I have always had an impression that UM has a strong history in science and technology. I also knew that after the Second World War, Alan Turing worked on computers at Manchester. Hence I was very happy, when I got there, to see the many references to Alan Turing.
I was even more excited that one of our meetings was held in Rutherford’s laboratory. It is amazing that I can sit in the room where Rutherford and his associates probed the atom with alpha particles. When some of the alpha particles were deflected, it was an evidence that the atom has a heavy nucleus. His experiments and the resultant model advanced our understanding of the structure of the atom tremendously. It is a great privilege to be able to sit in his laboratory and discuss advances in university education. I did not realise it at the time, but I can see my computer on the table in the photo.
One of the many social responsibility projects at UM is the study of the hundred+ languages spoken in Manchester, a result of the huge influx of immigrants from the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, South Asia, Middle East, Asia, etc. Languages are of course associated with specific ethnic groups. We met the project team in the Indian restaurant “Shere Khan”, obviously named after Shere Khan the tiger in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories. Shere Khan left a deep impression in me because I watched with my daughters the Jungle Book movie by Disney many many times when they were young.
I wish I can take my family here one day.
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