|
One Hundred
Tamils of the 20th Century
Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman
(C.V.Raman)
November 7, 1888 - November 21,
1970
| Biography from Nobel
Lectures. Physics 1922-1941, Elsevier
Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965 -
written at the time of the award and later
published in the book series Les Prix
Nobel/Nobel Lectures. |
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was
born at Trichinopoly in Southern India on November
7th, 1888. His father was a lecturer in mathematics
and physics so that from the first he was immersed
in an academic atmosphere. He entered Presidency
College, Madras, in 1902, and in 1904 passed his
B.A. examination, winning the first place and the
gold medal in physics; in 1907 he gained his M.A.
degree, obtaining the highest distinctions.
His earliest researches in optics and acoustics -
the two fields of investigation to which he has
dedicated his entire career - were carried out
while he was a student.
Since at that time a scientific career did not
appear to present the best possibilities, Raman
joined the Indian Finance Department in 1907;
though the duties of his office took most of his
time, Raman found opportunities for carrying on
experimental research in the laboratory of the
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
at Calcutta (of which he became Honorary Secretary
in 1919).
In 1917 he was offered the newly endowed Palit
Chair of Physics at Calcutta University, and
decided to accept it. After 15 years at Calcutta he
became Professor at the Indian Institute of Science
at Bangalore (1933-1948), and since 1948 he is
Director of the Raman Institute of Research at
Bangalore, established and endowed by himself. He
also founded the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926,
of which he is the Editor. Raman sponsored the
establishment of the Indian Academy of Sciences and
has served as President since its inception. He
also initiated the Proceedings of that academy, in
which much of his work has been published, and is
President of the Current Science Association,
Bangalore, which publishes Current Science
(India).
Some of Raman's early memoirs appeared as Bulletins
of the Indian Associationfor the Cultivation of
Science (Bull. 6 and 11, dealing with the
"Maintenance of Vibrations"; Bull. 15, 1918,
dealing with the theory of the musical instruments
of the violin family). He contributed an article on
the theory of musical instruments to the 8th Volume
of the Handbuch der Physik, 1928. In 1922 he
published his work on the "Molecular Diffraction of
Light", the first of a series of investigations
with his collaborators which ultimately led to his
discovery, on the 28th of February, 1928, of the
radiation effect which bears his name ("A new
radiation", Indian J. Phys., 2 (1928) 387), and
which gained him the 1930 Nobel Prize in
Physics.
Other investigations carried out by Raman were: his
experimental and theoretical studies on the
diffraction of light by acoustic waves of
ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published
1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by
X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed
to ordinary light. In 1948 Raman, through studying
the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached
in a new manner fundamental problems of crystal
dynamics. His laboratory has been dealing with the
structure and properties of diamond, the structure
and optical behaviour of numerous iridescent
substances (labradorite, pearly felspar, agate,
opal, and pearls).
Among his other interests have been the optics of
colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and
the physiology of human vision.
Raman has been honoured with a large number of
honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific
societies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society early in his career (1924), and was
knighted in 1929.
|
