India, Nov. 19 -- While many highly educated candidates fell by the wayside in the rough and tumble of Bihar politics, there were a few who made it in the Bihar Assembly election.

One of them is Manjarik Mrinal, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) and involved in research related to semiconductor technology, including a study on defect-free lithography, to pave the way for semiconductor and chip manufacturing. He won his debut election from Warisnagar seat.

He worked as adjunct professor in the University of Texas, from where he did his mechanical engineering and PhD, worked with HP Labs and has several peer-reviewed research papers in international journals. He talked to HT on his transition from science to polit...