Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was a renowned Indian physicist who made significant contributions to the fields of optics and acoustics. He was born in a Tamil Brahmin family in Tiruchirapalli, Madras Presidency, British India on 7 November 1888. He was a prodigy who completed his secondary and higher secondary education at the age of 11 and 13 respectively. He graduated with honours in physics from Presidency College, Madras at the age of 16. He published his first research paper on diffraction of light in 1906 while he was still a student. He obtained his master's degree in 1907 and joined the Indian Finance Service as an Assistant Accountant General in Calcutta at the age of 19. He pursued his passion for science by conducting independent research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), the first research institute in India. He made important discoveries in acoustics, such as the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian musical instruments tabla and mridangam. He also studied the vibration of strings, rods and plates. He became a professor of physics at the University of Calcutta in 1917 and founded the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926. He is best known for his discovery of the phenomenon of light scattering, which bears his name as the Raman effect or Raman scattering. He observed that when a beam of monochromatic light passes through a transparent material, some of the scattered light changes its wavelength and frequency. This is due to the interaction of light with the molecules of the material, which causes them to vibrate or rotate. He used a spectrograph that he developed to detect these changes in wavelength and frequency. He announced his discovery on 28 February 1928 at the Indian Science Congress in Calcutta. This date is celebrated as National Science Day in India. He received many honours and awards for his groundbreaking work, including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, becoming the first Asian and first non-white to win a Nobel Prize in any branch of science. He was also knighted by King George V in 1930 and received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1954. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1924 and received many other medals and honorary degrees from various scientific societies and universities around the world. He moved to Bangalore in 1933 to become the first Indian director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He founded the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1934 to promote scientific research and education in India. He also established the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in 1949, where he continued his research until his death. He worked on various topics such as crystallography, magnetism, diamond structure, colour vision, plant physiology and biophysics. He was married to Lokasundari Ammal in 1907 and had two sons, Venkatraman Radhakrishnan and Chandrasekhar Ramanathan Iyer. He was a man of simple habits and high ideals. He was deeply interested in Indian culture, music, literature and philosophy. He was also a gifted orator and writer who popularized science among the masses. He died of natural causes on 21 November 1970 at the age of 82 in Bangalore. His ashes were scattered on the grounds of the RRI.