Dr. Neelamani – A Humane Scientist
Sunday, July 11, 2010
When professional achievements catapult a person to fame and name, it becomes all the more necessary for such a person to have his feet firm on the ground and maintain a balance of attitude in life. Such persons are akin to rose flower which radiates its scent and its beauty in all directions for the beholder to appreciate it. When IIK met Dr. S. Neelamani a Senior Research Scientist in Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) to know more about his rare achievement, on being conferred upon the No. 1 Scientific Achievement award in KISR for the year 2009-2010, we found him very much so – down to earth, practical and purely humble at heart. This wonderful gentleman shared with us some literally touching moments in his life which the readers will just be enthralled to know. Just wait till you read his last response and we bet if a tear should not roll down your cheek.
IIK: You were adjudged for the Scientific Achievement Award and Ranked as No. 1 among the 20 awardees in KISR for the year 2009-2010. What would you attribute your success to?
Dr. N: Before going to into the details of the award, I wish to firstly place on record my sincere appreciation and offer my salutations to Dr. Naji Al-Mutairi, the Director General of Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, for his vision, unstinted support and for his encouragement to people who have real worth in their respective research fields, irrespective of country, religion, caste or creed. He is a thorough gentleman. But for Dr. Naji’s secular outlook and his benevolent nature, this kind of recognition could not have come for an expat. I thank him profusely.
My foundation for carrying out a quality research work was laid in IIT Madras where I was undergoing a training under Dr. V.S.Raju, a world renowned scientist in Soil Mechanics & Foundation Engineering. He taught me through his life style, work ethics and doing good quality work. Hence my success is much attributed to this wonderful gentleman.
IIK: What kind of a mind and attitude does a scientist need?
Dr. N: There are some gray areas in engineering which is left to the scientist to tackle and study. For example, in the case of Kuwait waters which are very shallow, a large ship to export oil has to be moored at least 25KM away from the shore. In order to lay a pipeline to transport oil to the ship, an engineer might say, bury the pipeline in the ocean bed to about 1 – 2 mts. For a scientist the depths 1mt and 2 mts makes a lot of difference. The scientist will study the effect of burying the pipeline at 1mt and at 2 mts from safety, functionality, maintenance and economic point of view and then comes out with a pragmatic solution to specify at what depth the pipeline should be buried for a 99.9% safe operation.
IIK: You have also been adjudged as the most popular teacher for many years in a row, while you were in IIT Madras. What qualities define a teacher and a researcher?
Dr. N: The primary aim of teaching is teaching which means basically guiding students patiently and knowing how to interact with them at their level and then bringing them up to a higher level of know-how through effective teaching methods is what a teacher should do. For a researcher, researching is primary. Doing consultancy and conducting training classes for students and juniors is a part of researcher’s job.
IIK: You have authored about 50 papers which were published in International journals of repute. Which of these papers attracted this prestigious award?
Dr. N: The Scientific Achievement Award by KISR is based on different criteria.
Points and weightage are given to
Single authored papers and multiple authored papers;
Number of projects from different sectors;
Number of projects completed within a year;
How many locals have been trained in a year.
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| Dr Neelamani receiving best scientist award from Minister of Education and Higher Education Minister Moudhi Al-Humoud |
Any pioneering work that was carried out and is useful to the country at large. I have mooted an innovative idea on conversion of thermal difference between air and water to electric energy in Kuwait. In Indian Ocean, for example the waters are very deep and hence there is a temperature difference of 20 to 24 degree C between the surface layers of the sea and say at a depth of about 1 km in the sea. In Kuwait the waters are shallow and this thermal gradient doesn’t exist. But due to presence of desert and the sea I have taken a cue from my earlier work in India and pioneered this project of converting the air – sea water thermal difference into electricity. I have also published a paper along with my colleagues on this study mooting this idea.
Another pioneering work I have done with my colleagues in KISR is on the design waves in the 8000 sq.km Kuwaiti territorial waters. The maximum heights of the waves expected to reach in 50 or 100 years at many locations in the Kuwait territorial waters have been studied in detail. These information are used and will be used as design inputs for the construction of off-shore structures like bridges, oil drilling activities etc.
IIK: Is your work related to prediction of Tsunami?
Dr. N: A firm ‘No’. My work is much related to the gravity waves which occur in a frequency of seconds on time scale and these waves are caused by surface winds. Tsunami are causes due to entirely different reasons and their time scale is entirely different.
IIK: What would you say is unique or different about the Kuwaiti Marine environment?
Dr. N: The major difference is its salinity. For example in Indian Ocean the salinity of the sea water is about 30 to 32 parts per thousand whereas in Kuwaiti territorial waters the salinity is 38 to 40 parts per thousand. This difference is due to absence of any perennial river in Kuwait. This kind of salinity is actually bad for engineering off-shore structures. One major advantage in Kuwaiti territorial waters is the wave height is not very high and hence construction and maintenance of off-shore and coastal structures can be done almost throughout the year unlike in the Indian ocean.
IIK: Can sea wave energy be termed as an alternate energy source? Has it been put to use elsewhere in the world like the wind energy or solar energy?
Dr. N: As a Faculty member while at IIT Madras from 1990 to 2003, I was involved in the wave energy project. In that project I was involved in construction of 150 KW pilot plant in Vizinjam, South of Trivandrum which is being used even now for research purpose. In Kuwait I was associated with the work done on assessment of sea wave energy. Japan is a pioneer for converting the sea wave energy into electric energy, then come North & West European countries. I envisage in the next generation (about three decades from now) power of mega watts of energy will be produced from sea wave energy. So yes sea wave energy is an alternate source of energy in the near future.
IIK: What repercussions and changes to marine and wave motions do you envisage due to the recent mishap and environment disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?
Dr. N: It should be emphasized here that ocean waves and tides are oscillating type. They move b
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