SIR CV RAMAN (CHANDRASHEKHAR VENKATA RAMAN) LIFE STORY : –
Born : – 7 November 1888, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
Death : – 21 November 1970, Bangalore, Karnataka
Post / Work : –
Discovery of Raman Effect, Physicist
Achievements : –
Nobel Prize for Scattering of Light and Exploring Raman Effect
Sir CV Raman, a physicist who received the Nobel Prize for the scattering of light and the discovery of the Raman effect, was a great scientist of modern India. Venkat was the first Indian scientist in the modern era who brought India great fame in the world of science. We all know about the achievements of science in ancient India such as the discovery of the zero and decimal system, the rotation of the Earth on its own axis, and the formulas of Ayurveda, etc. But at that time there was no special progress in purely experimental terms. The Government of India gave him the country’s highest honor ‘Bharat Ratna’ for his remarkable contribution in the field of science. At the same time, the United Nations also honored him with the prestigious Lenin Peace Prize. He has been a major contributor to providing new heights to science in India. He gave tremendous impetus to the study and research of science in independent India.
Early Life : –
Chandrashekhar Venkata Raman was born on 7 November 1888 in the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. His father’s name was Chandrasekhar Iyer and mother’s name was Parvati Amma. He was the second child of his parents. His father Chandrasekhar Iyer was the spokesperson for Physics and Mathematics at AV Narasimharao College, Visakhapatnam, (modern Andhra Pradesh). His father was very fond of reading, so he kept a small library in his house. For this reason Raman was introduced to science and English literature at a very young age. His attachment to music also started from a young age and later became the subject of his scientific discoveries. His father was a skilled veena player whom he used to watch playing the veena for hours. Thus, child Raman got a better educational environment from the beginning.
Education : –
Raman moved to Visakhapatnam at an early age. There he attended St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School. Raman was a very talented student of his class and he received awards and scholarships from time to time. He passed his matriculation examination in 11 years and passed the FA exam (equivalent to today’s + 2 / intermediate) with a scholarship at just 13 years of age. In the year 1902, he joined the Presidency College Madras. His father was working as a spokesman for physics and mathematics here. In the year 1904, he passed the BA examination. With the first place he received the ‘Gold Medal’ in Physics. After this he did MA from Presidency College. Took admission in and chose physics as the main subject. M.A. During the course of Raman, he would rarely go to class and would do some experiments and research in the college laboratory. His professors understood his talent well and therefore let him study freely. Professor R. L. Johns advised them to write the results of their research and experiments in the form of a ‘research paper’ and send them to the Philosophical magazine to be published from London. His research paper was published in the November issue of the journal in 1906. He was only 18 at the time. In the year 1907, he passed the MA examination with high distinction.
Carrier : –
Raman’s teachers advised his father to send him to England for higher education but due to poor health he could not go abroad for higher education. Now he had no choice, so he sat for a competitive examination conducted by the British Government. Raman got the first position in this examination and was appointed as an officer in the financial department of the government. Raman was appointed to the post of Assistant Accountant General in Kolkata and built a small laboratory in his home. Whatever he found interesting, he would have engaged in research of his scientific facts. In Kolkata, he continued his research in the laboratory of the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science. Every morning, before reaching office, he would reach the council’s laboratory and after office reached the laboratory again at five in the evening and worked there till ten o’clock at night. He would spend the whole day in the laboratory on Sundays and be busy with his experiments.
Raman quit his government job in the year 1917 and accepted Palit Chair in Physics under the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science. In 1917, he was appointed as Professor of Physical Sciences, University of Calcutta.
Raman was made a member of the Royal Society of London in 1924 for his contribution in the field of ‘opticus’ and it was a great honor for any scientist.
Discover : –
The Raman effect was discovered on 28 February 1928. Raman announced it in the foreign press the very next day. He was published by the prestigious scientific journal Nature. On 16 March 1928, he gave a speech at the South Indian Signs Association, Bangalore, on top of his new discovery. After this, gradually the Raman effect began to be explored in all the laboratories of the world.
Venkat Raman also chaired the Indian Science Congress in the year 1929. In the year 1930, he was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in the field of physics for the scattering of light and the discovery of the Raman effect.
In the year 1934 Raman was made the director of the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore. He also researched the spectrum nature of stills, fundamental issues of still dynamics, the structure and properties of diamonds and the optical behavior of many pigmented materials. He was the first to discover the nature of the harmonic of tabla and mridangam. In the year 1948, he retired from the Indian Institute of Science (IIS). Subsequently, he established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore.
Private Life : –
Raman was married to Loksundari Ammal on 6 May 1907. They had two sons – Chandrasekhar and Radhakrishnan.
Death : –
He died in Bangalore on 21 November 1970. He was 82 at the time.
