C. V. RamanFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Born7 November 1888Thiruvanaikoil,Trichinopoly,Madras Province,British India

Died21 November 1970(aged82)Bangalore, Karnataka, India

NationalityIndian

FieldsPhysics

InstitutionsIndian Finance Department[1]University of CalcuttaIndian Association for the Cultivation of ScienceIndian Institute of ScienceCentral College, Bangalore UniversityRaman Research Institute

Alma materUniversity of Madras

Doctoral studentsG. N. RamachandranVikram Ambalal Sarabhai

KnownforRaman effect

Notable awardsKnight Bachelor(1929)Nobel Prize in Physics(1930)Bharat Ratna(1954)Lenin Peace Prize(1957)

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman,FRS(7 November 1888 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in India. He was the recipient of theNobel Prize for Physicsin 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now calledRaman scatteringand is the result of theRaman effect.Contents[hide] 1Early years 2Career 3Personal life 4Books 5Honours and awards 6Archive of Raman Research Papers 7Publications 8Death 9See also 10Notes 11References 12Further reading 13External linksEarly years[edit]Venkata Raman was born inThiruvanaikaval,Trichinopoly,Madras Province, inBritish Indiato R. Chandrasekhara Iyer (b. 1866) and Parvati Ammal (Saptarshi Parvati).[2]He was the second of their five children. At an early age, Raman moved to the city ofVisakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and studied in St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School. His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics atPresidency Collegein Madras, which Raman entered in 1902 at the age of 13.[3]In 1904 he passed his B.A. examination in first place and won the gold medal in physics, and in 1907 he gained his M.A. degree with the highest distinctions.[1]Career[edit]This sectionneeds additional citations for verification.Please helpimprove this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may bechallengedandremoved.(February 2012)

In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service after he was appointed the firstPalit Professor of Physicsat theUniversity of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research at theIndian Association for the Cultivation of Science(IACS), Calcutta, where he became the Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this period as the golden era of his career. Many students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of Calcutta.

Energy level diagram showing the states involved in Raman signal.On 28 February 1928, Raman led experiments at the IACS with collaborators, includingK. S. Krishnan, on thescatteringof light, when he discovered theRaman effect. A detailed account of this period is reported in the biography by G. Venkatraman.[4]It was instantly clear that this discovery was of huge value. It gave further proof of thequantum nature of light. Raman had a complicated professional relationship withK. S. Krishan, who surprisingly did not share the award, but is mentioned prominently even in the Nobel lecture.[5]Raman spectroscopycame to be based on this phenomenon, andErnest Rutherfordreferred to it in his presidential address to theRoyal Societyin 1929. Raman was president of the 16th session of theIndian Science Congressin 1929. He was conferred aknighthood, and medals and honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was confident of winning theNobel Prize in Physicsas well, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went toRichardsonin 1928 and tode Brogliein 1929. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win the 1930Nobel Prize in Physics"for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of theRaman effect". He was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before himRabindranath Tagore(also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.Raman andBhagavantamdiscovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further confirmed the quantum nature of light.[6]During his tenure at IISc, he recruited the then talented electrical engineering student,G. N. Ramachandran, who later was a distinguished X-ray crystallographer himself.Raman also worked on theacousticsof musical instruments. He worked out the theory oftransversevibration of bowed strings, on the basis ofsuperpositionvelocities. He was also the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as thetablaand themridangam.Raman and his student, Nagendra Nath, provided the correct theoretical explanation for the acousto-optic effect (light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting in the celebrated Raman-Nath theory.[7]Modulators, and switching systems based on this effect have enabled optical communication components based onlasersystems.Raman was succeeded byDebendra Mohan Boseas the Palit Professor in 1932. In 1933, Raman left IACS to joinIndian Institute of ScienceinBangaloreas its first Indian director.[8]Other investigations carried out by Raman were experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves ofultrasonicand hypersonic frequencies (published 19341942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light.He also started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in 1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The Company during its sixty year history established four factories in Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of Independent India.In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a new manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and optical behaviour of numerousiridescentsubstances (labradorite, pearlyfeldspar,agate,opal, andpearls). Among his other interests were the optics ofcolloids, electrical and magneticanisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.[9]Personal life[edit]He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal (18921980[10]) with whom he had two sons, Chandrasekhar andRadhakrishnan.On his religious views, he was said to be an agnostic.[11][12]Raman retired from theIndian Institute of Sciencein 1944 and established theRaman Research InstituteinBangalore, Karnataka a year later. He served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82Raman was the paternal uncle ofSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won theNobel Prize in Physics(1983) for his discovery of theChandrasekhar limitin 1931 and for his subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary forstellar evolution.