About Dr. R. Radhakrishnan

Early life

Dr. R. Radhakrishnan was born in Vikravandi, Tamil Nadu, India and was raised alongside seven siblings by parents who instilled in them a love for the Tamil language. His early education was in a District Board elementary school where his father was the headmaster. During his school and later in Presidency College, Chennai (Madras), he won prizes after participating in Tamil debates and dramas. He also relished Tamil essay writing on topics announced on the spot in class and his writings used to be the favorites of the lecturers.  

Professional Accomplishments

While Radhakrishnan is a poet by passion, he is a scientist by profession. He received his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and trained in bioorganic and biochemistry in the laboratory of Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Har Gobind Khorana at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is named on 25 patents for scientific inventions, and his research and collaborative work has resulted in six approved pharmaceutical drugs. After 36 years of dedicated R&D efforts in several biotechnology companies, such as Liposome Technology Inc, Chiron, InterMune, and Indalo Therapeutics, he retired as a Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Drug Development. 

Life As a Poet

Dr. R. Radhakrishnan has  a lifelong interest in Tamil literature including the Sangam era poems, Hindu mythology, sthala puranams, Carnatic music compositions, and the life history of composers. Supported and inspired by his wife Girija, Radhakrishnan has written over 800 songs extolling the glory of numerous deities of the Hindu pantheon and on sacred shrines (kshetrams) and nature. 

He has successfully partnered with several talented Carnatic musicians and dancers in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has collaborated with Smt. Asha Ramesh who has composed music to several of his lyrics and rendered  them in Bay Area music and dance concerts.  In addition, she released a CD “Thenum Thinaiyum” based on selected songs. 

Radhakrishnan brings the zeal of a scientific researcher to his collation and citation of mythological stories and sthala puranas, detailing the rationale for the inception of certain ideas and songs. He has used his creativity and imagination in songs in praise of the divine and shown a penchant for the use of alliterative style and combining natural rhythm to add to the song’s flavor.