Indian Physicist
Birth
C.V Raman was born on 7th November 1888 to Chandrashekaran Ramanathan Iyer and Parvathi Ammal in Thiruvanaikoil (Trichy) of Madras Presidency.
Education
C.V Raman had studied in St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School in Vishakhapatnam. He passed the matriculation at his 11th age and FA exam at his 13th age with a scholarship. In 1904, he got a BA degree from the Madras University in Chennai. Later in 1907, he got an M.Sc degree with distinction from the University of Madras.
Personal Life and family
C. V Raman married Lokasundari Ammal in the year 1907. He had two sons Radhakrishnan and Chandrasekhar. Radhakrishnan was a radio astronomer. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 was the nephew of C.V.Raman. Chandrasekhar had done his work on nuclear reactions for stellar evolution and had found the Chandrasekhar limit.
Early Life of C.V Raman
When he was a student, his researches in optics and acoustics were the two fields of investigation in which he spent his whole career. In November 1906, Raman published the first research paper. Later in 1907, C.V.Raman was chosen for the Indian Finance Department. There in the Indian Finance Department, he worked as a civil servant for 10 years in Calcutta. He got the Palit Chair of Physics at Calcutta University in 1917, which was newly awarded.
In 1926, he established and became the editor of the Indian Journal of Physics. He gave training for hundreds of students, who got the crucial posts in Universities and Government of India and Myanmar. C.V.Raman published his work on “Molecular Diffraction of Light”. His analysis in this publication work made a beginning for the discovery on 28th February 1928. He found that a few part of the scattered light, gains the other wavelengths than the original light. In the same year, he wrote an article on the musical instruments theory for the 8th Volume of the Handbuch der Physik.
C.V Raman – Behavior of Lattice
Between periods of 1930 to 1940, when scientists saw the spots in X-ray Laue photographs, then Raman gave out a theory of solutions, which had as the basis of Peter Debye and Max Born proposed thermal theories. This left a clash between Raman and Born. Born with his professional and social influence, got the support of all the scientists. Born won in eliminating the Raman’s rival theory, even though the Born’s theory was not accepted.
During 1932, C.V. Raman with his student Suri Bhagavatham found that the photons of light hold the angular momentum in quantum basis, photons has a property known as spin. In 1933, he left his work on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves and the X-rays result on IR vibrations in light exposed crystals. He was eager to study the colloid optics, human vision physiology and electrical and magnetic anisotropy. Then he became the Professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1933. He had been working as a professor from a period of 1933 to 1948.
In 1943, he began the company called Travancore Chemical and manufacturing Co.Ltd. with Dr. Krishnamurthy to manufacture the Potassium chlorate for the match industry.
He got the appointment as first National Professor from the Government of Independent India in 1947. Raman found in new way basic issues of crystal dynamic, by studying the spectroscopic dynamics of crystals in 1948. He made his approach with properties of diamond and the optical characteristics of other substances like agate, labradorite, pearly feldspar and opal. Raman always had the hand held spectroscope with him for studying. He proved that the energy of inelastic scattering of photons works as the fingerprint for the substance that spreads the light. Because of this, Raman spectroscopy is used in the Chemical processes and labs to find any material.
In 1948, C.V.Raman got the retirement from the Indian Institute of Science. He established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore in the following year. He was the Director for Raman Institute till his death in 1970 at Bangalore.
Honors of C.V Raman
In 1930, C.V.Raman won the Nobel Prize for the Raman Effect and the work on scattering of light in Physics. Later in 1941, he won the Franklin Medal. In 1954, he got the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India. By this, he became the first Indian to get the Nobel Prize in Physics. He also won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957.
India celebrates the National Science Day on 28th February to remember the Raman Effect discovery to honor him.
In 1924, during his early career, C.V. Raman was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1968, he resigned from the Royal Society.
Research Institute of C.V Raman
Raman Research Institute is the research institute for Science located in Bangalore, Karnataka. This Institute exhibits the Raman’s set of crystals, minerals, rock specimens and gems, which he got from different parts of the world. As per Raman’s wish, there is a collection of beetles, butterflies and packed birds in his museum. During the Raman’s period, many scientists like E.C.Bullard, J.D Bernal, C.G.Darwin, J.B.S.Haldane, L.Rosenfeld, P.A.M.Dirac, Nobert Wiener and Linus Pauling gave the visit to this Institute. After Raman’s death, the Government of India controls this Institute.
Raman met Maharaja of Mysore to seek the land for building office for the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1934. After Maharaja gave the land in Bangalore, there was no development in building the IAS office till 1941. Then it was in 1941, Raman gave the idea to build the Institute. But the inauguration of the Institute was not possible till 1948. In 1948, after Raman’s retirement, the establishment of Research Institute took place.
Death
On 21st November 1970, C.V.Raman died due to a major heart attack while he was working on the Lab in the Raman Research Institute.
When C.V.Raman got heart attack on October 1970, he was rushed to the Hospital. He did not accept to stay in the hospital, once he came alive. Because he wished to die in his Research Institute.