Dr. Harishankar Balakrishnan, senior postdoctoral researcher at the IQS AppLightChem group

What do you like most about your job?       

The futuristic and innovative part of the next-generation data storage project, the colloidal memory concept, which has the potential to change the world for better, a collective effort that starts with our individual effort.

What would you like to spend more time on?

Listening. Listening to people, brainstorming ideas, challenges and inspirations. Our opportunities almost always depend on our awareness, and the more things we are aware of, more things we could understand and contribute. I feel that listening as an activity works wonders on both professional and personal level.

What are you most proud of?

Being adaptable in ever-changing circumstances. Exposure to different countries, cultures, languages, and circumstances can make us rapidly realise that change is the only constant thing and it would make our lives easier to be adaptable than not.

The value you most appreciate in people …

Optimism. The hope that things can turn out far better than it seems. This quality is underappreciated yet highly impactful.

A place to get lost ….

A library. We are not the first person to face the problems we are facing and its most likely, someone somewhere at some point of time have recorded it in a book somewhere. Another reason is that a library always humbles me.

A dream you would like to pursue …

To be a polymath and polyglot.

What do you still have to learn?

 Almost everything. There is a saying in my language ´Tamil´ from the south of India, ´Katrathu kai man alavu, kallathathu ulagalavu´ which translates to ´The things we know can fit into the size of our palm, the things we do not know can constitute the size of the world´