Indian Physicist
Birth
Dr.R.Chidambaram (Rajagopala Chidambaram) was born on 12th November 1936 in Chennai of Tamil Nadu.
Education
R.Chidambaram got his education in Meerut and Chennai. He studied B.Sc with honors in Physics. In 1956, he got the first rank at the University level in the Madras University. He then taught the Physics lab courses and wrote a fundamental thesis about analog computers to finish the M.Sc Physics in 1958 in the same Institution. In the Indian Institute of Science (IISc in Bangalore), he got the Ph.D in 1962. He gave his thesis on the research work on the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
After the graduation, he found his concentration declining in the nuclear Physics. Instead, R.Chidambaram got an interest in the condensed matter physics and crystallography, for which he wrote the articles that made him to progress in the modern material science. He gave his work to enrich the material science and condensed matter physics, for which he got the D.Sc in Physics from the IISc. He got the D.Sc, after his submission of the doctoral thesis with experiments in IISc. He got the doctoral degrees from eight Universities for eight times.
Life Career
In BARC, R.Chidambaram became the senior nuclear scientist to construct the nuclear programme. For the construction of the physical and metallurgical aspects of the nuclear weapons, he joined the nuclear weapon designing effort along with his scientist friends in 1967. R.Chidambaram with his friends gave the state of plutonium equation, which is grouped by all the nuclear weapon states. To attain this, he began the research in BARC in interaction with the Terminal Ballistics Research Lab (TBRL) of the Defence Research and Development Organization.
He gave his assistance to the Indian Army in constructing a nuclear test site in the Indian Army base at Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. In 1974, after the nuclear device test in Pokharan, R.Chidambaram began open research in high pressure physics. He took the significant role in building the nuclear weapons for India, by doing his job in the Indian nuclear test team. Later, he joined the Bhabha Atomic Research (BARC) and then worked as the Director of Physics, thus starting the physical aspects of the nuclear weapons.
In 1990, he became the Director of the BARC. Then he took part in the design and execution of the Smiling Buddha Operation. This made him, to direct the DAE team for Operation Shakthi in 1998. He began the building of the super-computers that has the multi-teraflop speed capacity. After, he became the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, there was an increase in the progress of the nuclear power . He was world famous, when he became the representative of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). In 1998, he made greater efforts to organize the second nuclear tests.
He was not responded, while he made an approach to get the US Visa to attend the conference of the International Union of Crystallography, after which he withdrew the Visa application.
Works of R. Chidambaram
Dr.R.Chidambaram was the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory to the cabinet of Federal Government and the principal Scientific Advisor to the Central Government of India till March 2018. He implemented new plans like making of the RuTAGs( Rural Technology Section Groups) to deliver in rural areas, beginning of the Core Advisory Group for R&D in the Automatic Sector(CAR) to rise the industry-academia interaction and the beginning of SETS(Society for Electronic Transactions and Security).This RuTAG aims to give the science and technology of higher level and assistance for building the suitable technologies in remote rural areas. Then the SETS (Society for Electronic Transactions and Security) objective is to nucleate, explain and improve the security models which could safeguard the information details of the country.
He along with the other members in the National Informatics Center was wholly responsible to supervise the beginning of the high-speed National Knowledge Network. This National Knowledge Network aims to link the 1500 research and educational institutions of India. R.Chidambaram stressed the aim of “Coherent Technology” in India’s Science & technology (S&T) to pull India into a constant faster-growing way. He took interest on the significance of Direct Basic Research along with the fundamental research.
Awards for R. Chidambaram
For his participation in India’s first nuclear test Smiling Buddha, he became one of the scientists to get the honor from then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Dr.R.Chidambaram has won numerous numbers of awards. For the successful nuclear tests, he won the Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1975.
In 1991 he got the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Science. He won the C.V.Raman Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress Association in 1995 and the Distinguished materials Scientists of the Year Award from the Materials Research Society of India in 1996. In the same year, he won the R.D. Birla Award from the Indian Physics Association. He was the awardee of the H.K Forodia Award for Excellence in S&T in 1998. After this in 1999, he won the Padma Vibushan. He got the Hari Om Prerit Senior Scientist Award in 2000. Later he won the Meghnad Saha Medal from the Indian Nuclear Society for the year 2002. In 2006, he won the INS Homi Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Nuclear Society. He got the D.Sc degrees (Honoris Causa) from many Indian and International Universities.
Honors of R. Chidambaram
He is one of the fellows in all the Science Academies in India and the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS in Italy). He became the Chairman and President in many number of organizations like the Materials Research Society of India, IIT- Madras, IIT-Bombay, the International Union of Crystallography and the International the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Later in 2008, R.Chidambaram got an invitation from the IAEA to become the member of the “Commission of Eminent Persons”. He held with this post, to make the proposals on long-term priorities and funds to the Board of Governors.