Nobel laureate Venkatraman visits Mumbai

Nobel laureate and Indian-origin scientist Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is on a three-day visit to Mumbai to meet relatives and friends. The Indian American, who won the Nobel prize in Chemistry, arrived in the city on Friday along with his son Raman, a cellist and daughter-in-law Melissa Reardon, a violinist.

Raman and his wife, who specialise in Western classical music, will be performing today at 'Sangat'-2009, a concert organised by the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation at the National Centre for Performing Arts in South Mumbai.

Raman told PTI that Professor Ramakrishnan is visiting friends and relatives in the city and will proceed to Chennai on Monday to attend a Carnatic annual music festival.

Raman said his father was on a 'purely personal' visit to the city and did not wish to speak to the media.

"I have to respect my father's words," he said.

Professor Ramakrishnan from MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge (United Kingdom) shared the Nobel in Chemistry with Thomas A Steitz (United States) and Ada E Yonath (Israel).