Scratching the Surface With Experimental Physicist Shikha Varma

A conversation with a condensed matter physicist about surface science and making a change in Indian science.

Shikha Varma fell in l'amour with experimental physics while doing her masters in Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. "We had a course by professor G.K. Mehta on 'experimental methods' which was very good. He didn't just talk about techniques but took an approach where he would make us spend dix days in spécifique les laboratoires,les and learn what goes into doing experiments il n'. We got our mains dirty. That experience was very special," she recollected in an interview at her office in Bhubaneswar's Institute of Physics (IOP), a research institution funded jointly by the Department Of Atomic L'énergie (DAE) and the government of Odisha.

Evidently, her professeur approach worked, because Varma never regardé back. More than 30 years later, as a professor of physics at IOP, she remains as ardent an advocate of experimental science as she was when she started out in the early 1980s. Her fondness for getting her hands "dirty" comes pratique in in her field, surface science, a branche of condensed matter physics which involves the use of various heavy equipment and complex technology. 'Surface' here refers to the topmost atomic layer of any material. This layer, which can be up to several nanometres (that's one thousand-millionth of a metre) thick, est what determines many of a material's properties - from its appearance or its conductivity to the manner in which it will interact with other types of matter.

ABCs of surface science

Altering a material's surface can cause it to behave très differently. Varma brought up the example of gold, otherwise known for being non-reactive, becoming highly reactive in mincenanoparticle form. Surface science discoveries have tremendous applications - from the paint industry ('how exactly will a paint interact with wood to give it fine or matte finition?') to electronics (création d' devices with mieux magnetic properties).

Varma described a memorable study performed in collaboration with biotechnologists at the neighbouring Utkal University: "They gave us some circular plasmid DNA. We interacted DNA with mercury and studied what happened within those few angstroms (10-10 metres) or nanometers (10-9 metres)." The techniques she uses are so precise that it was easy to understand where exactly the mercury is, in what way is it interacting with the DNA and what chemical reactions are taking place. "We saw that on interaction with mercury, the circular DNA becomes linear. So this piece of DNA, which is relatively cheap and easy to make, can be used as a mercury sensor. Small contents of mercury can be detected by seeing if DNA is linear or not. We can also get an estimate of how contaminated water is," she said.

To illustrate what kind of science these techniques can enable, Varma told me about another study her lab performed more recently on energy materials. Her team discovered that by changing a property called the 'band gap' of the semiconductor Titanium oxide (TiO2), they could enhance its properties such that they make better-performing solar cells.

The team was able to alter the band gap of TiO2 by bombarding on it a beam of Argon ions. They observed that this caused the oxygen atoms in TiO2 to get sputtered out, creating what is known as 'oxygen vacancies'. Additionally, the surface of the TiO2 transforms into a Titanium nanostructure form which has contrasting properties from its regular form. Because of these changes in the surface level, the bombarded TiO2 is now able to absorb a wider wavelength range of solar radiation.

The importance of a long PhD

Many of the instruments Shikha and her peers use cost crores of rupees and require months, sometimes years, of getting used to. It is common for a PhD in this field to take six to seven years. "First year is just coursework, then they have to decide which area to join. It takes at least two years to just learn how to use instruments, then they learn the technique, how to analyse." And that's not all. Shikha is particular that her students have a worthy list of publications to their name by the time they leave. This is their best shot at competing in the modern scientific world.

Unfortunately, things aren't working out so smoothly. There are compulsions that students finish their PhD in five years or else their regular fellowship stops. This, she believes, is putting undue pressure on students to somehow scrape by. "Five years is very little time. Sure, if you want them to do something, publish just one paper and get out, they can do it in three to four years. But not if you want them to become a fully-trained scientist who will get a scientific job, a postdoc position." she said emphatically.

This policy is even more inconvenient for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and there are a significant number of them in IOP, according to Shikha. "One student of mine was repairing punctures in a cycle shop before he came here. It's remarkable of them and their family that they ended up in such a premier institute. But for these students who send most of their salaries home, almost no fellowship after five years is very demotivating."

A comfortable path

[caption id="attachment_3679" align="aligncenter" width="3899"] Military deployment in the South China Sea in 2009. Credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

The sheer volume of official statements, press articles and learned commentaries in recent weeks would have us believe that a military clash is all but likely as the United States and China maneuver for advantage in the South China Sea area. And yet, both powers realise such an outcome would be disastrous. You do not enter into a conflict with your primary economic, commercial and trading partner without causing yourself - and your partner - grievous injury. But such are the pitfalls of being the two leading major powers in the world today that it is impossible to back down without suffering considerable loss of face. In addition, neither side trusts the other. This then is the heart of the matter as the US and China stare at each other just as Sumo wrestlers do, even as they look for solutions to diffuse their stand-off.

Both China and the US say that they stand for the freedom of navigation in international waters and in the air and that they would never countenance a situation whereby international shipping and air traffic is put at risk. Both know that the volume of trade passing through these waters is mammoth, about US$5 trillion. They also know that this trade is vital not only for the US and China, but also for other economic powerhouses in the region, such as Japan and South Korea, and is an economic necessity for the global economy that cannot be endangered. Three important bilateral interactions between China and the US are on the horizon; the ongoing visit to the US of the Vice Chairman of the Chinese Military Commission, General Fan Changlong, the first in six year will culminate in talks with US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter on Thursda; the upcoming 7th round of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington in June this year where the Chinese would be represented by Vice Premier Wang Yang; and the summit meeting between Xi Jinping and Barack Obama scheduled for September 2015. Neither side is willing to jeopardize the outcomes of these very important meetings.

China's complaint

The main Chinese grouse is that the US treats it differently than others on issues relating to the South China Sea. Chinese commentators like Shen Dingli have alleged that "for a long time, Japan has been fortifying the Okinotori Islands and demanded an exclusive economic zone derived from its fortified structure. However, America has been silent on this. For a similarly long time, Vietnam has reclaimed and expanded some of the islands of the Spratly [chain] under its occupation, earlier than China is doing. Again, America has made no objection." The Chinese maintain that upgrading and reclaiming sovereign territory is not a violation of international law and cite the examples of the reclamation of Shanghai and Hong Kong harbors. The US response is that Japanese and Vietnamese activities took place before the 2002 ASEAN Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea came into operation. As far as the sovereignty issue is concerned, the US officially takes no position on the merits of each case.

The Chinese also maintain that although China and Vietnam have disputes over some of the islands in South China Sea, Vietnam had agreed decades ago with the very same Chinese claims since Vietnam needed China's support in its fight for unification first against France and later against the US. Last year, China submitted to the UN its evidence of Vietnam's past admission of Chinaese sovereignty over the entire Spratly and Paracel islands. China feels aggrieved that Vietnam has gone back on its past commitments and feels that perhaps the US is quietly egging on the Vietnamese.

The ongoing visit of General Fan Changlong to the US, where he presumably interacted not only with the US Pacific Commander, but also with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would indeed be crucial. Last year, China participated for the first time in the RIMPAC exercise organized by the US. This was considered significant for the Peoples' Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fielded the second largest fleet (after the US) in the 23-nation exercise. During President Obama's visit to Beijing in November 2014, the two sides signed the mechanism of notification of major military activities and the code of safe conduct for maritime and air encounters. General Fan will no doubt try and build strategic trust, manage the South China Sea crisis and help reduce the chances of miscalculation and accidents involving the two militaries.

Washington's concerns

The American objectives are also fairly clear. The US would not like China to expand its activities in the South China Sea area by 'building sovereignty.' What worries the US is the 'pace and scope' of Chinese island building activities and the fact that these might be utilized later for military purposes. What the US would ideally like is a 'freeze' on all such Chinese activism and a return to the status quo. By making public the flight of the P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft over Chinese-held islands with a CNN reporter on board, and by making strident comments, sometimes at the level of the US Defence Secretary, Washington hopes to achieve two main objectives. First, to impress its allies in the region about the seriousness of its intent and thereby keep them firmly within the US security orbit; and second, to deter the Chinese to the point that they opt for the status quo. Additionally, if the countries of South-East Asia are sufficiently perturbed over perceived Chinese aggressiveness, they might opt for importing sophisticated US military equipment. It would be interesting to watch the rise of US arms sales to the region from here on.

The Chinese, aware of the US military bluff, have nevertheless opted to take a conciliatory route. To ease US concerns, China took a number of public steps. First, it pledged not to 'threaten' the freedom of navigation and flights over the South China Sea. Second, the Chinese have said they will provide public service facilities such as weather forecasting and maritime rescue etc. for the region from its reclaimed islands. The Chinese have offered the US and other countries, as well as international organizations, the use of these new facilities, so as to advance cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). And as the former Chinese Ambassador to the US, Zhou Wenzhong put it recently, "China's actions are not targeted at the US and its allies, or designed to weaken US supremacy or the regional order.'

China's strategic objective is to establish the principle that ultimately, all important issues relating to the Asia-Pacific and particularly the South China Sea should be settled bilaterally by the US and China alone. If this is the major outcome of the Xi-Obama summit in September this year, the Chinese would be well pleased. It would also be a vindication of President Xi's new style policies.

R.S. Kalha is a former Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

" data-image-meta="[]" data-image-title="Shadow-Boxing in the South China Sea" data-large-file="" data-medium-file="" data-orig-file="" data-orig-size="" data-permalink="https://thewire.in/3677/shadow-boxing-in-the-south-china-sea/" sizes="(max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px" src="https://i1.wp.com/thelifeofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/lilavati.jpg?resize=148%2C194&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/thelifeofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/lilavati.jpg "/>

[caption id="attachment_3679" align="aligncenter" width="3899"] Military deployment in the South China Sea in 2009. Credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

The sheer volume of official statements, press articles and learned commentaries in recent weeks would have us believe that a military clash is all but likely as the United States and China maneuver for advantage in the South China Sea area. And yet, both powers realise such an outcome would be disastrous. You do not enter into a conflict with your primary economic, commercial and trading partner without causing yourself - and your partner - grievous injury. But such are the pitfalls of being the two leading major powers in the world today that it is impossible to back down without suffering considerable loss of face. In addition, neither side trusts the other. This then is the heart of the matter as the US and China stare at each other just as Sumo wrestlers do, even as they look for solutions to diffuse their stand-off.

Both China and the US say that they stand for the freedom of navigation in international waters and in the air and that they would never countenance a situation whereby international shipping and air traffic is put at risk. Both know that the volume of trade passing through these waters is mammoth, about US$5 trillion. They also know that this trade is vital not only for the US and China, but also for other economic powerhouses in the region, such as Japan and South Korea, and is an economic necessity for the global economy that cannot be endangered. Three important bilateral interactions between China and the US are on the horizon; the ongoing visit to the US of the Vice Chairman of the Chinese Military Commission, General Fan Changlong, the first in six year will culminate in talks with US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter on Thursda; the upcoming 7th round of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington in June this year where the Chinese would be represented by Vice Premier Wang Yang; and the summit meeting between Xi Jinping and Barack Obama scheduled for September 2015. Neither side is willing to jeopardize the outcomes of these very important meetings.

China's complaint

The main Chinese grouse is that the US treats it differently than others on issues relating to the South China Sea. Chinese commentators like Shen Dingli have alleged that "for a long time, Japan has been fortifying the Okinotori Islands and demanded an exclusive economic zone derived from its fortified structure. However, America has been silent on this. For a similarly long time, Vietnam has reclaimed and expanded some of the islands of the Spratly [chain] under its occupation, earlier than China is doing. Again, America has made no objection." The Chinese maintain that upgrading and reclaiming sovereign territory is not a violation of international law and cite the examples of the reclamation of Shanghai and Hong Kong harbors. The US response is that Japanese and Vietnamese activities took place before the 2002 ASEAN Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea came into operation. As far as the sovereignty issue is concerned, the US officially takes no position on the merits of each case.

The Chinese also maintain that although China and Vietnam have disputes over some of the islands in South China Sea, Vietnam had agreed decades ago with the very same Chinese claims since Vietnam needed China's support in its fight for unification first against France and later against the US. Last year, China submitted to the UN its evidence of Vietnam's past admission of Chinaese sovereignty over the entire Spratly and Paracel islands. China feels aggrieved that Vietnam has gone back on its past commitments and feels that perhaps the US is quietly egging on the Vietnamese.

The ongoing visit of General Fan Changlong to the US, where he presumably interacted not only with the US Pacific Commander, but also with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would indeed be crucial. Last year, China participated for the first time in the RIMPAC exercise organized by the US. This was considered significant for the Peoples' Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fielded the second largest fleet (after the US) in the 23-nation exercise. During President Obama's visit to Beijing in November 2014, the two sides signed the mechanism of notification of major military activities and the code of safe conduct for maritime and air encounters. General Fan will no doubt try and build strategic trust, manage the South China Sea crisis and help reduce the chances of miscalculation and accidents involving the two militaries.

Washington's concerns

The American objectives are also fairly clear. The US would not like China to expand its activities in the South China Sea area by 'building sovereignty.' What worries the US is the 'pace and scope' of Chinese island building activities and the fact that these might be utilized later for military purposes. What the US would ideally like is a 'freeze' on all such Chinese activism and a return to the status quo. By making public the flight of the P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft over Chinese-held islands with a CNN reporter on board, and by making strident comments, sometimes at the level of the US Defence Secretary, Washington hopes to achieve two main objectives. First, to impress its allies in the region about the seriousness of its intent and thereby keep them firmly within the US security orbit; and second, to deter the Chinese to the point that they opt for the status quo. Additionally, if the countries of South-East Asia are sufficiently perturbed over perceived Chinese aggressiveness, they might opt for importing sophisticated US military equipment. It would be interesting to watch the rise of US arms sales to the region from here on.

The Chinese, aware of the US military bluff, have nevertheless opted to take a conciliatory route. To ease US concerns, China took a number of public steps. First, it pledged not to 'threaten' the freedom of navigation and flights over the South China Sea. Second, the Chinese have said they will provide public service facilities such as weather forecasting and maritime rescue etc. for the region from its reclaimed islands. The Chinese have offered the US and other countries, as well as international organizations, the use of these new facilities, so as to advance cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). And as the former Chinese Ambassador to the US, Zhou Wenzhong put it recently, "China's actions are not targeted at the US and its allies, or designed to weaken US supremacy or the regional order.'

China's strategic objective is to establish the principle that ultimately, all important issues relating to the Asia-Pacific and particularly the South China Sea should be settled bilaterally by the US and China alone. If this is the major outcome of the Xi-Obama summit in September this year, the Chinese would be well pleased. It would also be a vindication of President Xi's new style policies.

R.S. Kalha is a former Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

" data-image-meta="[]" data-image-title="Shadow-Boxing in the South China Sea" data-large-file="" data-medium-file="" data-orig-file="" data-orig-size="" data-permalink="https://thewire.in/3677/shadow-boxing-in-the-south-china-sea/" sizes="(max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px" src="https://i1.wp.com/thelifeofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/lilavati.jpg?resize=148%2C194&ssl=1" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/thelifeofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/lilavati.jpg "/>

Varma is grateful that she faced no such pressure in the US where she did her PhD. "I finished it in six years but I could have taken longer if I wanted to." Being a daughter of an engineer, she imagines that that must be where her initial interest in science emerged. Though her native town is Fatehgarh in Uttar Pradesh, she grew up in Delhi, Kanpur and Bikaner before returning to UP to join a women's college in Lucknow, to do her BSc in Physics. From there she went to IIT Kanpur to do her Masters degree.

At IIT, she met her future husband Ajit Mohan Srivastava, who was a year senior. The two secured PhD positions at Syracuse University in the US and left after getting married. It was here that Varma was introduced to surface science. She followed this up with postdoc positions at Case Western Reserve University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a stint at Santa Barbara; for most of these years, the couple lived separately. Then she returned along with her husband to India after they were lucky to find jobs in IOP together.

In her essay in the book Lilavati's Daughters, Shikha makes her disdain for the 'two-body problem' clear: "Fortunately, both Ajit and I got jobs at the same institute. Knowing the problems of several physicist couples, who work at different places, I strongly feel that the unwritten convention at many places of not offering positions to husband and wife together, even when both are suitably qualified, is sapping a lot of energy and motivation from young scientist couples. These decisions are often guided not by stated rules but by the instincts and misconceptions of colleagues who in most cases happen to be male."

Questioning a mindset

Varma is unwavering in her opinion that a stint abroad is beneficial to any physicist "just so they can experience the scientific culture and temperament outside". Nevertheless, she observes that faculty at IOP do make it a point to impart a top-class education to their students. "We spend a lot of time with students and try to break the boundaries that exists between us and them. We need a culture where students are so comfortable that they are able to question all of our actions - in science and in the public sphere. They should questions us and we them. They should develop as a complete person, not just in science, in personal life too."

Though Varma is highly appreciative of the courage students show by pursuing research in the light of difficult circumstances, she is sorry about how ill-prepared most are for experimental work. "Experimental culture in India is lacking," said. "In many schools they don't do any experiments but when the examiner comes, every student has a book full of experiments. Right from the beginning, we teach our children to think that experiments are not useful. Experiments cost money, but not so much at UG and school level! Applications and patents are good, but for that importance has to be given to experimental science at the foundation level also."

Echoing theoretical physicist Indumathi D., Shikha blamed this on our country's brahmanical culture. "Somehow experimental fields get looked down upon. We are encouraged to not use our hands but apply our minds more. Even after so many years of independence, we still don't have so much manpower doing experiments in India - not in all areas. Right now IOP has seven experimentalists out of 30 faculty members. But HRI Allahabad, MatScience Chennai, they are all completely theoretical."

Women in physics

Shortly after Varma joined IOP in 1994, the only other female faculty member left the institute. For the next 23 years she remained the sole female representative. Only in 2016 did the next woman scientist join. Did she ever feel treated differently in all those years? After a moment of thought, Varma replied: "Men need not be proving themselves every time, they still get the benefits. But as a woman, one has to keep proving herself, that is there." How so, I probed. "You know how it is. in conferences, you invite your friends, people you are close to. you don't always get invited for the work you have done. Networking is easier for men because they will have more men as friends, right?"

In smaller towns and in non-premier colleges like where she did her undergraduate studies, Varma worries that students, especially girls, may be languishing without any sort of guidance. She pointed out how she herself only found out about IIT Kanpur's master's course by a stroke of good luck. To fix this, an idea that could benefit female students of science has been brewing in Varma's head for a while. "I think there should be a dedicated programme where female faculty can go and give lectures to UG students in small towns, especially. For example, I would love to go to my home state. I can even talk in Hindi to them." She hopes that one of India's science academies take note of her suggestion so that the scenario can change in places where there is potential but no awareness about careers in science.

This piece was originally published on The Life of Science . The Wire is happy to support this project by Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj, who are travelling across India to meet unsung women scientists.