Urbasi and Aninda Sinha are Gates Cambridge's first married couple, having met before they arrived in Cambridge.
Aninda and I are privileged to be the first Gates Cambridge married couple and I would say that for those in the same position now, the sense of responsibility and gratitude is perhaps even more. There is so much legacy to be inspired by and so much inspiration to provide in return.
Professor Urbasi Sinha
Professor Urbasi Sinha, winner of the Gates Cambridge Impact Prize, is a quantum scientist. She married fellow Gates Cambridge Scholar Aninda while he was in the inaugural year of the scholarship. Urbasi then became a Gates Cambridge Scholar herself in 2002. Here they talk about how they met, how Gates Cambridge cemented their relationship and what those first years were like.
Q: How did you meet originally?
Aninda: We met during our undergraduate days. I was one year senior to Urbasi in Jadavpur University (Kolkata) where we did our undergraduate degree in Physics.
Q: Aninda, how did you come to apply for Gates Cambridge?
Aninda: I applied to Cambridge for two reasons a) Because it was Cambridge! And b) My father and uncle both studied in England. My uncle also did his tripos from Cambridge and was a famous physicist. Both my father and my uncle encouraged me to apply to Cambridge.
I came in 1999 and Urbasi came in 2000. I did the part 2 physics from 1999-2000 and then the part III maths from 2000-2001. During the end of the part III maths course, we were told that there was this new scholarship that one could apply for. I applied for it and got it. Urbasi got it the next year. We were quite lucky.
Q: What was it like being in the first years of the scholarship programme?
Aninda: Gates was a very nice scholarship as it was higher paid than the other ones available so we could live a little more comfortably!!
Urbasi: For me, Aninda getting the Gates Cambridge scholarship in the first cohort was a testament to his intellectual and scholarly acumen (he had just received the Mayhew prize for standing first in Part III Tripos!) and kind of made this scholarship very coveted.
We were both Nehru Chevening scholars before this so I felt that competing and winning Gates Cambridge scholarships was a natural progression for the two of us. As our PhDs evolved, I started realising more and more how lucky we were in getting these scholarships, also with a growing sense that what we do during our time will set future milestones and aspirations that the whole enterprise may want to expand upon.
Q: Where did you live in Cambridge?
Aninda: We lived in Harvey court [which belonged to Caius College]. It was previously occupied by Stephen Hawking and his sprawling ground floor apartment had been divided into four rooms.
Urbasi: While we lived in the same accommodation, I was at Queens’ college while Aninda was at Caius. Hence we did get the opportunity to participate in separate communities as well as a shared one. The Gates Cambridge community was still forming so I would say our shared community was more about shared peer groups, which also included some fellow Gates Cambridge scholars.
Q: Did the fact that you were both doing PhDs at the same time mean you could support each other better?
Urbasi: There was a shared appreciation of the joys and frustrations of scientific research. Also an added richness due to Aninda’s line of work being primarily theoretical while mine was primarily experimental. This helped broaden our individual perspectives as well.
Q: Have you kept in touch with other scholars from your years?
Aninda: A few of them. We have been in touch with another fellow Gates scholar, with whom we played a lot of bridge during our Cambridge days. Another Gates scholar (who joined in 2006; we left in 2007) is now a faculty member in the Indian Institute of Science, where I work.
Q: Do you have any advice for future Gates Cambridge Scholars?
Urbasi: When Aninda and I were Gates Cambridge scholars, the community was just forming. Now it is 25 years since these scholarships have started and indeed several brilliant folks have gone on to do remarkable things as Gates Cambridge scholars. Aninda and I are privileged to be the first Gates Cambridge married couple and I would say that for those in the same position now, the sense of responsibility and gratitude is perhaps even more. There is so much legacy to be inspired by and so much inspiration to provide in return. It is a great time of your lives, enjoy it, live it to the fullest and help make a difference.
*An edited version of this interview appears in the Gates Cambridge 25th anniversary magazine, which is just out here.
