There is nothing to remind one of the sunlight glistening on Lake Constance in the summer as Dr. Mohan Muralikrishna Garlapati arrives at the Münster Schloss one cold November afternoon to talk about his career and about the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting he attended in July. The Schloss is shrouded in fog, but despite this, materials physicist Garlapati is in a good mood. He has been looking forward to our conversation and has brought some good news: “I’ve been offered a position as professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Patna, which I shall soon be taking up,” he says.