ARAVINDA CHAKRAVARTI
Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics,
and Molecular Biology and Genetics
Director, Center for Complex Disease Genomics
McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine
Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineCOURTESY OF JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINEThings were not unfolding according to plan. Aravinda Chakravarti had done everything right to launch a successful career: he completed a bachelor’s degree at Calcutta’s
prestigious Indian Statistical Institute, published his first paper while still an undergraduate, and completed a PhD in human genetics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1979. But his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington was not working out. “It wasn’t very positive,” says Chakravarti. “After 4 or 5 months, I knew it wasn’t going anywhere.”
When his eldest brother told him to bail out, Chakravarti was aghast. “That is anathema to a scientist,” he says. “We believe that if you cut the cord, your academic life is over.” But, screwing up his courage, Chakravarti took the risk and left the lab after 8 months.
“I went to work out in left field. I always liked working on things where there wasn’t a crowd. I’m still like that—I
don’t like crowds.”
He obtained a low-paying job at the University of Pittsburgh and spent the next 5 years teaching biostatistics and population genetics—no computer, no lab, and no research budget. But the time was not wasted, Chakravarti says in retrospect. “It helped me develop my teaching skills and to focus on theory. ...
