Laxmi Parida –  Blending Tradition with Science

 

From the title of two books she has authored one could guess how her interests swing between two extremely diverse fields: (1) Purba: Feasts from the East  and (2) Pattern Discovery in Bioinformatics Theory and Alogrithms.  While the first one is an authentic rendering of traditional Oriya cuisine, the second one is on mathematical bioinformatics: a coherent presentation of the kinds of patterns that computational biologists discover at the genomic level.

 

The cook book Purba:Feasts from the East  signifies how Laxmi Parida could sincerely remain attached to her roots in traditional Orissa, at the same time touching formidable heights in the scientific world even as she is located in the USA. It is difficult to imagine that the author who has shown a true attachment to the traditions of Orissa through a lively treatment of its culinary practices could also be a highly recognised achiever in scientific research with the same degree of sincerity.

 

Laxmi continues to be a research scientist at IBM T J Watson Research Centre, New York since 1998. “The centre provides for and supports the intellectual freedom that is required for the kind of work that I do,” says Laxmi. She is also a visiting professor at New York University.

 

 

A CORDIAL DEDICATTON TO RESEARCH

 

Laxmi is today whole-heartedly dedicated to her research activities at the IBM Research Centre. Her areas of research include computational genomics, theory and applications, phylogeny, design and analysis of algorithms.  The seed of her inclinations towards bioinformatics was sown during her undergraduate days when she developed a liking for problems with a mathematical flavour.

 

She had earlier dabbled in Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD). While doing her PhD thesis, her primary interest shifted to algorithmics in computer science. At that  time she was exposed to some exciting computational problems in biology at New York University. She was fascinated by these problems and quickly zeroed in and has been working in this area ever since.

 

She has authored over seventy five research papers and holds several US patents related to her algorithmic work. She has been on the program committee of several leading conferences in the area of computational biology, as well as string algorithms. Coincidently she also chaired an international conference on bioinformatics in Bhubaneswar in December 2006 and was responsible for bringing in leading researchers of the world to Bhubaneswar and exposing the local young talents to the brightest minds in this field.   

 

MUCH MORE THAN HOME-MAKING

 

Laxmi was born in Orissa and was the youngest in a family of four children. Her three older brothers doted on her and she grew up admiring them and wanting to be like them. “I was growing up in a society that itself was undergoing some growing pains,”says she. The messages were mixed for a girl in an urban Indian family in the seventies.

 

Her mother is a homemaker but she was convinced that Laxmi had to do much more than that. Ironically she preferred that her daughter should spend more time with her books than in the kitchen. But as it turned out the first book that Laxmi wrote was an appreciation of Oriya food and its cooking methods.

 

All of her three brilliant brothers excelled in school. They set a high bar for her and she had no choice but to do well in school. Oddly, since she was under no pressure to ultimately be a family bread-winner, she chose to study mathematics, a subject not known to provide lucrative jobs in those days. This choice influenced her mode of thinking, her career and ultimately her life.

 

FITNESS IS THE KEY

 

How does she manage to find the necessary time and temperament to pursue her diverse interests ranging from scientific research to cookery? To this question she explains: “These days life is unbelievably busy for everyone. We are coaxing our body to do more and more. To cope with the demands of a busy professional life, family obligations and an active lifestyle, it is important that we stay physically fit as well.”

 

She takes special care to maintain a physically active regime aided with workouts and yoga. She feels that to satiate the hungry mind, one must train the body as well.

 

FOLLOW YOUR HEART

 

When we seek her advice to young aspiring women she opines that they should follow the call of their heart when it comes to choosing a career. It is important to enjoy what they aspire to do; otherwise it becomes a burdensome chore. There is no substitute to hard work, she feels. She would rather prefer to modify the popular saying,”Work smarter, not harder” to “Work smarter AND harder.”