, known as Habilitation, in order to be promoted as the professor. Elsewhere it would be called postdoctoral research.
Doctor of Philosophy: MPhil is expanded as Master of Philosophy and PhD is expanded as Doctor of Philosophy. What would be your philosophy when you earn your MPhil or PhD? Much depends on your philosophy of life – Whether you succeed or fail in your endeavors depends much on your philosophy – to be aggressive, to be submissive, to be rational, to be emotional etc.
Let me share with you something about my research experience: I started my doctoral research in organic photoconductor, phthalocyanine by name which is a blue-dye material, at Boston College in the USA and moved on to electrical properties of material during my post-doctoral research in Stuttgart Technical University, Germany. Once back in Loyola I ventured upon combining organic with inorganic photoconductors, making a move into conducting polymers. Recently, as the Gasson Professor of Boston College in the USA, I pitched my research-tent in Religion and Science.
I could talk about my philosophy in understanding the reality: In the 5th century BC, Aristotle, the father of philosophy, said that world was single dimensional, namely the world below is the reflection of world above. Then, in the 3rd century BC, Euclid, the father of geometry, said that the world in two-dimensional – length and breath. Newton came in, nearly after 20 centuries, and indicated that the world is three dimensional, length, breath, and depth/height. And in the 19th century, Einstein added one-more dimension: His world is a space-time continuum, that is, length, breath, depth or height and time. I was reflecting on this and I thought something was still missing in this world picture. I realized that if I am not conscious of this world that I see or perceive, the world does not exist for me. It is my being conscious of reality that makes the world concrete, tangible, and existing for me. Hence, I have proposed the fifth dimension of the world saying that the reality is a spectrum of probable possibilities based on how conscious I am of the world or universe I perceive and understand.
My current research is to find a bridge between religion and science. My understanding and assertion is that religion and science are complementary and not contradictory. They are, according to me, different aspects of the same reality. Science would tell us how the universe functions, while religion would teach us why there should be the universe. Science has not said the final word, where as Religion would always dogmatic, no change could be effected easily.
What is research for?: Research day gives us impulse to go ahead with our research with renewed insight and confidence to explore and experience more. A researcher is a visionary and a prophet because he/she envisions and predicts the future reality through his/her findings and contributions to the world of science. In this magnificent mission, theory and experiment have to go hand in hand. We need insightful theoreticians to give a lead for the experimentalists. Conversely, the experimentalists’ data are often meaningfully interpreted by expert theoreticians.
Just take the example of the General Theory of Relativity – Einstein came up with it in 1915 but not all his predictions are at once proved experimentally – Attempts are made and some are proved. For example: The bending of light by the sun was proved in 1919.
The non-stationary of cosmos and the expansion of the universe were discovered by Hubble in 1929 when he studied exploding supernovae.
Cosmic microwave background radiation of 3K was confirmed in 1964.
Gravitation redshift, resulting in slowing down of time due to gravity, was found out in 1954 (You can recall that light takes 8 minutes to reach us from the sun).
Gravitation waves were confirmed a reality by LIGO team (Laser Interferometer Gravitation-Wave Observatory at MIT) in 2016.
And work is on to prove other predictions. We hope that all would be experimentally proved and one day all predictions of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity would be validated in toto.
Life as a Researcher: Research is a learning process enriching our understanding. It also demands our interpretation of our research findings for practical use in the society. I recall my doctoral exam: We need to write two days written exams from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. If you pass the exam, then you are invited to an oral exam for an hour where the faculty members of the department would ask you questions. It could be any question under the sun, because you are expected to know, at that point, all about physics. I could mention two questions:
- I was asked, when you stand in front of the mirror, if you lift your left hand, the mirror lifts the right hand. Right? Then, when you move the head, why does the mirror not move the leg? I managed to answer the question on the basis that it is a plane mirror and hence the law of reflection, refraction etc would be based on planes.
- Then came the question, some one is calling you from the Mars and asks you to explain the left hand rule. I began to narrate, but the professor interrupted: Mind you, the person in the Mars does not know what is right and what is left. I answered that one needs a basic understanding or connecting points even for initial communication.
I survived the day and I came out as the best student out of 7 doctoral candidates.
Characteristic of an excellent Researcher: A researcher needs to keep protocol and all the necessary documents. He/she should be able to interpret the data in a meaningful and consistent way. In addition, the researcher should be a philosopher and a dreamer.
Einstein has been one of the greatest natural philosophers of all times. And Abdul Kalam indicates that imagination is needed for all. He would say that dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action. Einstein also would reflect the same when he says: “I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research” (Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms 1931, 97).
Researchers’ Day: On this researchers’ day wish you all inspiration and creativity in order to get renewed vision of the world. Let your integrated knowledge be useful for the enrichment of the society you live in.
Francis P Xavier SJ
28 Feb 2020