C. V. Raman

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist who made groundbreaking works in the field of light scattering. He won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics and was the first Asian person to receive a Nobel prize in any branch of science. In 1954, the Government of India honoured him with the first Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award. He later smashed the medallion in protest against Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies on scientific research. He died in 1970 at the age of 80.

About C. V. Raman in brief

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist who made groundbreaking works in the field of light scattering. With his student K. S. Krishnan, he discovered that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light change wavelength and amplitude. This phenomenon was a new type of scattering of light and was subsequently known as the Raman effect. Raman won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics and was the first Asian person to receive a Nobel prize in any branch of science. In 1954, the Government of India honoured him with the first Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award. He later smashed the medallion in protest against Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies on scientific research. He died in 1970 at the age of 80. He is buried at the Ramnagar Cemetery in Madras, where he was a member of the Rajya Sabha and the Vidarbha University of Science and Technology. He was also the founder of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. His death was announced by the government of India on the National Science Day, which is celebrated every year on November 7, the same day as the Nobel Prize ceremony. He had a son and a daughter, both of whom died of cancer in the 1970s. He also had a stepson, a grandson and a great-grandson who are still living in the United States. His great-great-grandchildren include the Indian physicist Ravi Agrawal and his son Ravi Raman, who died in 2011.

He has been awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour, for his contributions to science. He received the Padmashri, India’s highest honour for services to science, in 1983. He wrote a book on light scattering, which was published in 1989. His son, Ravi, wrote a biography of him in which he described his life as a scientist and his family’s struggle to survive in a tough environment. His daughter, Rani, is also a physicist, having studied at the University of Madras. She is the author of a book about her father’s life and work, “Raman: A Life in Physics” (1998). He died on November 21, 1970, at age 89. He left behind a wife and four children. His last will and testament is published in his memoirs, Raman: A life in Physics (2000). He is survived by his wife and two children, Ruchi and Ravi. His grandson Ravi is a professor of physics at the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bangalore, and his great-nephew is the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Dabholkar. He passed the FA examination with a scholarship at age 13. He won the gold medal in physics from Presidency College with honours in 1907. His first research paper, on diffraction of light, was published in 1906 while still a graduate student. His second paper published in the same journal was on surface tension of liquids.

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