Investment in education brings progress in society: Nobel laureate Morten Meldal

Thiruvananthapuram | Education is the most promising investment that delivers the highest returns for a society aspiring to progress, Nobel laureate in Chemistry Prof Morten P Meldal has said.

He was delivering an online lecture at the third RGCB Research Conference, organised by the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (BRIC)-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), at Munnar on Saturday.

The session, moderated by RGCB Director Chandrabhas Narayana, was a highlight of the four-day conference held from August 28 to 31, RGCB said in a release on Monday.

“Countries like Vietnam, Poland, Finland, and Denmark have invested in education and achieved success in 10 or 20 years in terms of economy and development,” said Meldal, who won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contribution to ‘click chemistry,' a method that uses simple, high-yielding reactions to easily construct complex molecules.

Calling for efforts to make learning a pleasurable activity from the earliest classes, the Denmark-born scientist said education must generate curiosity and interest in children.

“I suggest educators should make short videos, starting with a five-minute video for first graders that generates interest in how things work in our environment, and slowly increase the length and complexity of the videos with ascending grades,” he said.

“As academicians, we have to lead and educate more people about what is going on in the world, about the consequences of wars, global warming, and environmental pollution,” he added.

Meldal said this is the only way to enable the next generation to take the right political decisions, to understand what is right for the environment, and to learn about resources, wealth distribution, and the importance of peace.

Noting that excellence is built on freedom and not by force, he said, “Excellence is not limited to an individual, but is a collective process.”