biology

M. Vijayan

M. Vijayan is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand M. Vijayan rather than just read about it. In short: Mamannamana Vijayan (16 October 1941 – 24 April 2022) was an Indian structural biologist. He was awarded Padma Shri by the president of India in 2004.

Key takeaways

M. Vijayan belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect M. Vijayan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of M. Vijayan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mamannamana Vijayan (16 October 1941 – 24 April 2022) was an Indian structural biologist. He was awarded Padma Shri by the president of India in 2004. He was the president of the Indian National Science Academy from 2007 to 2010. He was DAE Homi Bhabha Professor at the Indian Institute of Science.

Education Vijayan graduated from Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur and obtained his Masters of Science degree in 1963 from Allahabad University. Thereafter, he received his Doctorate degree in X-ray crystallography from the Indian Institute of Science in 1967. During 1968–71, he was a post-doctoral fellow in Professor Dorothy Hodgkin's research group at University of Oxford. During that period, he studied x-ray diffraction data for insulin crystals.

Contribution in structural biology Vijayan and his colleagues have worked on four of the five classes of plant lectins. His studies, for the first time, have demonstrated the occurrence of "open" quaternary structures in multimeric proteins particularly in legume lectins and lectins with β-prism I fold. His work established β-prism I fold as a canonical fold of lectins. Structures elucidated by Vijayan showed that lectin adopt a variety of strategies for generating ligand specificity. In addition to the plants, Vijayan has extensively worked on lectins from mycobacteria and archea, thus demonstrating the occurrence of lectins in all the three domains of life. Using structural biology approach he addressed the role of hydration in the mobility of proteins structures. His studies have shown that the structures of lysozyme and ribonuclease A undergo water-mediated transformations. His work on other systems, involving β-lactoglobulin and hemoglobin, as well, provided insights on role of hydration shell structure and function of proteins. Vijayan has published more than 260 peer reviewed research articles and has guided 38 research students and 20 postdoctoral fellows.

Professional life After completing his postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, he returned to India in 1971 and joined the Molecular Biophyiscs Unit at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He has served in various capacities such as Professor, Chairman of Molecular Biophysics Unit, Chairman of Division of Biological Sciences among others. During 2000–2004 he was Associate Director of IISc. He has continued to work at the Institute as a DBT Distinguished Biotechnologist and subsequently as a DAE Homi Bhabha Professor. Vijayan's course on fundamentals in crystallography was extremely popular with students at the Indian Institute of Science. His unique approach of interlacing historical developments in the field with conceptual aspects made the course vibrant and energetic.

Role in international and national organisations Vijayan was a member of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), the International Union of Pure & Applied Biophysics (IUPAB), the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Inter Academy Panel (IAP) and the InterAcademy Council (IAC). He was a former president of the Asian Crystallographic Association. He has been involved in the activities of the science departments and agencies of the Government of India and different scientific institutions in the country. He was the Founder President of the Indian Crystallographic Association and has served as the president of the Indian Biophysical Society and the president of the Indian National Science Academy (2007–2010).

Awards and recognitions Vijayan was a Fellow of the three science academies of India and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). He has won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, GN Ramachandran Medal by INSA, Alumni Award Excell. Res. by IISc, FICCI Award Life Sci., Ranbaxy Res. Award by Basic Medical Sciences, JL Nehru Centen. vis. fellow by INSA, Om Prakash Bhasin Award, KS Krishnan Memorial Lecture by INSA, JL Nehru Birth Centen. Award by Indian Science Congress Assoc., Padma Shri, Distinguished Biotechnologist Award by DBT; Goyal Prize, first CSIR/Science Congress GN Ramachandran Award for Excellence in Biological Science and Technology, Distinguished Alumni Award and Lakshmipat Singhania-IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award for Science and Technology-Leader, 2009.

References

External links M. Vijayan profile on Biomed Experts Mamannamana Vijayan publications list Archived 25 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine M. Vijayan home page at Indian Institute of Science

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with M. Vijayan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what M. Vijayan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to M. Vijayan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about M. Vijayan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of M. Vijayan

In research: M. Vijayan appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses M. Vijayan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: M. Vijayan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 2022 deaths, 20th-century Indian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for M. Vijayan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study M. Vijayan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what M. Vijayan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain M. Vijayan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is M. Vijayan in simple terms?

Mamannamana Vijayan (16 October 1941 – 24 April 2022) was an Indian structural biologist. He was awarded Padma Shri by the president of India in 2004.

Why does M. Vijayan matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study M. Vijayan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on M. Vijayan.