Dr. Virkar's Self-Reflections on Research Career

Abstract

I have been helped by many mentors and mentees. My greatest mentor has been my father, who received PhD in organic chemistry in 1942, more than two years before I was born. That made both my brother (who has a PhD in mathematics) and myself pursue higher education. I have been immensely helped by many mentors. I will briefly talk about them. At Northwestern University, Prof. Morris E. Fine, who was not my advisor, but had a profound influence on me. His dedication to work is unparalleled. He retired at age 65 (as was the case then) but continued as Professor Emeritus until his death at the age of 97. It was amazing for me to see that he went to work at least 3 days a week well into his 90’s. One week, he did not go to school, so people from the MSE department at Northwestern went to his house, only to find that he had passed away in his sleep. This paper gives my reflections of my career.