Wisconsin Public Television	University Place		Wisconsin Academy Fellow:	Pradeep Rohatgi		4/27/14	UP5775  cc [APPLAUSE]  >> My story began in India. I grew up there, and it was an India that was just free from British rule. When I was leaving for United States to study, my grandfather told me one thing: go and learn. US is the hub of technologolical developemnt, and come back and help the poor in India. And that is, I would say, the kind of driving force, that I should not just do research in science and engineering but to make sure it does good to the immediate society. And then I came here, I studied, and I worked in industry and returned back to India, myself and my wife, to just stay there all the time. And I was asked by the then prime minister of India, late Indira Gandhi, please set up two research institutions which will not only be leading in terms of fundamental science globally but will do good to the local region, the state in which you are setting up these labs related to local resources, can they create local employment and help the local industry. And I was happily settled doing it until there was a trauma that hit us. Many of you may have heard the famous Union Carbide, largest chemical accident, and I and my wife and my children were there. At that time, we said, well, we need to get out of here, at least for some time because we are not sure how safe it is for the children to remain in the remains of that gas that was there. 

And lo and behold, one of my classmates from MIT was a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He found out that I was still alive, he was still around, and he said why don't you come over here for some time. And that's how we moved here in 1985. And when I came here, the dean of engineering gave me the same target my prime minister had given: please do your science, your engineering, but make sure it does good to the state of Wisconsin. And I looked around and I was able to find exactly what I wanted to do. Wisconsin has the largest metals industry compared to all other industries it has. It has the leading foundry industry in the world where you melt and cast and you produce goods. And that's what I did. I tried in my life in Wisconsin to combine the conventional Wisconsin metal casting and metal working industry, enabling it to produce high tech materials like ultralight metal composites, self-healing metals, self-cleaning metals and so on. I believe that manufacturing of goods is very essential to the well being of any society. 

I strongly believe we should bring back all the manufacturing that has left Wisconsin back to Wisconsin, and that is the goal to which I have devoted my simple efforts in Wisconsin by setting up a research program to help conventional metal casting industries produce some high tech products and create jobs. We have lost a lot of jobs in Wisconsin. If you look at the jobs that were in Wisconsin foundries, they've gone down exponentially. And I'd like to bring that back. So the materials that I have synthesized, I and my group have synthesized in my laboratory, they are slowly being produced in Wisconsin, nationwide, and the worldwide, but I like to see that they are produced in Wisconsin by Wisconsin foundries which are closing, and people who are losing their jobs produce these very high tech materials. Another thing that has always motivated me, I've been fascinated, I've picked up the field of composites because I used to see human bodies built up of very exciting materials. They change their properties. If you have a cut, it could heal itself. So I tried to, in a very small way tried to do bio-inspired materials development or biomimicking. And my students are now synthesizing materials that if there is a crack, can it heal itself just like a bone or a cut in your body do. 

So, as I said, the objective of our group and the state of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin System has provided me a very unique opportunity to fulfill both my loves in life. One is to do research in engineering, and second is to have a direct impact, immediate impact on the society by creating jobs, by reducing pollution. We have been working on a lot of green materials. Metal matrix composites combine metals and ceramics, and they reduce energy conservation in transportation. Students have worked on lead free plumbing fixtures to stop the lead damaging the brain of our children. I've developed new composites using fly ash, which is one of the largest waste byproducts, to produce high tech materials. So, as I said, it has been a privilege for me to have served in the state of Wisconsin and in the UW system and as to allow me to bring back respect for manufacturing, bring back respect for science, technology, and engineering because I believe Wisconsin had a leadership in manufacturing, not only in metals but paper, beer, cheese, and so on, and I believe we should all dedicate our lives to bring back that manufacturing capability to make sure Wisconsin, instead of losing jobs, creates more jobs in Wisconsin. And once again, my heartfelt thanks to the Academy and to the committee members and to my family and to all of you who are here to kind of risk hearing an engineer in the presence of these poets and writers. My apologies if I've not been entertaining. [LAUGHTER] Thank you. 

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