Only now do I realize what was happening at the kitchen table all those days and nights. Stacks of paper, books and mugs of cold chai crowded my uncle and a few of his students.
This was a Silicon Valley think tank, before the days of the Silicon Valley. Or think tanks.
In 1977, my family and I arrived at the doorstep of my Uncle’s house in Stanford, California.
We moved from Bombay to start a new life in America.
Thomas Kailath had already started his new life in America in 1957.
To me, he wasn’t the world renowned Stanford professor, engineer and entrepreneur who President Barack Obama awarded the National Medal of Science.
Instead, he was my uncle. A man with an intense focus, contagious laugh and penchant to fall asleep in the middle of a party.
Local
That kitchen table was legendary. He mentored dozens of Stanford PhD students who would go on to revolutionize the Silicon Valley. He researched, wrote books and started companies.
On Thursday in the East Room of the White House, President Obama honored 18 of the country’s leading scientists and innovators. The President singled out Professor Kailath, remarking on his journey from India, to MIT and then to Stanford.
"In 1957, when I came to this country you could never imagine all the nice things that have happened to me," said Kailath after the ceremony. "All the people who have helped me. My wonderful students. It’s a dream."
It’s a shared dream by his family, students and his little nephew in the kitchen, watching a genius at work.
