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(contributed by Vivek Penumatcha)
Born: Thiruchinapalli, India; November 7,
1888
Died: Bangalore, India; November 21,
1970
Nobel Prize: 1930 Physics, for his discovery
of the "Raman" effect
Biography:
Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman, popularly known
as C.V. Raman, was born in Thiruchinapalli, in
Tamil Nadu, India on November 7, 1888. He was the
second of children of Chandrasekhar Iyer and
Parvathi Ammal. His father was a professor of
mathematics. At an early age, Raman moved to the
city of Visakhapatnam, in the present day state
of Andhra Pradesh, where his father accepted a
position at the Mrs. A.V.N. College. Raman's
academic brilliance was established at a very
young age. At eleven, he finished his secondary
school education and entered Mrs. A.V.N. College
and two years later moved to the prestigious
Presidency College in Madras (present name,
Chennai). When he was fifteen, he finished at the
head of the class to receive B.A. with honors in
Physics and English. During that time students
who did well academically were typically sent
abroad (England) for further studies. Because of
Raman's poor health he was not allowed to go
abroad and he continued his studies at the
Presidency college.In 1907, barely seventeen,
Raman again graduated at the top of his class and
received his M.A. with honors. In the same year
he married Lokasundari.
At the time of Raman's graduation, there were
few opportunities for scientists in India. This
forced Raman to accept a position with the Indian
Civil Services as an Assistant Accountant General
in Calcutta. While there, he was able to sustain
his interest in science by working, in his spare
time, in the laboratories of the Indian
Association for the Cultivation of Science. He
studied the physics of stringed instruments and
Indian drums.
In 1917, with his scientific standing
established in India, Raman was offered the
position of Sir Taraknath Palit Professorship of
Physics at Calcutta university, where he stayed
for the next fifteen years. During his tenure
there, he received world wide recognition for his
work in optics and scattering of light. He was
elected to the Royal Society of London in 1924
and the British made him a knight of the British
Empire in 1929. The following year he was honored
with the prestigious Hughes medal from the Royal
Society. In 1930, for the first time in its
history, an Indian scholar, educated entirely in
India has received the highest honor in science,
the Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1934, Raman became the director of the
newly established Indian Institute of Sciences in
Bangalore, where two years later he continued as
a professor of physics. In 1947, he was appointed
as the first National Professor by the new
government of Independent India. He retired from
the Indian Institute in 1948 and a year later he
established the Raman Research Institute in
Bangalore, served as its director and remained
active there until his death on November 21,
1970, at the age of eighty two. Raman was honored
with the highest award, the "Bharat
Ratna"(Jewel of India), by the Government of
India.
Bibliography:
General:
- Chamberland, Dennis, "Nobel
Prize", edited by , pages 373-380
- Mehra, Jagdish, "Chandrasekhar
Venkata Raman", in Dictionary of
Scientific Biography, edited by Charles
Coulston Gillespie, New York, Charles
Scribner and Sons
- Blaniped, Williams A., "Pioneer
Scientists in Pre-Independent
India", Physics Today, 39: page 36
(May, 1986)
- Jayaraman, Aiyasami and Ramdas, Anant
Krishna, "Chandrasekhar Venkata
Raman", Physics Today, 56: p56-64
(August, 1988)
- Weber, Robert L, "Pioneers of
Science: Nobel Prize winners in Physics:,
eidted by Lenihan, J.M.A., Bristol, Adam
Higler, 1980
Physics:
- "Dynamical Theory of the Motion of
Bowed Strings", Bulletin, Indian
Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1914
- "On the molecular scattering of
light in water and the colour of the
sea", Proceedings of the Royal
Society, 1922
- "A new type of Secondary
Radiation", Nature, 1928
- "A new radiation", Indian
Journal of Physics, 1928
- Aspects of Science, 1948
- The New Physics: Talks on Aspects of
Science, 1951
- Lectures on Physical Optics, 1959
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