Physics, Chemistry and Tibetan Art

Professor Richard R. Ernst is a Swiss-born Nobel Laureate. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Ernst for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Ernst arrived for the Fourth National Conference on Science and Technology organized by then Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST) held in Kathmandu in March 2004.

Ernst has visited Nepal several times as he is fascinated by Tibetan art and has a personal collection of Thankas and Himalayan artworks. During an interview he said to me, " I never wanted to get the Nobel Prize. I mean, even today, sometimes I ask myself if it is really true. Did I really get one or is that somebody else who has by chance the same name! I just try to do whatever I had to do in the best way and I did not essentially select a subject that I was working on this nuclear magnetic resonance. I was told by my boss that it's an interesting field for my PhD. studies. So I just accepted it, worked on it and told myself whatever you do, you do as well as possible." Remaining portion of the interview:-

What would you best liked to be called, a physicist, a chemist, an engineer, a mathematician or a lover of Himalayan art?

I am a physical chemist so that is something between chemistry and physics. I am using complicated electronic machines so I am also an electronic engineer. I am using mathematics for evaluation of the data and for explaining more time doing also, so I am also a mathematician. I am applying this kind of techniques to medical problems so I am somewhat associated also with medicine. So it's very broad what I am doing and it's not only chemistry but I have been doing that when I was still active for 16-18 hours per day and rest was in my spare time. I am not really a scientist. I am more a type of an engineer who wants to achieve something. I don't ask myself about the functioning of nature so much. But, I do understand what is going on in the world and in nature but they won't achieve to do something, to build something which after all can be used. So I think this is an attitude of an engineer and an engineer uses more or less well known rules and applies the same to create something new and that's essentially what I was doing.

What first drew your attention in Himalayan and Tibetan arts?

I was first here (Nepal) in 1968. Then, I just came in as a tourist together with my wife ....I was very young. Nepal, it was a fascinating country at that time.....like people in medieval Europe. People on the streets, bare feet, natural and no traffic, no cars, no pollution just beautiful and so I fall in love. First Nepal and secondly with Nepalese and Tibetan arts. We bought a painting, it was a Thanka. We liked it so much and started to collect. Collecting and collecting, now I have a large collection (Himalayan art) at home but no money left in my pocket. I am a poor man but being very rich in terms of beautiful paintings from here.

Prof. Richard, how would you relate chemistry, an art and human life?

I mean some molecules are, of course, the basis of all life. I mean there is no life without chemistry. All your medical processes they are chemical reactions involving molecules and so molecules are the basis of everything and of course when I see something in some sense some molecules inside. Some molecules inside of your tie for example, or what ever and I try to understand different materiality so its connection occurs in my head and in order to understand materials processes. When I come back again to see Thanka paintings, its pigments which are being used was a painting. They are also molecules or minerals' crystals and one has to understand this kind of chemical composition even wants to, for example, restore the painting. So again there is connection between what we see the reality and its chemistry behind.

Where do you think an advancement of physical chemistry would lead us?

Well, that's of course very difficult to say. I mean we improve our understanding and I think we need that we are exploiting nature more and more and we have to be very careful in that. The population growth I mean demands a better usage of nature and also our comfort is increasing. Of course, we would like to help people in Nepal to reach also a better state of living and that all requires a lot of technology and science in order to achieve this goal. It's a delicate way. I mean, we are really walking on a very narrow hill and we could slip down onto the left and also the right hand side. We have to be very careful this nature would be what doing and also these human beings! So we need understanding to find our way into the future.