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Cap will hit quality: Venki Ramakrishnan

PHOTO:AP

Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan at his lab in Cambridge, England, in this October 2009 file photo.

LONDON: Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan on Saturday lent his voice to the growing opposition to the planned cap on migration from outside the European Union pointing out that his own move to Britain may not have happened if such a policy had been in place when he joined Cambridge University.

His remarks came as the government announced plans to place further restrictions on students and high-skilled workers from non-EU countries.

Professor Ramakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year, warned that a rigid migration cap would deprive British universities of global scientific talent and jeopardise research.

The Indian-born scientist told The Times newspaper that he would have reconsidered joining the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge in 1999 if such restrictive visa rules had been in force then. That would have been a serious setback to his work on ribosomes that won him the Nobel Prize.

“I had to take a 40 per cent cut to come here — a number of people thought I was crazy — and I was in a very tight race to solve the structure of the ribosome, which ultimately led to the Nobel Prize ... There were two people, both Americans, who moved with me to the LMB who were absolutely key to not losing time on that problem. If I had been unable to hire them, I might have just said: ‘why should I take the risk?' I couldn't afford any kind of delay. I would say that might have tipped the balance even though I love the LMB and the U.K.,” he said.

Last month, eight other Nobel Laureates issued a similar warning saying an across-the-board cap without taking into account the needs of academic institutions would “isolate” Britain from the “increasingly globalised world of research”. Britain risked losing scientists like Prof. Ramakrishnan who were “enriching and enhancing British science and society for decades”.

“They add to our store of knowledge and inspire countless young researchers to follow in their footsteps. These benefits are jeopardised by the government's plan to cap migration to the U.K. It would damage our ability to recruit the brightest young talent, as well as distinguished scientists, into our universities and industries. The U.K. must not isolate itself from the increasingly globalised world of research — British science depends on it,” they said.

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