Meghnad Saha From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Meghnad Saha SahaInBerlin.

jpg Meghnad Saha in Berlin Born 6 October 1893

Shaoratoli, Dhaka, Bengal, British India Died 16 February 1956 (aged 62)

Delhi, India Residence Nationality India Indian

Fields Physics and Mathematics Institutions Allahabad University

University of Calcutta Imperial College London Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Alma mater Dhaka College

University of Calcutta Known for Thermal ionisation

Saha ionization equation Meghnad Saha FRS (October 6, 1893 February 16, 1956) was an Indian astrophysicist best known for his development of the Saha equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. Contents [hide] 1 Biography 2 Career 3 Tributes to Saha

4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links Biography[edit source | editbeta]

Meghnad Saha was born in Shaoratoli village near Dhaka (in present Bangladesh). Son of Jagannath Saha, Meghnad Saha belonged to a poor family and struggled to rise in life. He had his initial schooling at Dhaka Collegiate School, and later moved to Dhaka College. He was also a student at the Presidency College, Kolkata; a professor at Allahabad University from 1923 to 1938, and thereafter a professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Calcutta until his death in 1956. He became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1927. He was president of the 21st session of the Indian Science Congress in 1934. Saha was fortunate to have brilliant teachers and class fellows. In his student days, Jagadish Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Roy were at the pinnacle of their fame. Amongst his class fellows were Satyendra Nath Bose, Jnan Ghosh and J. N. Mukherjee. In later life he was close to Amiya Charan Banerjee, a renowned mathematician at Allahabad University. On his religious views, Saha was an atheist.[1][2] Saha died on February 16, 1956 at the age of 62. Career[edit source | editbeta]

Meghnad Saha's best-known work concerned the thermal ionisation of elements, and it led him to formulate what is known as the Saha equation. This equation is one of the basic tools for interpretation of the spectra of stars in astrophysics. By studying the spectra of various stars, one can find their temperature and from that, using Saha's equation, determine the ionisation state of the various elements making up the star. Saha also helped to build several scientific institutions, such as the Physics Department in Allahabad University and the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta. He founded the journal Science and Culture and was the editor until his death.[3] He was the leading spirit in organizing several scientific societies, such as the National Academy of Science (1930), the Indian Physical Society (1934), Indian Institute of Science (1935) and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (1944). A lasting memorial to him is the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, founded in 1943 in Kolkata He also invented an instrument to measure the weight and pressure of solar rays. He was also the chief architect of river planning in India. He prepared the original plan for the Damodar Valley Project.

Saha's own comment on his work was as follows: Scientists are often accused of living in the Ivory Tower and not troubling their mind with realities and apart from my association with political movements in my juvenile years, I had lived in ivory tower up to 1930. But science and technology are as important for administration now-a-days as law and order. I have gradually glided into politics because I wanted to be of some use to the country in my own humble way.[4]

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people of the same name, see Chandrasekhar. In this Indian name, the name Subrahmanyan is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Chandrasekhar.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Born

October 19, 1910 Lahore, British India

Died

August 21, 1995 (aged 84) Chicago, Illinois, United States

Residence

United States

Citizenship

India (19101953) United States (19531995)

Fields

Astrophysics

Institutions

University of Chicago University of Cambridge

Alma mater

Presidency College, Madras Trinity College, Cambridge

Doctoral advisor R.H. Fowler, Arthur Stanley Eddington

Doctoral students

Donald Edward Osterbrock,Roland Winston, F. Paul Esposito,Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Jerome Kristian

Known for

Chandrasekhar limit

Notable awards

Nobel Prize in Physics (1983) Copley Medal (1984) National Medal of Science (1966) Padma Vibhushan (1968)

Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar, FRS (

/tndrekr/; October 19, 1910 August 21, 1995),[1] was

an Indian-American astrophysicist who, with William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for key discoveries that led to the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars.[2][3] The Chandrasekhar limit is named after him. Chandrasekhar was the nephew of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. Chandrasekhar in distinct periods worked in various areas including stellar structure, theory of white dwarfs, stellar dynamics, theory of radiative transfer, quantum theory of the negative ion of Hydrogen, hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic stability, equilibrium and the stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, general relativity, mathematical theory of black holes and theory of colliding gravitational waves.[4]

Chandrasekhar served on the University of Chicago faculty from 1937 until his death in 1995 at the age of 84. He became a naturalized citizen of theUnited States in 1953.
Contents
[hide]

1 Early life and education 2 Subsequent life and career 3 Atheism 4 Nobel prize 5 Legacy 6 Awards 7 Works 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

Early life and education[edit source | editbeta]

Chandrasekhar was born on 19 October 1910 in Lahore, Punjab, India to a Tamil Iyer family Sitalakshmi (18911931) and Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Iyer (18851960)[5] who was posted in Lahore as Deputy Auditor General of the Northwestern Railways at the time of Chandrasekhar's birth. He was the eldest of their four sons and the third of their ten children. His paternal uncle was the Indian physicist and Nobel laureate C. V. Raman. His mother was devoted to intellectual pursuits, had translated Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House into Tamil and is credited with arousing Chandra's intellectual curiosity at an early age. Chandrasekhar was tutored at home initially through middle school and later attended the Hindu High School, Triplicane, Madras during the years 1922-25. Subsequently, he studied at Presidency College, Madras from 1925 to 1930, writing his first paper, "The Compton Scattering and the New Statistics", in 1929 upon inspiration from a lecture by Arnold Sommerfeld and obtaining his bachelor's degree, B.Sc. (Hon.), in physics in June 1930. In July 1930, Chandrasekhar was awarded a Government of India scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge, where he was admitted to Trinity College, secured by Professor R. H. Fowler with whom he communicated his first paper. During his travels to England, Chandrasekhar spent his time working out the statistical mechanics of the degenerate electron gas in white dwarf stars, providing relativisticcorrections to Fowler's previous work (see Legacy below).

In his first year at Cambridge, as a research student of Fowler, Chandrasekhar spent his time in intensive study, calculating mean opacities and applying his results to the construction of an improved model for the limiting mass of the degenerate star, and was introduced to the monthly meetings of the Royal Astronomical Society, where he met Professor E. A. Milne. At the invitation of Max Born he spent the summer of 1931, his second year of post-graduate studies, at Borns institute at Gttingen, working on opacities, atomic absorption coefficients, and model stellar photospheres. On the advice of Prof. P. A. M. Dirac, he spent his final year of graduate studies at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, where he met Prof. Niels Bohr. After receiving a bronze medal for his work on degenerate stars, in the summer of 1933, Chandrasekhar was awarded his PhD degree at Cambridge with a thesis among his four papers on rotating selfgravitating polytropes, and the following October, he was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College for the period 1933-37. During this time, he made acquaintance with Sir Arthur Eddington. Chandrasekhar married Lalitha Doraiswamy in September 1936. He had met her as a fellow student, a year junior to him, at Presidency College, Madras. In his Nobel autobiography, Chandrasekhar wrote, "Lalitha's patient understanding, support, and encouragement have been the central facts of my life."[6] Chandrasekhar's infamous encounter with Arthur Eddington in 1935, in which the latter publicly ridiculed Chandra's most famous (and ultimately correct) discovery (see Chandrasekhar limit) led Chandra to consider employment outside of the UK (Later in life, Chandra on multiple occasions, expressed the view that Eddington's behavior was in part racially motivated.)[7]

Subsequent life and career[edit source | editbeta]

In January 1937, Chandrasekhar was recruited to the University of Chicago faculty as Assistant Professor by Dr. Otto Struve and President Robert Maynard Hutchins. He was to remain at the university for his entire career, becoming Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in 1952 and attaining emeritus status in 1985. Famously, Chandrasekhar declined many offers from other universities, including one to succeed Henry Norris Russell, the preeminent American astronomer, as director of the Princeton University Observatory. Chandrasekhar did some work at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, which was run by the University of Chicago. After the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research (LASR) was built by NASA in 1966 at the University, Chandrasekhar occupied one of the four corner offices on the second floor. (The other corners housed John A. Simpson, Peter Meyer, and Eugene N. Parker.) Chandrasekhar lived at 4800 Lake Shore Drive, about a mile from the University, after the high-rise apartment complex was built in the late 1960s. During World War II, Chandrasekhar worked at the Ballistic Research Laboratories at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. While there, he worked on problems of ballistics; for example, two reports from 1943 were titled, On the decay of plane shock waves and The normal reflection of a blast wave.[4] Chandrasekhar's

expertise in hydrodynamics led Robert Oppenheimer to invite him to join the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, but delays in the processing of his security clearance prevented him from contributing to the project. It has been rumored however that he was called to discuss and visit the Calutron project and was the individual responsible for suggesting that young women be used to operate the machines more efficiently than the male scientists assigned to the task. Chandraskhar had used top performing female high school students from Williams Bay, Lake Geneva, Elkhorn and Burlington, Wisconsin to calculate immensely difficult mathematical equations entirely by long hand, and found that their abilities and vigilance were unparalleled. He then applied this first-hand knowledge with the talents of local "hillbilly high school girls" to speed up the slow-moving centrifugal Calutron project. This in turn allowed the enriched radioactive materials to be completed on time, in order to fashion the atomic weapons ultimately used to end the war. Without these raw materials, developed at the Y-12 National Security Complex these weapons never would have been tested or dropped on Japan. Chandrasekhar developed a unique style of mastering several fields of physics and astrophysics; consequently, his working life can be divided into distinct periods. He would exhaustively study a specific area, publish several papers in it and then write a book summarizing the major concepts in the field. He would then move on to another field for the next decade and repeat the pattern. Thus he studied stellar structure, including the theory of white dwarfs, during the years 1929 to 1939, and subsequently focused on stellar dynamics from 1939 to 1943. Next, he concentrated on the theory of radiative transfer and the quantum theory of the negative ion of hydrogen from 1943 to 1950. This was followed by sustained work on hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic stability from 1950 to 1961. In the 1960s, he studied the equilibrium and the stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, and also general relativity. During the period, 1971 to 1983 he studied the mathematical theory of black holes, and, finally, during the late 80s, he worked on the theory of colliding gravitational waves.[4] Chandra worked closely with his students and expressed pride in the fact that over a 50 year period (from roughly 1930 to 1980), the average age of his co-author collaborators had remained the same, at around 30. He insisted that students address him as "Chandrasekhar" until they received their Ph.D. degree, after which time they (as other colleagues) were encouraged to address him as "Chandra". From 1952 to 1971 Chandrasekhar was editor of the Astrophysical Journal. During the years 1990 to 1995, Chandrasekhar worked on a project devoted to explaining the detailed geometric arguments in Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematicausing the language and methods of ordinary calculus. The effort resulted in the book Newton's Principia for the Common Reader, published in 1995. Chandrasekhar was an honorary member of the International Academy of Science. Chandrasekhar died of a sudden heart attack at the University of Chicago Hospital in 1995, and was survived by his wife, Lalitha Chandrasekhar. In the Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society of London, R. J. Tayler wrote: "Chandrasekhar was a classical applied mathematician whose research was primarily applied in astronomy and whose like will probably never be seen again."[8]

Atheism[edit source | editbeta]

Once when involved in a discussion about the Gita, Chandrashekhar said, "I should like to preface my remarks with a personal statement in order that my later remarks will not be misunderstood. I consider myself an atheist."[9] This was also confirmed many times in his other talks.[10] However, Chandra admired the teachings of Hinduism.

Nobel prize[edit source | editbeta]

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars. Chandrasekhar accepted this honor, but was upset that the citation mentioned only his earliest work, seeing it as a denigration of a lifetime's achievement. He shared it with William A. Fowler.

Legacy[edit source | editbeta]

Chandrasekhar's most notable work was the astrophysical Chandrasekhar limit. The limit describes the maximum mass of a white dwarf star, ~1.44 solar masses, or equivalently, the minimum mass which must be exceeded for a star to ultimately collapse into a neutron star or black hole (following a supernova). The limit was first calculated by Chandrasekhar in 1930 during his maiden voyage from India to Cambridge, England for his graduate studies. In 1999, NASA named the third of its four "Great Observatories" after Chandrasekhar. This followed a naming contest which attracted 6,000 entries from fifty states and sixty-one countries. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. The Chandrasekhar number, an important dimensionless number of magnetohydrodynamics, is named after him. The asteroid 1958 Chandra is also named after Chandrasekhar. American astronomer Carl Sagan, who studied Mathematics under Chandrasekhar, at the University of Chicago, praised him in the book The DemonHaunted World: "I discovered what true mathematical elegance is from Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar." Chandrashekhar guided 50 students to their PhDs.

Awards[edit source | editbeta]

An exhibition on life and works of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was held at Science City, Kolkata, on January, 2011.

Fellow of the Royal Society (1944) Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1949)[11] Bruce Medal (1952)[12] Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1953)[13] Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1957)[14] National Medal of Science, USA (1966)[15] Padma Vibhushan (1968) Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1971)[16] Nobel Prize in Physics (1983) Copley Medal of the Royal Society (1984) Honorary Fellow of the International Academy of Science (1988) Gordon J. Laing Award (1989) Jansky Lectureship before the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Humboldt Prize

Works[edit source | editbeta]

Chandrasekhar, S. (1958) [1939]. An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-60413-6.

Chandrasekhar, S. (2005) [1942]. Principles of Stellar Dynamics. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-44273-X. Chandrasekhar, S. (1960) [1950]. Radiative Transfer. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-60590-6. Chandrasekhar, S. (1975) [1960]. Plasma Physics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226-10084-7.

Chandrasekhar, S. (1981) [1961]. Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability. New York: Dover. ISBN 0486-64071-X.

Chandrasekhar, S. (1987) [1969]. Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-652580.

Chandrasekhar, S. (1998) [1983]. The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850370-9.

Chandrasekhar, S. (1990) [1987]. Truth and Beauty. Aesthetics and Motivations in Science. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-10087-1.

Chandrasekhar, S. (1995). Newton's Principia for the Common Reader. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 019-851744-0.

Acharya P. C. Ray: Father of Indian chemistry

RAY WAS born on August 2, 1861 in Raruli. After attending village school, he went in 1871 to Calcutta, where he studied at Hare School and the Metropolitan College. The lectures of Alexander Pedler in the college attracted him to chemistry. After taking F.A. diploma (1881) from the University of Calcutta, he proceeded to the University of Edinburgh on a Gilchrist scholarship. Ray was awarded the Hope Prize Scholarship for his essay on `India before and after the Mutiny.' Ray joined in 1889 a specially created post in the Presidency College. From 1889 to 1916, he served there. So he attracted many gifted students like J.C. Ghosh, N.R. Dhar and B.B. Dey. He was a patriot who stirred his students with the call `Science can wait, Swaraj cannot'. His research covered a wide range of problems related to food adulteration, especially the purity of ghee and mustard oil; search for the elements missing in the Periodic table. Ray had special interest in mercury because of its importance in Ayurvedic medicines. The discovery of mercurous nitrate opened a new chapter in his life. Ray wanted to prepare water soluble mercurous nitrate; but to his surprise, the action of dilute nitric acid with excess mercury resulted in the formation of a yellow crystalline deposit, a compound then known to be unstable. This result was published in 1896 in the Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal For this discovery he received congratulatory letters from many eminent chemists such as Bertheldt, Roscol and Victor Meyer.

Synthesis of Ammonium Nitrite

Ray developed a new method for the above compound via double displacement between ammonium chloride and silver nitrite. He presented this result before a scientific audience in London, which included William Ramsay. Nature immediately hailed (1912) the successful preparation of this compound in tangible form. The details were published in the Journal of Chemical Society. Ray wrote more than 100 papers, some in collaboration with his students, on mercury salts and related compounds. He founded the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works (1892) Bengal Pottery Works, Calcutta Soap Works and other factories, in the face of obstruction of the British. Stimulated by Berthelot's `Les origines de l'alchimie' which he came across in the Presidency College Library, he embarked on a plan to write The History of Hindu Chemistry which appeared in two volumes (1902 and 1908). This work won high acclaim from scholars as shown in Berthelot's review (1903). As Ray was buried in his researches on Hindu chemistry, he lost touch during 1902-1908, with discoveries of Ramsay, Rutherford, Becquevel and the Curies. On retiring from the Presidency College, he became the first Palit Professor of Chemistry in the University College of Science founded by Sir. Ashutosh Mukherjee. Here he continued his research and teaching for another two decades till 1937.

In the Presidency College it was J.C. Bose and Ray: in the College of Science it became Raman and Ray. The trio Bose-Ray-Raman heralds the birth of modern science in India. Ray received many honours: honorary doctorates, C.I.E. (1911), Knighthood (1919), President of the Indian Chemical Society (1924). His life style was so frugal that he gave away most of what he received: savings and pension to propagation of chemistry and to poor students.. The University established the `Acharya P.C. Ray Museum' to house his personal belongings, collection of books and many of Shakespeare's plays with his personal noting. Prafulla Chandra died on June 16, 1944 in his room in the college.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (Hindi:

; 30 October 1909 24 January 1966) was an

Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental [1] [2] Research. Colloquially known as "father of Indian nuclear programme", Bhabha was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as its [1][2] director. Starting his scientific career in nuclear physics from Great Britain, Bhabha returned to India for his annual vacation prior to start of the World War II in September 1939, prompting Bhabha to remain in India, and accepted a post of reader in physics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, headed by Nobel [3] laureate C.V. Raman. During this time, Bhabha played a key role in convincing the Congress Party's senior leaders, most notableJawaharlal Nehru who later served as India's first Premier, to start the ambitious nuclear programme. As part of this vision, Bhabha established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute, began to work on the theory of the movement of point particles, while independently [2] conduct research on nuclear weapons in 1944. In 1945, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, serving its first [2] chairman. In 1948, Nehru led the appointment of Bhabha as the director of the nuclear programme and [2] tasked Bhabha to develop the nuclear weapons soon after. In the 1950s, Bhabha represented India in IAEA conferences, and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. During this time, he intensified his lobbying for developing the nuclear weapons, and soon after the Sino-Indo war, Bhabha aggressively and publicly began to call [3] for the nuclear weapons. Bhabha gained international prominence after deriving a correct expression for the probability of scattering positrons by electrons, a process now known as Bhabha scattering. His major contribution included his work on Compton scattering, R-process, and furthemore the advancement of nuclear physics. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1954. He later served as the member of the Indian Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee and provided the pivotal role to Vikram Sarabhai to set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research. In January 1966, Bhabha died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc, while heading to Vienna, Austria to attend a meeting of the International [3] Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.

Contents
[hide]

1 Early life 2 At Cambridge University

2.1 Research in Nuclear physics

3 Return to India 4 Atomic Energy in India 5 Visionary behind India's Three Stage Nuclear Power Programme 6 Death

6.1 Assassination conspiracy

7 Legacy 8 See also 9 References 10 External References

Early life[edit source | editbeta]

Homi Jahangir Bhabha was born into a wealthy and prominent industrial Parsi family, through which he was related to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, and Dorabji Tata. He was born on October 30, 1909 in an illustrious family with a long tradition of learning and service to the country. His father was Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha, a well known lawyer and mother was Meheren (http://www.igcar.ernet.in/press_releases/press29.htm). He received his early education at Bombay's Cathedral Grammar School and entered Elphinstone College at age 15 after passing hisSenior Cambridge Examination with Honors. His name, Jahangir (Jehangir), is from Persian ( ) , [4] meaning "conqueror of the world." He then attended the Royal Institute of Science until 1927 before joining Caius College of Cambridge University. This was due to the insistence of his father and his uncle Dorab Tata, who planned for Bhabha to obtain a degree in Mechanical engineering from Cambridge and then return to India, where he would join the Tata Steel Mills in Jamshedpur as a metallurgist.

At Cambridge University[edit source | editbeta]

While At Cambridge, Bhabha closely interacted and befriended with his fellow countrymen and influential theoretical physicist Raziuddin Siddiqui who would later go on to participate in secretTube Alloys a codename of British nuclear program. Bhabha's father understood his son's predicament, and he agreed to finance his studies in mathematics provided that he obtain first class on his Mechanical Sciences Tripos exam. Bhabha took the Tripos exam in June 1930 and passed with first class. Afterwards, he embarked on his mathematical studies under Paul Dirac to complete the Mathematics Tripos. Meanwhile, he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory while working towards his doctorate in theoretical physics. At the time, the laboratory was the

center of a number of scientific breakthroughs. James Chadwick had discovered the neutron, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton transmuted lithium with high-energy protons, and Patrick Blackett and Giuseppe Occhialini used cloud chambers to demonstrate the production of electron pairs and showers by gamma radiation. During the 19311932 academic year, Bhabha was awarded the Salomons Studentship in Engineering. In 1932, he obtained first class on his Mathematical Tripos and was awarded the Rouse Ball traveling studentship in mathematics. During this time, the nuclear physics was attracting the greatest minds and it was one of the most significantly emerging fields as compared to theoretical physics, the opposition towards theoretical physics attacked the fields as it was lenient towards theories rather than proving the natural phenomenon through experiments. Conducting experiments on particles which also released tremendous amount of radiation, was lifelong passion of Bhabha, and his leading edge research and experiments brought great laurels to Indian physicists who particularly switched their fields to nuclear physics. One of the notable being the Piara Singh Gill who would contribute in his field of interest.

Research in Nuclear physics[edit source | editbeta]

In January 1933, Bhabha received his doctorate in nuclear physics after publishing his first scientific paper, "The Absorption of Cosmic radiation". In the publication, Bhabha offered an explanation of the absorption features and electron shower production in cosmic rays. The paper helped him win the Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934, which he held for the next three years. The following year, he completed his doctoral studies in theoretical physics under Ralph H. Fowler. During his studentship, he split his time working at Cambridge and with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In 1935, Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later named Bhabha [citation needed] scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field. In 1936, the two published a paper, "The Passage of Fast Electrons and the Theory of Cosmic Showers" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which they used their theory to describe how primary cosmic rays from outer space interact with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level. Bhabha and Heitler then made numerical estimates of the number of electrons in the cascade process at different altitudes for different electron initiation energies. The calculations agreed with the experimental observations of cosmic ray showers made by Bruno Rossi and Pierre Victor Auger a few years before. Bhabha later concluded that observations of the properties of such particles would lead to the straightforward experimental verification of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1937, Bhabha was awarded the Senior Studentship of the 1851 Exhibition, which helped him continue his work [citation needed] at Cambridge until the outbreak of World War II in 1939 .

Return to India[edit source | editbeta]

In September 1939, Bhabha was in India for a brief holiday when World War II broke out, and he decided not to return to England for the time being. He accepted an offer to serve as the Reader in the Physics Department of the Indian Institute of Science, then headed by renowned physicist C. V. Raman. He received a special research grant from the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, which he used to establish the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute. Bhabha selected a few students, including Harish-Chandra, to work with him. Later, on 20 March 1941, he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society . With the help of J. R. D.

Tata, he played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay.

Atomic Energy in India[edit source | editbeta]

When Bhabha was working at the Indian Institute of Science, there was no institute in India which had the necessary facilities for original work in nuclear physics, cosmic rays, high energy physics, and other frontiers of knowledge in physics. This prompted him to send a proposal in March 1944 to the Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata. Tata Trust for establishing 'a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics'. In his proposal he wrote :

There is at the moment in India no big school of research in the fundamental problems of physics, both theoretical and experimental. There are, however, scattered all over India competent workers who are not doing as good work as they would do if brought together in one place under proper direction. It is absolutely in the interest of India to have a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics, for such a school forms the spearhead of research not only in less advanced branches of physics but also in problems of immediate practical application in industry. If much of the applied research done in India today is disappointing or of very inferior quality it is entirely due to the absence of sufficient number of outstanding pure research workers who would set the standard of good research and act on the directing boards in an advisory capacity ... Moreover, when nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production in say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand. I do not think that anyone acquainted with scientific development in other countries would deny the need in India for such a school as I propose. The subjects on which research and advanced teaching would be done would be theoretical physics, especially on fundamental problems and with special reference to cosmic rays and nuclear physics, and experimental research on cosmic rays. It is neither possible nor desirable to separate nuclear physics from cosmic rays since the two are closely connected theoretically.
[5]

The trustees of Sir Dorabji Jamsetji. Tata Trust decided to accept Bhabha's proposal and financial responsibility for starting the Institute in April 1944. Bombay was chosen as the location for the prosed Institute as the Government of Bombay showed interest in becoming a joint founder of the proposed institute. The institute, named Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, was inaugurated in 1945 in 540 square meters of hired space in an existing building. In 1948 the Institute was moved into the old buildings of the Royal Yacht club. When Bhabha realized that technology development for the atomic energy programme could no longer be carried out within TIFR he proposed to the government to build a new laboratory entirely devoted to this purpose. For this purpose, 1200 acres of land was acquired at Trombay from the Bombay Government. Thus the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) started [6] functioning in 1954. The same year the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was also established. He represented India in International Atomic Energy Forums, and as President of the United

Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. He was [7] elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.

Visionary behind India's Three Stage Nuclear Power Programme[edit

source | editbeta]
Bhabha is generally acknowledged as the father of Indian nuclear power. Moreover, he is credited with formulating the country's strategy in the field of nuclear power to focus on extracting power from the [8][9] country's vast thorium reserves rather than its meagre uranium reserves. This thorium focused strategy was in marked contrast to all other countries in the world. The approach proposed by Bhabha to achieve this strategic objective became India's three stage nuclear power programme. Bhabha paraphrased the three stage approach as follows:

The total reserves of thorium in India amount to over 500,000 tons in the readily extractable form, while the known reserves of uranium are less than a tenth of this. The aim of long range atomic power programme in India must therefore be to base the nuclear power generation as soon as possible on thorium rather than uranium The first generation of atomic power stations based on natural uranium can only be used to start off an atomic power programme The plutonium produced by the first generation power stations can be used in a second generation of power stations designed to produce electric power and convert thorium into U-233, or depleted uranium into more plutonium with breeding gain The second generation of power stations may be regarded as an intermediate step for the breeder power stations of the third generation all of which would produce more U-233 than [10] they burn in the course of producing power.

As a result of Bhabha's vision, "India has the most technically ambitious and innovative nuclear energy program in the world. The extent and functionality of its nuclear experimental facilities are matched only [8] by those in Russia and are far ahead of what is left in the US."

Death[edit source | editbeta]

He died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc on 24 January 1966.

Assassination conspiracy[edit source | editbeta]

Many possible theories have been advanced for the air crash, including a conspiracy theory in which [11] Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is involved in order to paralyze India's nuclear program. In 2012, an Indian diplomatic bag containing newspapers, calendars and a personal letter was recovered near the [12][13] crash site.

Legacy[edit source | editbeta]

After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. In addition to being an able scientist and administrator, Bhabha was also [citation needed] a painter and a classical music and opera enthusiast, besides being an amateur botanist .He is one of the most prominent scientists that India has ever had. Bhabha also encouraged research [citation needed] in electronics, space science, radio astronomy and microbiology . The famed radio telescope at Ooty, India was his initiative, and it became a reality in 1970. The Homi Bhabha Fellowship Council has

been giving the Homi Bhabha Fellowships since 1967 Other noted institutions in his name are the Homi Bhabha National Institute, an Indian deemed university and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, India.

C. V. Raman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Born

7 November 1888 Thiruvanaikoil, Tiruchirappalli,Madras Province, British India

Died

21 November 1970 (aged 82) Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Nationality

Indian

Fields

Physics

Institutions

Indian Finance Department[1] University of Calcutta Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Indian Institute of Science Central College, Bangalore University Raman Research Institute

Alma mater

University of Madras

Doctoral students

G. N. Ramachandran Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai

Known for

Raman effect

Notable awards Knight Bachelor (1929) Nobel Prize in Physics (1930) Bharat Ratna (1954) Lenin Peace Prize (1957)

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Rman, FRS (7 November 1888 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in India. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect.
Contents
[hide]

1 Early years 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Books 5 Honours and awards 6 Archive of Raman Research Papers 7 Publications 8 Death 9 See also

10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links

Early years[edit source | editbeta]

Venkata Raman was born in Thiruvanaikaval, near Tiruchirappalli, Madras Province,Chennai, in British India to R. Chandrasekhara Iyer (b. 1866) and Parvati Ammal (Saptarshi Parvati).[2] He was the second of their five children. At an early age, Raman moved to the city of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and studied in St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School. His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics at Presidency College in Madras, which Raman entered in 1902 at the age of 13.[3] In 1904 he passed his B.A. examination in first place and won the gold medal in physics, and in 1907 he gained his M.A. degree with the highest distinctions.[1]

Career[edit source | editbeta]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)
In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service after he was appointed the first Palit Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Calcutta, where he became the Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this period as the golden era of his career. Many students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of Calcutta.

Energy level diagram showing the states involved in Raman signal.

On 28 February 1928, Raman led experiments at the IACS with collaborators, including K. S. Krishnan, on the scattering of light, when he discovered the Raman effect. A detailed account of this period is reported in the biography by G. Venkatraman.[4] It was instantly clear that this discovery was of huge value. It gave further proof of the quantum nature of light. Raman had a complicated professional relationship with K. S. Krishan, who surprisingly did not share the award, but is mentioned prominently even in the Nobel lecture.[5] Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred to it in his presidential address to the Royal Society in 1929. Raman was president of the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He was conferred a knighthood, and medals and honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Richardson in 1928 and to de Broglie in 1929. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect". He was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before him Rabindranath Tagore (also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Raman and Bhagavantam discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further confirmed the quantum nature of light.[6] During his tenure at IISc, he recruited the then talented electrical engineering student, G. N. Ramachandran, who later was a distinguished X-ray crystallographer himself. Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory of transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as thetabla and the mridangam. Raman and his student, Nagendra Nath, provided the correct theoretical explanation for the acousto-optic effect (light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting in the celebrated Raman-Nath theory.[7] Modulators, and switching systems based on this effect have enabled optical communication components based on laser systems. Raman was succeeded by Debendra Mohan Bose as the Palit Professor in 1932. In 1933, Raman left IACS to join Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as its first Indian director.[8] Other investigations carried out by Raman were experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 19341942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light.

He also started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in 1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The Company during its sixty year history established four factories in Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of Independent India. In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a new manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and optical behaviour of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly feldspar, agate, opal, and pearls). Among his other interests were the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.[9]

Personal life[edit source | editbeta]

He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal (18921970) with whom he had two sons, Chandrasekhar and Radhakrishnan. On his religious views, he was said to be an agnostic.[10][11] Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1944 and established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, Karnataka a year later. He served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82 C.V. Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1983) for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary for stellar evolution.

Books[edit source | editbeta]

For compact work, see: Scientific Papers of CV Raman, S. Ramaseshan (ed.).

Vol. 1 Scattering of Light (Ed. S Ramaseshan) Vol. 2 Acoustic Vol. 3 Optica Vol. 4 Optics of Minerals and Diamond Vol. 5 Physics of Crystals Vol. 6 Floral Colours and Visual Perception

Honours and awards[edit source | editbeta]

Raman was 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 knighted in 1929. In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin Medal.

In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.[12] He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957. In 1998, the American Chemical Society and Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science recognised Raman's discovery as anInternational Historic Chemical Landmark.[13]

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman effect in 1928.[14]

Archive of Raman Research Papers[edit source | editbeta]

The Raman Research Institute, founded by Raman after his tenure at IISc, curates a collection of Raman's research papers, and articles on the web.[15]

Publications[edit source | editbeta]

1909

"The Small Motion at the Nodes of a Vibrating String", Nature, 1909 "The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations of a New Type", Nature, 1909 "The Ectara", J. Indian Math. Club, 1909

1910

"The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations", Nature, 1910 "Oscillations of the Stretched Strings", J. Indian Math. Club, 1910

1911

"Photographs of Vibrational Curves", Philos. Mag., 1911 "Remarks on a Paper by J.S. Stokes on 'Some Curious Phenomena Observed in Connection with Melde's Experiment'", Physics Rev., 1911

"The Small Motion at the Nodes of a Vibrating String", Phys. Rev., 1911

1912

"The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations of a New Type", Philos. Mag, 1912 "Some Remarkable Cases of Resonance", Phys. Rev. 1912 "Experimental Investigations on the Maintenance of Vibrations", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1912

1913

"Some Acoustical Observations", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1913

1914

"The Dynamical Theory of the Motion of Bowed Strings", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1914 "The Maintenance of Vibrations", Phys. Rev. 1914 "Dynamical Theory of the Motion of Bowed Strings", Bulletin, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1914

"On Motion in a Periodic Field of Force", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1914 "On the Maintenance of Combinational Vibrations by Two Simple Harmonic forces", Phys. Rev., 1915 "On Motion in a Periodic Field of Force", Philos. Mag, 1915

1916

"On Discontinuous Wave-Motion Part 1", Philos. Mag, 1916 (with S Appaswamair) "On the 'Wolf-Note' of the Violin and Cello", Nature (London). 1916 "On the 'Wolf-Note' in the Bowed Stringed Instruments", Philos. Mag., 1916

1917

"The Maintenance of Vibrations in a Periodic Field of Force", Philos. Mag, 1917 (with A. Dey) "On Discontinuous Wave-Motion Part 2", Philos. Mag, 1917 (with A Dey) "On Discontinuous Wave-Motion Part 3", Philos. Mag, 1917 (with A Dey) "On the Alterations of Tone Produced by a Violin 'Mute'", Nature (London) 1917

1918

"On the 'Wolf-Note' in the Bowed Stringed Instruments", Philos. Mag., 1918 "On the Wolf-Note in Pizzicato Playing", Nature (London), 1918 "On the Mechanical Theory of the Vibrations of Bowed Strings and of Musical Instruments of the Violin Family, with Experimental Verification of Results Part 1", Bulletin, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1918

"The Theory of the Cyclical Vibrations of a Bowed String", Bulletin, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1918

1919

"An Experimental Method for the Production of Vibrations", Phys. Rev., 1919 "A New Method for the Absolute Determination of Frequency", Proc. R. Soc. London, 1919 "On the Partial Tones of Bowed Stringed Instruments", Philos. Mag, 1919 "The Kinematics of Bowed Strings", J. Dept of Sci., Univ. Calcutta, 1919

1920

"On the Sound of Splashes", Philos. Mag, 1920 "On a Mechanical Violin-Player for Acoustical Experiments, Philos. Mag., 1920 "Experiments with Mechanically-Played Violins", Proc. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1920

"On Kaufmann's Theory of the Impact of the Pianoforte Hammer", Proc. S. Soc. London, 1920 (with B Banerji)

"Musical Drums with Harmonic Overtones", Nature (London), 1920 (with S. Kumar)

1921

"Whispering Gallery Phenomena at St. Paul's Cathedral", Nature (London) 1921 (with G.A. Sutherland) "The Nature of Vowel Sounds", Nature (London) 1921 "On the Whispering Gallery Phenomenon", Proc. R. Soc. London, 1922 (with G.A. Sutherland) "On Some Indian Stringed Instruments", Proc. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1921

1922

"On Whispering Galleries", Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1922 "On the Molecular Scattering of Light in Water and the Colour of the Sea", Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1922

"The Acoustical Knowledge of the Ancient Hindus", Asutosh Mookerjee Silver Jubilee Vol 2,

1926

"The Subjective Analysis of Musical Tones", Nature (London), 1929

1927

"Musical Instruments and Their Tones"

1928

"A new type of Secondary Radiation", Nature, 1928 "A new radiation", Indian Journal of Physics, 1928

1935

"The Indian Musical Drums", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1935 "The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part I", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1935 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)

"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part II", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1935 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)

"Nature of Thermal Agitation in Liquids", Nature (London), 1935 (with B.V. Raghavendra Rao)

1936

"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part III: Doppler Effect and Coherence Phenomena", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)

"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part IV: Generalised Theory", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)

"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part V: General Considerations Oblique Incidence and Amplitude Changes", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)

"Diffraction of Light by Ultrasonic Waves", Nature (London), 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)

1937

"Acoustic Spectrum of Liquids", Nature (London), 1937 (with B.V. Raghavendra Rao)

1938

"Light Scattering and Fluid Viscosity", Nature (London), 1938 (with B.V. Raghavendra Rao)

1948

Aspects of Science, 1948

1951

The New Physics: Talks on Aspects of Science, 1951

1953

"The structure and optical behaviour of iridescent opal", Proc. Indian. Acad. Sci. A38 1953 (with A. Jayaraman)

1959

Lectures on Physical Optics, 1959

Death[edit source | editbeta]

At the end of October he collapsed in his laboratory, the valves of his heart having given way. He was moved to hospital and the doctors gave him four hours to live. He survived and after a few days refused to stay in the hospital as he preferred to die in the gardens of his Institute surrounded by his flowers.

Two days before Raman died, he told one of his former students, Do not allow the journals of the Academy to die, for they are the sensitive indicators of the quality of science being done in the country and whether science is taking root in it or not. That same evening, Raman met with the Board of Management of his Institute and discussed (from his bed) with them any proceedings with regards to the Institutes management. Raman passed away from natural causes early next morning, 21 November 1970.

E. C. George Sudarshan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2012)

George Sudarshan

G.Sudarshan at Dirac Lecture in 2010

Born

16 September 1931 (age 81) Pallam, Kottayam District,Travancore State (now in Kerala,India)

Residence

United States

Nationality

India

Fields

Theoretical physics

Institutions

University of Texas at Austin Indian Institute of Science The Institute of Mathematical Sciences Harvard University University of Rochester Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Alma mater

Madras Christian College University of Madras University of Rochester

Doctoral advisor

Robert Marshak

Doctoral students Mohammad Aslam Khan Khalil Narasimhaiengar Mukunda

Known for

Optical coherence and Sudarshan-Glauber representation V-A theory of the weak force Tachyons Quantum Zeno effect Open quantum system Spin-statistics theorem

Notable awards

ICTP Dirac Medal (2010) Padma Vibhushan (2007) Majorana Prize (2006) Third World Academy of Sciences Prize (1985) Bose Medal (1977) Padma Bhushan (1976) CV Raman Award (1970)

Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan (also known as E. C. G. Sudarshan; born 16 September 1931) is an Indian physicist, author and professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Contents
[hide]

1 Early life 2 Career 3 Controversy regarding Nobel Prize 4 Awards 5 Bibliography 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

Early life[edit source | editbeta]

George Sudarshan was born in a Syrian Christian family[1] in Pallam, Kottayam district, Kerala, India. Despite being raised in a Christian family, he later left the religion[2] and became a Vedantin[3] and a pantheist.[4] He mentions disagreements with the Church's view on God and lack of spiritual experience as reasons why he left the Church.[5] He studied at CMS College Kottayam,[6] and graduated with honours from the Madras Christian College in 1951. He obtained his master's degreeat the University of Madras (India) in 1952. Then he moved to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and worked there for a brief period withHomi Bhabha as well as others. Subsequently he moved to University of Rochester in New York with Robert Marshak as a graduate student. In 1958, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Rochester. At this point he moved to Harvard University to join Julian Schwinger as a postdoctoral fellow.

Career[edit source | editbeta]

Sudarshan has made significant contributions to several areas of physics. He was the originator (with Robert Marshak) of the V-A theory of theweak force (also done later by Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann), which eventually paved the way for the electroweak theory. Feynman said in 1963: "The V-A theory that was discovered by Sudarshan and Marshak, publicized by Feynman and Gell-Mann".[7] He also developed a quantum representation of coherent light (for which Glauber was awarded the 2005 Nobel). Sudarshan's most significant work might be his contribution to the field of quantum optics. His theorem proves the equivalence of classical wave optics to quantum optics. The theorem makes use of the Sudarshan

representation. This representation also predicts optical effects that are purely quantum, and cannot be explained classically. Sudarshan was also the first to propose the existence of tachyons, particles that travel faster than light[citation
needed]

. He developed formalism called dynamical maps that is one of the most fundamental formalism to study

the theory of open quantum system. He, in collaboration with Baidyanaith Misra, also proposed the quantum Zeno effect.[8] Sudarshan and collaborators initiated the "Quantum theory of charged-particle beam optics", by working out the focusing action of a magnetic quadrupole using the Dirac Equation.[9][10] He has taught at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), University of Rochester, Syracuse University, and Harvard. From 1969 onwards, he has been a Professor of Physics at The University of Texas at Austin and a Senior Professor at the Indian Institute of Science. He worked as the Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, India for five years during the 1980s dividing his time between India and USA. During his tenure, he transformed it into a centre of excellence. He also met and held many discussions with philosopher J Krishnamurti. He was felicitated on his 80th birthday, at IMSc Chennai[11] on 16th Sept, 2011. His areas of interest include elementary particle physics, quantum optics, quantum information, quantum field theory, gauge field theories, classical mechanics and foundations of physics. He is also deeply interested in Vedanta, on which he lectures frequently.

Controversy regarding Nobel Prize[edit source | editbeta]

Sudarshan has been passed over for the Physics Nobel Prize on more than one occasion, leading to controversy in 2005 when several physicists wrote to the Swedish Academy, protesting that Sudarshan should have been awarded a share of the Prize for the Sudarshan diagonal representation (also known as Sudarshan-Glauber representation) in quantum optics, for which Roy J. Glauber won his share of the prize.[12] Sudarshan and others physicists sent a letter to the Nobel Committee claiming that the P representation had more contributions of Sudarshan than Glauber. The letter goes on to say that Glauber criticized Sudarshans theorybefore renaming it the P representation and incorporating it into his own work. In an unpublished letter to the New York Times, Sudarshan calls the Glauber-Sudarshan representation a misnomer, adding that literally all subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of Sudarshans work essentially, asserting that he had developed the breakthrough.[13] In 2007, Sudarshan told the Hindustan Times, "The 2005 Nobel prize for Physics was awarded for my work, but I wasnt the one to get it. Each one of the discoveries that this Nobel was given for work based on my research."[14] Sudarshan also commented on not being selected for the 1979 Nobel, "Steven Weinberg,

Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam built on work I had done as a 26-year-old student. If you give a prize for a building, shouldnt the fellow who built the first floor be given the prize before those who built the second floor?"[14]

Awards[edit source | editbeta]

Kerala Sastra Puraskaram, the state award for lifetime accomplishments in science, 2013. Dirac Medal of the ICTP, 2010. Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award from the Government of India, 2007. Majorana Prize, 2006. First Prize in Physics, Third World Academy of Sciences, 1985. Bose Medal, 1977. Padma Bhushan decoration by President of India, 1976. CV Raman Award, 1970.

Vikram Sarabhai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai

Born

12 August 1919[1][2] Ahmedabad, India

Died

30 December 1971 (aged 52) Halcyon Castle, Kovalam inThiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Residence

India

Nationality

Indian

Fields

Physics

Institutions

Indian Space Research Organisation Physical Research Laboratory

Alma mater

University of Cambridge

Doctoral advisor Sir C. V. Raman

Known for

Indian space program Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Notable awards

Padma Bhushan (1966) Padma Vibhushan (posthumously) (1972)

Spouse

Mrinalini Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (Gujarati: ) (12 August 1919 30 December 1971) was an Indian physicist. He is considered to be "Father of Indian space program."
Contents
[hide]

1 Biography

o o o

1.1 Marriage and children 1.2 Physical Research Laboratory 1.3 Death

2 Indian space programme 3 Awards 4 Distinguished Positions 5 Honours 6 References 7 External links

Biography[edit source | editbeta]

Dr.Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat State in western India. The Sarabhai family was an important and rich Jain business family. His father Ambalal Sarabhai was an affluent industrialist and owned many textiles mills in Gujarat. Vikram Sarabhai was one of the eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi. Sarabhai matriculated from the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad after passing the Intermediate Science examination. After that he moved to England and joined the St. John's College, University of Cambridge. He received the Tripos in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in 1940.
[3]

Marriage and children[edit source | editbeta]

In September, 1942, Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini Sarabhai, a celebrated classical dancer. The wedding was held in Chennai without anyone from Vikram's side of the family attending the wedding ceremony because of the ongoing Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Vikram and Mrinalini had two children Kartikeya and Mallika. Vikram Sarabhai had a troubled marriage and was in a long term relationship with Dr.Kamala Choudhary.[4] His daughter Mallika Sarabhai was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour for the year 2010 and his son Kartikeya Sarabhai was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012.

Physical Research Laboratory[edit source | editbeta]

Sarabhai returned to an independent India in 1947. Looking at the needs of the country, he persuaded charitable trusts controlled by his family and friends to endow a research institution near home in Ahmedabad. This led to the creation of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947.

Death[edit source | editbeta]

Sarabhai died on 30 December 1971 at Halcyon Castle, Kovalam, Kerala. He was visiting Thiruvananthapuram to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Thumba railway station being built to service the newly created Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station.

Indian space programme[edit source | editbeta]

The establishment of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was one of his greatest achievements. He successfully convinced the government of the importance of a space programme for a developing country like India after the Russian Sputnik launch. Dr. Sarabhai emphasized the importance of a space programme in his quote: "There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight." "But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society." Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear science program, supported Dr. Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching station in India. This center was established at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity to the equator. After a remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel,

communication links, and launch pads, the inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour payload. As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no more). Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian satellite. As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome. Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the centre is called the Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre. He led the Sarabhai family's diverse business conglomerate. His interests varied from science to sports to statistics. He set up Operations Research Group (ORG), the first market research organization in the country Sarabhai established many institutes which are of international repute. Most notable among them are Nehru Foundation for Development in Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), which is considered world class for its management studies. Also he helped establish Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), which is doing a commendable job[5][6] in R&D in physics. Sarabhai set up Ahmedabad Textiles Industrial Research Association (ATIRA), which helped the booming textiles business in Ahmedabad. He also set up Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT). Not stopping with all these, he went ahead and set up Blind Men Association (BMA) which helps visually challenged people with necessary skills and support. And along with wife Mrinalini Sarabhai he founded Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. Other well known institutions established by him include Faster Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) inKalpakkam, Variable Energy Cyclotron Project in Calcutta, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad and Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) in Jaduguda, Jharkhand.

Awards[edit source | editbeta]

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1962) Padma Bhushan (1966) Padma Vibhushan, posthumous (after-death) (1972)

Distinguished Positions[edit source | editbeta]

President of the Physics section, Indian Science Congress (1962), President of the General Conference of the I.A.E.A., Verna (1970), Vice-President, Fourth U.N. Conference on 'Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy' (1971)

Honours[edit source | editbeta]

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC), which is the Indian Space Research Organization's lead facility for launch vehicle development located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of Kerala state, is named in his memory. Along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists, he played a major role in setting up of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In 1974, the International Astronomical Union at Sydney decided that a Moon Crater BESSEL in the Sea of Serenity will be known as the Dr. Sarabhai Crater.

References

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the former President of India. For the freedom fighter, see Abul Kalam Azad.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Abdul Kalam at the 12th Wharton India Economic Forum, 2008

11th President of India

In office 25 July 2002 25 July 2007

Prime Minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Manmohan Singh

Vice President

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat

Preceded by

K. R. Narayanan

Succeeded by

Pratibha Devisingh Patil

Personal details

Born

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam 15 October 1931 (age 81) Rameswaram, Madras Presidency, British India (now in Tamil Nadu, India)

Alma mater

St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli Madras Institute of Technology

Profession

Professor, Author, scientist, president Aerospace engineer

Website

abdulkalam.com

Bharat Ratna Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (

/bdl klm/; born 15 October 1931) usually

referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is an Indian scientist and administrator who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam was born and raised inRameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, and aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai. Before his term as President, he worked as an aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).[1] Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile andlaunch vehicle technology.[2] He

played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man with no authority over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.[3] Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi Sahgal and was supported by both the Indian National Congress and theBharatiya Janata Party, the major political parties of India. He is currently a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore, honorary fellow of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,[4]Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University(Chennai), JSS University (Mysore) and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India. Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020. Books authored by him have received considerable demands in South Korea for the translated versions.[5] He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India.[6] He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011 called the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption in India.
Contents
[hide]

1 Early life and education 2 Career as scientist 3 Presidency 4 Criticisms and controversies

4.1 Personal attacks

5 Future India: 2020 6 Popular culture 7 Awards and honours 8 Books and documentaries 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Early life and education[edit source | editbeta]

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in a Tamil Muslim family to Jainulabdeen, a boat owner and Ashiamma, a housewife, atRameswaram, located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.[7][8][9][10] He came from a poor background and started working at an early age to supplement his family's income.[11] After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers in order to financially contribute to his father's income. [11][12] In his school years, he had average grades, but was described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on his studies, especially mathematics.[12] "I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness as did my three brothers and sisters." A quote from Kalam's autobiography[9] After completing his school education at the Rameshwaram Elementary School, Kalam went on to attend Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, then affiliated with the University of Madras, from where he graduated in physics in 1954.[13] Towards the end of the course, he was not enthusiastic about the subject and would later regret the four years he studied it. He then moved to Madrasin 1955 to study aerospace engineering.[10] While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with the lack of progress and threatened revoking his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next two days. He worked tirelessly on his project and met the deadline, impressing the Dean who later said, "I [Dean] was putting you [Kalam] under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline".[14]For him becoming a fighter pilot was a dearest dream but he failed to realize it as he bagged the ninth position when only eight slots were available in the IAF.[15]

Career as scientist[edit source | editbeta]

This was my first stage, in which I learnt leadership from three great teachers Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Prof. Satish Dhawan and Dr.Brahm Prakash. This was the time of learning and acquisition of knowledge for me.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam[16]

After graduating from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT Chennai) in 1960, Kalam joined Aeronautical Development Establishment ofDefense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a scientist. Kalam started his career by designing a small helicopter for theIndian Army, but remained unconvinced with the choice of his job at DRDO.[17] Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram Sarabhai, the renowned space scientist.[10] In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the project director of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLVIII) which successfully deployed the Rohinisatellite in near earth orbit in July 1980. Joining ISRO was one of Kalam's biggest achievements in life and he is said to have found himself when he started to work on the SLV

project. Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965. [1] In 1969, Kalam received the government's approval and expanded the program to include more engineers. [16]

Kalam addresses engineering students at IIT Guwahati

In 196364, he visited Nasa's Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Flight Facility situated at Eastern Shore of Virginia.[8][18] During the period between the 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar SLVand SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be success. Kalam was invited by Raja Ramanna to witness the country's first nuclear test Smiling Buddha as the representative of TBRL, even though he had not participated in the development, test site preparation and weapon designing. In the 1970s, a landmark was achieved by ISRO when the locally built Rohini-1 was launched into space, using the SLV rocket.[19] In the 1970s, Kalam also directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant , which sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.[19] Despite the disapproval of Union Cabinet, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these aerospace projects through her discretionary powers under Kalam's directorship.[19] Kalam played an integral role convincing the Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects.[19] His research and educational leadership brought him great laurels and prestige in 1980s, which prompted the government to initiate an advanced missile program under his directorship.[19] Kalam and Dr. V. S. Arunachalam, metallurgist and scientific adviser to the Defense Minister, worked on the suggestion by the then Defense Minister, R. Venkataraman on a proposal for simultaneous development of a quiver of missiles instead of taking planned missiles one by one.[20] R Venkatraman was instrumental in getting the cabinet approval for allocating 388 crore rupees for the mission, named Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P) and appointed Kalam as the Chief Executive.[20] Kalam played a major part in developing many missiles under the mission including Agni, an intermediate range ballistic missile and Prithvi, the tactical surface-to-surface missile, although the projects have been criticised for mismanagement and cost and time overruns.[20][21] He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an intensive political and technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R. Chidambaram during the testing phase.[8][22] Photos and snapshots of him taken by the media elevated Kalam as the country's top nuclear scientist.[23] In 1998, along with cardiologist Dr.Soma Raju, Kalam developed a low cost Coronary stent. It was named as "Kalam-Raju Stent" honouring them.[24][25] In 2012, the duo, designed a rugged tablet PC for health care in rural areas, which was named as "Kalam-Raju Tablet".[26]

Presidency[edit source | editbeta]

Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K. R. Narayanan. He won the 2002 presidential election with an electoral vote of 922,884, surpassing 107,366 votes won by Lakshmi Sahgal. He served from 25 July 2002 to 25 July 2007. On 10 June 2002, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was in power at the time, expressed to the leader of opposition, Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi that they would propose Kalam for the post of President.[27] The Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party backed his candidacy.[28][29] After the Samajwadi Party announced its support for him, President K. R. Narayanan chose not to seek a second term in office and hence left the field clear for Kalam to become the 11th President of India. [30] I am really overwhelmed. Everywhere both in Internet and in other media, I have been asked for a message. I was thinking what message I can give to the people of the country at this juncture. Kalam responding to the announcement of his candidature by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee[31] On 18 June, Kalam filed his nomination papers in the Parliament of India, accompanied by Vajpayee and his senior Cabinet colleagues.[32]

Kalam along with Vladimir Putin andManmohan Singh during his presidency

The polling for the presidential election began on 15 July 2002 in the Parliament and the state assemblies with media claiming that the election was a one-sided affair and Kalam's victory was a foregone conclusion. The counting was held on 18 July.[33] Kalam won the presidential election in a highly one-sided contest. He became the 11th president of the Republic of India.[34] He moved into the Rashtrapati Bhavan after he was sworn in on 25 July.[35] Kalam was the third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, before becoming the President. Dr. Sarvapali Radhakrishnan (1954) and Dr. Zakir Hussain (1963) were the earlier recipients of Bharat Ratna who later became the President of India.[36] He was also the first scientist and the first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan.[37] During his term as President, he was affectionately known as the People's President.[38][39][40] In his words, signing the Office of Profit Bill was the toughest decision he had taken during his tenure.[41] Kalam is criticized for inaction as a President in deciding the fate of 20 out of the 21 mercy petitions.[42] Article 72 of the Constitution of Indiaempowers the President of India to grant pardon, suspend and remit death

sentences and commute the death sentence of convicts on death row.[42][43] Kalam acted on only one mercy plea in his 5 year tenure as a President, rejecting the plea of rapist Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was hanged thereafter.[42] The most important of the 20 pleas is thought to be that of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri terrorist who was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliamentand was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India in 2004.[43] While the sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006, the pending action on the mercy plea resulted in him continuing in the death row.[43] At the end of his term, on 20 June 2007, Kalam expressed his willingness to consider a second term in office provided there was certainty about his victory in the 2007 presidential election.[44]However, two days later, he decided not to contest the Presidential election again stating that he wanted to avoid involving Rashtrapati Bhavan from any political processes.[45] He did not have the support of the Left parties, Shiv Sena and UPA constituents to receive a renewed mandate.[46][47] Nearing the term expiry of the 12th President Pratibha Patil, whose tenure ended on 24 July 2012, media reports in April claimed that Kalam was likely to be nominated for his second term.[48][49][50] After the reports, social networking sites were abuzz with activities extending their support for his candidature.[51][52] BJP potentially backed his nomination, saying that the party will lend their support if Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Indian National Congress proposes his name for the 2012 presidential election.[53][54] Just a month ahead of the election,Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee also expressed their support to Kalam and revealed that they both would suggest his name.[55] Days after expressing support, Mulayam Singh Yadav backed out, leaving Mamata Banerjee as a solitary supporter.[56] On 18 June 2012, Kalam refused to contest 2012 presidential poll after much speculations.[57] Many, many citizens have also expressed the same wish. It only reflects their love and affection for me and the aspiration of the people. I am really overwhelmed by this support. This being their wish, I respect it. I want to thank them for the trust they have in me." Kalam's message to public upon denying to contest Presidential poll 2012. [57]

Criticisms and controversies[edit source | editbeta]

The controversy that surrounds Kalam's role as a nuclear scientist, is the lack of reliable and factual reporting of the yield of Pokhran-II tests.[58] The director of the site test, K. Santhanam, publicly admitted that the thermonuclear bomb was a "fizzle" test, criticising Kalam for issuing the wrong report.[58] However, Kalam dismissed the claims and R. Chidambaram, a key associate of Pokhran-II, also described these claims as incorrect.[59]

Personal attacks[edit source | editbeta]

In spite of his leading role in the development of Indian nuclear programme, Kalam has received criticism from many of his peers who claimed that he had "no authority" over nuclear science.[60]Homi Sethna, a chemical

engineer criticised Kalam claiming that Kalam had no background in publishing articles in nuclear science, even in nuclear physics. Sethna maintained that Kalam received his masters degree in aerospace engineering, which is a completely different discipline from nuclear engineering, and what various universities awarded him for his achievements had nothing to do with nuclear physics. Sethna, in his last interview, maintained that in the 1950s, Kalam had failed advanced physics courses during his college life and quoted "What does he know (about [nuclear] physics)....?", on the national television. Homi Sethna also accused Kalam of using his presidency to gain a national stature of a nuclear scientist.[61] Others felt that Kalam had never worked in any of the Indian nuclear power plants and had no role in developing the nuclear weapon which was completed under Raja Ramanna.[62] Kalam worked as an aerospace engineer in a SLV project in the 1970s and from the 1980s onwards, as a project director before he moved to Defence Research and Development Organisation.[63] In 2008, Indian media questioned his claims about his personal contributions to missile inventions while working in a classified missile programme. The media questioned Kalam taking credit of inventing the Agni, Prithvi and Aakash missile system, while all of these were developed, researched and designed by a group of scientists headed by Kalam and he was involved in getting the funds and other logistic tasks. Ram Narain Agarwal, former director, Advanced System Laboratory and former Program Director of Agni missile was considered to be the real architect behind the successful design of Agni Missile. [63][64] In his own biography, Kalam credited the development of Agni missile to Dr. Ram Narain Agarwal, an alumnus of MIT. For the Prithvi missile project, he named Col VJ Sundaram as the brain behind this project and for the Trishul missile, he gave credit to Commander SR Mohan.[65] In 2006, senior media correspondent Praful Bidwai, in the The Daily Star, wrote that two aerospace projects, Project Valiant and Project Devil, which were authorised by former Premier Indira Gandhi under the directorship of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, resulted in "total failure". In the 1980s, these projects were ultimately cancelled by the government under the pressure of the Indian Army.[66] Kalam was also criticised by civil groups over his stand on the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, where he supported setting up of the nuclear power plant and never spoke with the local people. [67] The protesters were hostile to his visit as they perceived to him to be a pro-nuclear scientist and were unimpressed by the assurance provided by him on the safety features of the plant.[68] Frisking by American security authorities Kalam was frisked at the JFK Airport in New York, while boarding a plane on 29 September 2011. He was subjected to "private screening" as he does not come under the category of dignitaries exempt from security screening procedures under American guidelines. He was frisked again after boarding the Air India aircraft with the US security officials asking for his jacket and shoes, claiming that these items were not checked according to the prescribed procedures during the "private screening", despite protests from the airline crew confirming him as India's president.[69][70]The incident was not reported until 13 November 2011.[71] India threatened

retaliatory action as there was a "general sense of outrage" around the country.[72] The Indian Ministry of External Affairs protested over this incident and a statement by the ministry said that the US Government had written a letter to Kalam, expressing its deep regret for the inconvenience.[70] Kalam was previously frisked by the ground staff of the Continental Airlines at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi in July 2009 and was treated like an ordinary passenger, despite him being on the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security's list of people exempted from security screening in India. [73]

Future India: 2020[edit source | editbeta]

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam delivering a speech

In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a knowledge superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regards his work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower. It was reported that, there was a considerable demand in South Korea for translated versions of books authored by him.[74] Kalam continues to take an active interest in other developments in the field of science and technology. He has proposed a research program for developing bio-implants. He is a supporter of Open Source over proprietary solutions and believes that the use of free software on a large scale will bring the benefits of information technology to more people.[75] Kalam set a target of interacting with 100,000 students during the two years after his resignation from the post of scientific adviser in 1999.[12] In his own words, "I feel comfortable in the company of young people, particularly high school students. Henceforth, I intend to share with them experiences, helping them to ignite their imagination and preparing them to work for a developed India for which the road map is already available."[12] He continued to interact with students during his term as a President and also during his postpresidency period as a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad[76] and Indian Institute of Management Indore,[77] Chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram,[78] a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai),[79] JSS University

(Mysore),[80] and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India. Kalam is strong supporter of Space based solar power.[81] In 2012 China proposed joint development between India and China towards developing a solar power satellite, during a visit by Kalam.[82]

Popular culture[edit source | editbeta]

In May 2011, Kalam launched his mission for the youth of the nation called the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption.[83][84] He also has interests in writing Tamilpoetry and in playing veenai, a South Indian string instrument.[85] He was nominated for the MTV Youth Icon of the Year award in 2003[86][87] and in 2006.[88] In the 2011 Hindi film I Am Kalam, Kalam is portrayed as an extremely positive influence to a poor but bright Rajasthani boy named Chhotu, who renames himself Kalam in honour of his idol.[89]

Awards and honours[edit source | editbeta]

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Students' Day by United Nations.[90] He has also received honorary doctorates from 40 universities.[91][92] The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Government.[93] In 1997, Kalam received India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, for his immense and valuable contribution to the scientific research and modernisation of defence technology in India.[94]

Year of award or honour

Name of award or honour

Awarding organisation

2012

Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa)

Simon Fraser University[95]

2011

IEEE Honorary Membership

IEEE[96]

2010

Doctor of Engineering

University of Waterloo[97]

2009

Hoover Medal

ASME Foundation, USA[98]

2009

International von Krmn Wings Award

California Institute of Technology, U.S.A[99]

2008

Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa)

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore[100]

2007

King Charles II Medal

Royal Society, U.K[101][102][103]

2007

Honorary Doctorate of Science

University of Wolverhampton, U.K[104]

2000

Ramanujan Award

Alwars Research Centre, Chennai[105]

1998

Veer Savarkar Award

Government of India[10]

1997

Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration

Government of India[10][105]

1997

Bharat Ratna

Government of India[105][106]

1990

Padma Vibhushan

Government of India[105][107]

1981

Padma Bhushan

Government of India[105][107]

Books and documentaries[edit source | editbeta]

Kalam's writings

Developments in Fluid Mechanics and Space Technology by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Roddam Narasimha; Indian Academy of Sciences, 1988[108]

India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Y. S. Rajan; New York, 1998.[109] Wings of Fire: An Autobiography by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari; Universities Press, 1999.[8] Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam; Viking, 2002.[110] The Luminous Sparks by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam; Punya Publishing Pvt Ltd, 2004.[111] Mission India by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Paintings by Manav Gupta; Penguin Books, 2005[112] Inspiring Thoughts by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam; Rajpal & Sons, 2007[113] Indomitable Spirit by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam; Rajpal and Sons Publishing[114]

Envisioning an Empowered Nation by APJ Abdul Kalam with A. Sivathanu Pillai; Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi

You Are Born To Blossom: Take My Journey Beyond by A. P. J Abdul Kalam and Arun Tiwari; Ocean Books, 2011.[115]

Turning Points: A journey through challenges by A. P. J Abdul Kalam; Harper Collins India, 2012.[116]

Biographies

Eternal Quest: Life and Times of Dr. Kalam by S. Chandra; Pentagon Publishers, 2002.[117] President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam by R. K. Pruthi; Anmol Publications, 2002.[118] A. P. J. Abdul Kalam: The Visionary of India by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal; A.P.H. Pub. Corp, 2002.[119] A Little Dream (documentary film) by P. Dhanapal; Minveli Media Works Private Limited, 2008.[120] The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President by P.M. Nair; Harper Collins, 2008.[121] My Days With Mahatma Abdul Kalam by Fr.A.K. George; Novel Corporation, 2009.[122]

Srinivasa Ramanujan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Ramanujan" redirects here. For other uses, see Ramanujan (disambiguation). In this Indian name, the name Srinivasa is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Ramanujan.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Born

22 December 1887 Erode, Madras Presidency (nowTamil Nadu)

Died

26 April 1920 (aged 32) Chetput, Madras, Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu)

Residence

Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu

Nationality

Indian

Fields

Mathematics

Alma mater

Government Arts College Pachaiyappa's College

Academic advisors

G. H. Hardy J. E. Littlewood

Known for

LandauRamanujan constant Mock theta functions Ramanujan conjecture Ramanujan prime

RamanujanSoldner constant Ramanujan theta function Ramanujan's sum RogersRamanujan identities Ramanujan's master theorem

Influences

G. H. Hardy

Signature

Srinivasa Ramanujan FRS (

pronunciation (helpinfo)) (Tamil: ; 22 December

1887 26 April 1920) was an Indianmathematician and autodidact who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis,number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. Living in India with no access to the larger mathematical community, which was centred in Europe at the time, Ramanujan developed his own mathematical research in isolation. As a result, he sometimes rediscovered known theorems in addition to producing new work. Ramanujan was said to be a natural genius by the English mathematician G. H. Hardy, in the same league as mathematicians such as Euler and Gauss.[1] He died at the age of 32. Born at Erode, Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu) in a Tamil Brahmin family of Thenkalai Iyengar sect[2][3][4] Ramanujan's introduction to formalmathematics began at age 10. He demonstrated a natural ability, and was given books on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. Loney that he mastered by the age of 12; he even discovered theorems of his own, and re-discovered Euler's identity independently.[5] He demonstrated unusual mathematical skills at school, winning accolades and awards. By 17, Ramanujan had conducted his own mathematical research on Bernoulli numbers and the EulerMascheroni constant. Ramanujan received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam, which was later rescinded when he failed his non-mathematical coursework. He joined another college to pursue independent mathematical research, working as a clerk in the Accountant-General's office at theMadras Port Trust Office to support himself.[6] In 19121913, he sent samples of his theorems to three academics at the University of Cambridge. G. H. Hardy, recognizing the brilliance of his work, invited Ramanujan to visit and work with him at Cambridge. He became a Fellow of the Royal Societyand a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Ramanujan died of illness, malnutrition, and possibly liver infection in 1920 at the age of 32. During his short lifetime, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations).[7] Nearly all his claims have now been proven correct, although a small number of these results were actually false and some were already known.[8] He stated results that were both

original and highly unconventional, such as the Ramanujan prime and the Ramanujan theta function, and these have inspired a vast amount of further research.[9] However, the mathematical mainstream has been rather slow in absorbing some of his major discoveries.[citation needed] The Ramanujan Journal, an international publication, was launched to publish work in all areas of mathematics influenced by his work. [10] In December 2011, in recognition of his contribution to mathematics, the Government of India declared that Ramanujan's birthday (22 December) should be celebrated every year as National Mathematics Day, and also declared 2012 the National Mathematics Year.[11][12]
Contents
[hide]

1 Early life 2 Adulthood in India

o o

2.1 Attention towards mathematics 2.2 Contacting English mathematicians

3 Life in England

o o

3.1 Illness and return to India 3.2 Personality and spiritual life

4 Mathematical achievements

o o

4.1 The Ramanujan conjecture 4.2 Ramanujan's notebooks

5 RamanujanHardy number 1729 6 Other mathematicians' views of Ramanujan 7 Recognition 8 In popular culture 9 See also 10 Notes 11 Selected publications by Ramanujan 12 Selected publications about Ramanujan and his work 13 External links

o o o

13.1 Media links 13.2 Biographical links 13.3 Other links

Early life[edit source | editbeta]

Ramanujan's home on Sarangapani Street, Kumbakonam.

Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 in Erode, Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu), at the residence of his maternal grandparents.[13] His father, K. Srinivasa Iyengar, worked as a clerk in a sari shop and hailed from the district of Thanjavur.[14] His mother, Komalatammal, was a housewifeand also sang at a local temple.[15] They lived in Sarangapani Street in a traditional home in the town of Kumbakonam. The family home is now a museum. When Ramanujan was a year and a half old, his mother gave birth to a son named Sadagopan, who died less than three months later. In December 1889, Ramanujan had smallpox and recovered, unlike thousands in the Thanjavur District who died from the disease that year.[16] He moved with his mother to her parents' house in Kanchipuram, near Madras (now Chennai). In November 1891, and again in 1894, his mother gave birth to two children, but both children died in infancy. On 1 October 1892, Ramanujan was enrolled at the local school.[17] In March 1894, he was moved to a Telugu medium school. After his maternal grandfather lost his job as a court official in Kanchipuram,[18] Ramanujan and his mother moved back to Kumbakonam and he was enrolled in the Kangayan Primary School.[19] When his paternal grandfather died, he was sent back to his maternal grandparents, who were now living in Madras. He did not like school in Madras, and he tried to avoid attending. His family enlisted a local constable to make sure he attended school. Within six months, Ramanujan was back in Kumbakonam.[19] Since Ramanujan's father was at work most of the day, his mother took care of him as a child. He had a close relationship with her. From her, he learned about tradition and puranas. He learned to sing religious songs, to attend pujas at the temple and particular eating habits all of which are part of Brahmin culture.[20] At the Kangayan Primary School, Ramanujan performed well. Just before the age of 10, in November 1897, he passed his primary examinations in English, Tamil, geography and arithmetic. With his scores, he stood first in

the district.[21] That year, Ramanujan entered Town Higher Secondary School where he encountered formal mathematics for the first time.[21] By age 11, he had exhausted the mathematical knowledge of two college students who were lodgers at his home. He was later lent a book on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. Loney.[5][22] He completely mastered this book by the age of 13 and discovered sophisticated theorems on his own. By 14, he was receiving merit certificates and academic awards which continued throughout his school career and also assisted the school in the logistics of assigning its 1200 students (each with their own needs) to its 35-odd teachers.[23] He completed mathematical exams in half the allotted time, and showed a familiarity with geometry and infinite series. Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902 and he went on to find his own method to solve the quartic. The following year, not knowing that the quintic could not be solved by radicals, he tried (and of course failed) to solve the quintic. In 1903 when he was 16, Ramanujan obtained from a friend a library-loaned copy of a book by G. S. Carr.[24][25] The book was titled A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics and was a collection of 5000 theorems. Ramanujan reportedly studied the contents of the book in detail.[26] The book is generally acknowledged as a key element in awakening the genius of Ramanujan.[26] The next year, he had independently developed and investigated the Bernoulli numbers and had calculated the EulerMascheroni constant up to 15 decimal places.[27] His peers at the time commented that they "rarely understood him" and "stood in respectful awe" of him.[23] When he graduated from Town Higher Secondary School in 1904, Ramanujan was awarded the K. Ranganatha Rao prize for mathematics by the school's headmaster, Krishnaswami Iyer. Iyer introduced Ramanujan as an outstanding student who deserved scores higher than the maximum possible marks. [23] He received a scholarship to study at Government Arts College, Kumbakonam,[28][29] However, Ramanujan was so intent on studying mathematics that he could not focus on any other subjects and failed most of them, losing his scholarship in the process.[30] In August 1905, he ran away from home, heading towards Visakhapatnam and stayed in Rajahmundry [31] for about a month.[32] He later enrolled at Pachaiyappa's College in Madras. He again excelled in mathematics but performed poorly in other subjects such as physiology. Ramanujan failed his Fellow of Arts exam in December 1906 and again a year later. Without a degree, he left college and continued to pursue independent research in mathematics. At this point in his life, he lived in extreme poverty and was often on the brink of starvation.[33]

Adulthood in India[edit source | editbeta]

On 14 July 1909, Ramanujan was married to a ten-year old bride, Janakiammal (21 March 1899 13 April 1994).[34] She came from Rajendram, a village close to Marudur (Karur district) Railway Station. Ramanujan's father did not participate in the marriage ceremony.[35] After the marriage, Ramanujan developed a hydrocele testis, an abnormal swelling of the tunica vaginalis, an internal membrane in the testicle.[36] The condition could be treated with a routine surgical operation that would

release the blocked fluid in the scrotal sac. His family did not have the money for the operation, but in January 1910, a doctor volunteered to do the surgery for free.[37] After his successful surgery, Ramanujan searched for a job. He stayed at friends' houses while he went door to door around the city of Madras (now Chennai) looking for a clerical position. To make some money, he tutored some students at Presidency College who were preparing for their F.A. exam.[38] In late 1910, Ramanujan was sick again, possibly as a result of the surgery earlier in the year. He feared for his health, and even told his friend, R. Radakrishna Iyer, to "hand these [Ramanujan's mathematical notebooks] over to Professor Singaravelu Mudaliar [the mathematics professor at Pachaiyappa's College] or to the British professor Edward B. Ross, of the Madras Christian College."[39] After Ramanujan recovered and got back his notebooks from Iyer, he took a northbound train from Kumbakonam to Villupuram, a coastal city under French control.[40][41]

Attention towards mathematics[edit source | editbeta]

Ramanujan met deputy collector V. Ramaswamy Aiyer, who had recently founded the Indian Mathematical Society.[42] Ramanujan, wishing for a job at the revenue department where Ramaswamy Aiyer worked, showed him his mathematics notebooks. As Ramaswamy Aiyer later recalled: I was struck by the extraordinary mathematical results contained in it [the notebooks]. I had no mind to smother his genius by an appointment in the lowest rungs of the revenue department.[43] Ramaswamy Aiyer sent Ramanujan, with letters of introduction, to his mathematician friends in Madras.[42] Some of these friends looked at his work and gave him letters of introduction to R. Ramachandra Rao, the district collector for Nellore and the secretary of the Indian Mathematical Society.[44][45][46] Ramachandra Rao was impressed by Ramanujan's research but doubted that it was actually his own work. Ramanujan mentioned a correspondence he had with Professor Saldhana, a notable Bombay mathematician, in which Saldhana expressed a lack of understanding for his work but concluded that he was not a phony.[47] Ramanujan's friend, C. V. Rajagopalachari, persisted with Ramachandra Rao and tried to quell any doubts over Ramanujan's academic integrity. Rao agreed to give him another chance, and he listened as Ramanujan discussed elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, and his theory of divergent series, which Rao said ultimately "converted" him to a belief in Ramanujan's mathematical brilliance.[47] When Rao asked him what he wanted, Ramanujan replied that he needed some work and financial support. Rao consented and sent him to Madras. He continued his mathematical research with Rao's financial aid taking care of his daily needs. Ramanujan, with the help of Ramaswamy Aiyer, had his work published in the Journal of Indian Mathematical Society.[48] One of the first problems he posed in the journal was:

He waited for a solution to be offered in three issues, over six months, but failed to receive any. At the end, Ramanujan supplied the solution to the problem himself. On page 105 of his first notebook, he formulated an equation that could be used to solve the infinitely nested radicals problem.

Using this equation, the answer to the question posed in the Journal was simply 3.[49] Ramanujan wrote his first formal paper for the Journal on the properties of Bernoulli numbers. One property he discovered was that the denominators (sequence A027642 in OEIS) of the fractions of Bernoulli numbers were always divisible by six. He also devised a method of calculating Bn based on previous Bernoulli numbers. One of these methods went as follows: It will be observed that if n is even but not equal to zero,

(i) Bn is a fraction and the numerator of

in its lowest terms is a prime number,

(ii) the denominator of Bn contains each of the factors 2 and 3 once and only once,

(iii)

is an integer and

consequently is an odd integer.

In his 17-page paper, "Some Properties of Bernoulli's Numbers", Ramanujan gave three proofs, two corollaries and three conjectures.[50] Ramanujan's writing initially had many flaws. As Journaleditor M. T. Narayana Iyengar noted: Mr. Ramanujan's methods were so terse and novel and his presentation so lacking in clearness and precision, that the ordinary [mathematical reader], unaccustomed to such intellectual gymnastics, could hardly follow him.[51] Ramanujan later wrote another paper and also continued to provide problems in the Journal.[52] In early 1912, he got a temporary job in the Madras Accountant General's office, with a salary of 20 rupees per month. He lasted for only a few weeks.[53] Toward the end of that assignment he applied for a position under the Chief Accountant of the Madras Port Trust. In a letter dated 9 February 1912, Ramanujan wrote: Sir, I understand there is a clerkship vacant in your office, and I beg to apply for the same. I have passed the Matriculation Examination and studied up to the F.A. but was prevented from pursuing my studies further owing to several untoward circumstances. I have, however, been devoting all my time to Mathematics and developing the subject. I can say I am quite

confident I can do justice to my work if I am appointed to the post. I therefore beg to request that you will be good enough to confer the appointment on me.[54] Attached to his application was a recommendation from E. W. Middlemast, a mathematics professor at the Presidency College, who wrote that Ramanujan was "a young man of quite exceptional capacity in Mathematics".[55] Three weeks after he had applied, on 1 March, Ramanujan learned that he had been accepted as a Class III, Grade IV accounting clerk, making 30 rupees per month. [56] At his office, Ramanujan easily and quickly completed the work he was given, so he spent his spare time doing mathematical research. Ramanujan's boss, Sir Francis Spring, and S. Narayana Iyer, a colleague who was also treasurer of the Indian Mathematical Society, encouraged Ramanujan in his mathematical pursuits.

Contacting English mathematicians[edit source | editbeta]

In the spring of 1913, Narayana Iyer, Ramachandra Rao and E. W. Middlemast tried to present Ramanujan's work to British mathematicians. One mathematician, M. J. M. Hill of University College London, commented that Ramanujan's papers were riddled with holes.[57] He said that although Ramanujan had "a taste for mathematics, and some ability", he lacked the educational background and foundation needed to be accepted by mathematicians.[58] Although Hill did not offer to take Ramanujan on as a student, he did give thorough and serious professional advice on his work. With the help of friends, Ramanujan drafted letters to leading mathematicians at Cambridge University. [59] The first two professors, H. F. Baker and E. W. Hobson, returned Ramanujan's papers without comment.[60] On 16 January 1913, Ramanujan wrote to G. H. Hardy. Coming from an unknown mathematician, the nine pages of mathematics made Hardy initially view Ramanujan's manuscripts as a possible "fraud".[61] Hardy recognised some of Ramanujan's formulae but others "seemed scarcely possible to believe".[62] One of the theorems Hardy found so incredible was found on the bottom of page three (valid for 0 < a < b + 1/2):

Hardy was also impressed by some of Ramanujan's other work relating to infinite series:

The first result had already been determined by a mathematician named Bauer. The second one was new to Hardy, and was derived from a class of functions called a hypergeometric serieswhich had first been researched by Leonhard Euler and Carl Friedrich Gauss. Compared to Ramanujan's work on integrals, Hardy found these results "much more intriguing".[63] After he saw Ramanujan's theorems on continued fractions on the last page of the manuscripts, Hardy commented that the "[theorems] defeated me completely; I had never seen anything in the least like them before".[64] He figured that Ramanujan's theorems "must be true, because, if they were not true, no one would have the imagination to invent them".[64] Hardy asked a colleague, J. E. Littlewood, to take a look at the papers. Littlewood was amazed by the mathematical genius of Ramanujan. After discussing the papers with Littlewood, Hardy concluded that the letters were "certainly the most remarkable I have received" and commented that Ramanujan was "a mathematician of the highest quality, a man of altogether exceptional originality and power".[65] One colleague, E. H. Neville, later commented that "not one [theorem] could have been set in the most advanced mathematical examination in the world".[66] On 8 February 1913, Hardy wrote a letter to Ramanujan, expressing his interest for his work. Hardy also added that it was "essential that I should see proofs of some of your assertions".[67]Before his letter arrived in Madras during the third week of February, Hardy contacted the Indian Office to plan for Ramanujan's trip to Cambridge. Secretary Arthur Davies of the Advisory Committee for Indian Students met with Ramanujan to discuss the overseas trip.[68] In accordance with his Brahmin upbringing, Ramanujan refused to leave his country to "go to a foreign land".[69] Meanwhile, Ramanujan sent a letter packed with theorems to Hardy, writing, "I have found a friend in you who views my labour sympathetically."[70] To supplement Hardy's endorsement, a former mathematical lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge, Gilbert Walker, looked at Ramanujan's work and expressed amazement, urging him to spend time at Cambridge.[71] As a result of Walker's endorsement, B. Hanumantha Rao, a mathematics professor at an engineering college, invited Ramanujan's colleague Narayana Iyer to a meeting of the Board of Studies in Mathematics to discuss "what we can do for S. Ramanujan".[72] The board agreed to grant Ramanujan a research scholarship of 75 rupees per month for the next two years at the University of Madras.[73] While he was engaged as a research student, Ramanujan continued to submit papers to the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. In one instance, Narayana Iyer submitted some theorems of Ramanujan on

summation of series to the above mathematical journal adding The following theorem is due to S. Ramanujan, the mathematics student of Madras University. Later in November, British Professor Edward B. Ross of Madras Christian College, whom Ramanujan had met a few years before, stormed into his class one day with his eyes glowing, asking his students, Does Ramanujan know Polish? The reason was that in one paper, Ramanujan had anticipated the work of a Polish mathematician whose paper had just arrived by the days mail.[74] In his quarterly papers, Ramanujan drew up theorems to make definite integrals more easily solvable. Working off Giuliano Frullani's 1821 integral theorem, Ramanujan formulated generalisations that could be made to evaluate formerly unyielding integrals.[75] Hardy's correspondence with Ramanujan soured after Ramanujan refused to come to England. Hardy enlisted a colleague lecturing in Madras, E. H. Neville, to mentor and bring Ramanujan to England.[76] Neville asked Ramanujan why he would not go to Cambridge. Ramanujan apparently had now accepted the proposal; as Neville put it, "Ramanujan needed no converting and that his parents' opposition had been withdrawn".[66] Apparently, Ramanujan's mother had a vivid dream in which the family Goddess Namagiri commanded her "to stand no longer between her son and the fulfilment of his life's purpose".[66] Ramanujan then set sail for England, leaving his wife to stay with his parents in India.

Life in England[edit source | editbeta]

Ramanujan (centre) with other scientists at Trinity College

Whewell's Court, Trinity College, Cambridge

Ramanujan boarded the S.S. Nevasa on 17 March 1914, and at 10 o'clock in the morning, the ship departed from Madras.[77] He arrived in London on 14 April, with E. H. Neville waiting for him with a car. Four days later, Neville took him to his house on Chesterton Road in Cambridge. Ramanujan immediately began his work with Littlewood and Hardy. After six weeks, Ramanujan moved out of Neville's house and took up residence on Whewell's Court, just a five-minute walk from Hardy's room.[78] Hardy and Ramanujan began to take a look at Ramanujan's notebooks. Hardy had already received 120 theorems from Ramanujan in the first two letters, but there were many more results and theorems to be found in the notebooks. Hardy saw that some were wrong, others had already been discovered, while the rest were new breakthroughs.[79] Ramanujan left a deep impression on Hardy and Littlewood. Littlewood commented, "I can believe that he's at least a Jacobi",[80] while Hardy said he "can compare him only with [Leonhard] Euler or Jacobi."[81] Ramanujan spent nearly five years in Cambridge collaborating with Hardy and Littlewood and published a part of his findings there. Hardy and Ramanujan had highly contrasting personalities. Their collaboration was a clash of different cultures, beliefs and working styles. Hardy was an atheist and an apostle of proof and mathematical rigour, whereas Ramanujan was a deeply religious man and relied very strongly on his intuition. While in England, Hardy tried his best to fill the gaps in Ramanujan's education without interrupting his spell of inspiration. Ramanujan was awarded a B.A. degree by research (this degree was later renamed PhD) in March 1916 for his work on highly composite numbers, the first part of which was published as a paper in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. The

paper was over 50 pages with different properties of such numbers proven. Hardy remarked that this was one of the most unusual papers seen in mathematical research at that time and that Ramanujan showed extraordinary ingenuity in handling it.[citation
needed]

On 6 December 1917, he was elected to the London Mathematical Society. He

became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918, becoming the second Indian to do so, following Ardaseer Cursetjee in 1841, and he was one of the youngest Fellows in the history of the Royal Society. He was elected "for his investigation in Elliptic functions and the Theory of Numbers." On 13 October 1918, he became the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.[82]

Illness and return to India[edit source | editbeta]

Plagued by health problems throughout his life, living in a country far away from home, and obsessively involved with his mathematics, Ramanujan's health worsened in England, perhaps exacerbated by stress and by the scarcity of vegetarian food during the First World War. He was diagnosed with tuberculosisand a severe vitamin deficiency and was confined to a sanatorium. Ramanujan returned to Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency in 1919 and died soon thereafter at the age of 32. His widow, S. Janaki Ammal, moved to Mumbai, but returned to Chennai (formerly Madras) in 1950, where she lived until her death in 1994.[35] A 1994 analysis of Ramanujan's medical records and symptoms by Dr. D.A.B. Young concluded that it was much more likely he had hepatic amoebiasis, a parasitic infection of the liver widespread in Madras, where Ramanujan had spent time. He had two episodes of dysentery before he left India. When not properly treated, dysentery can lie dormant for years and lead to hepatic amoebiasis,[6] a difficult disease to diagnose, but once diagnosed readily cured.[6]

Personality and spiritual life[edit source | editbeta]

Ramanujan has been described as a person with a somewhat shy and quiet disposition, a dignified man with pleasant manners.[83] He lived a rather Spartan life while at Cambridge. Ramanujan's first Indian biographers describe him as rigorously orthodox. Ramanujan credited his acumen to his family Goddess, Namagiri of Namakkal. He looked to her for inspiration in his work,[84] and claimed to dream of blood drops that symbolised her male consort, Narasimha, after which he would receive visions of scrolls of complex mathematical content unfolding before his eyes.[85] He often said, "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God."[86][87]

Hardy cites Ramanujan as remarking that all religions seemed equally true to him.[88] Hardy further argued that Ramanujan's religiousness had been romanticised by Westerners and overstatedin reference to his belief, not practiceby Indian biographers. At the same time, he remarked on Ramanujan's strict observance of vegetarianism.

Mathematical achievements[edit source | editbeta]

In mathematics, there is a distinction between having an insight and having a proof. Ramanujan's talent suggested a plethora of formulae that could then be investigated in depth later. It is said that Ramanujan's discoveries are unusually rich and that there is often more to them than initially meets the eye. As a by-product, new directions of research were opened up. Examples of the most interesting of these formulae include the intriguing infinite series for , one of which is given below

This result is based on the negative fundamental discriminant d = 458 = 232 with class number h(d) = 2 (note that 571358 = 26390 and that 9801=9999; 396=499) and is related to the fact that

Compare to Heegner numbers, which have class number 1 and yield similar formulae. Ramanujan's series for converges extraordinarily rapidly (exponentially) and forms the basis of some of the fastest algorithms currently used to calculate . Truncating the sum to the first term also gives the approximation places. One of his remarkable capabilities was the rapid solution for problems. He was sharing a room with P. C. Mahalanobis who had a problem, "Imagine that you are on a street with houses marked 1 through n. There is a house in between (x) such that the sum of the house numbers to left of it equals the sum of the house numbers to its right. If n is between 50 and 500, what are n and x?" This is a bivariate problem with multiple solutions. Ramanujan thought about it and gave the answer with a twist: He gave a continued fraction. The unusual part was that it was the solution to the whole class of problems. Mahalanobis was astounded and asked how he did it. "It is simple. The minute I heard the for , which is correct to six decimal

problem, I knew that the answer was a continued fraction. Which continued fraction, I asked myself. Then the answer came to my mind," Ramanujan replied.[89][90] His intuition also led him to derive some previously unknown identities, such as

for all

, where

is the gamma function. Expanding into series of , , and gives some deep

powers and equating coefficients of identities for the hyperbolic secant.

In 1918, Hardy and Ramanujan studied the partition function P(n) extensively and gave a non-convergent asymptotic series that permits exact computation of the number of partitions of an integer. Hans Rademacher, in 1937, was able to refine their formula to find an exact convergent series solution to this problem. Ramanujan and Hardy's work in this area gave rise to a powerful new method for finding asymptotic formulae, called the circle method.[91] He discovered mock theta functions in the last year of his life.[92] For many years these functions were a mystery, but they are now known to be the holomorphic parts of harmonic weak Maass forms.

The Ramanujan conjecture[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: RamanujanPetersson conjecture Although there are numerous statements that could have borne the name Ramanujan conjecture, there is one statement that was very influential on later work. In particular, the connection of this conjecture with conjectures of Andr Weil in algebraic geometry opened up new areas of research. That Ramanujan conjecture is an assertion on the size of the Tau-function, which has as generating function the discriminant modular form (q), a typical cusp form in the theory of modular forms. It was finally proven in 1973, as a consequence of Pierre Deligne's proof of the Weil conjectures. The reduction step involved is complicated. Deligne won a Fields Medal in 1978 for his work on Weil conjectures.[93]

Ramanujan's notebooks[edit source | editbeta]

Further information: Ramanujan's lost notebook While still in Madras, Ramanujan recorded the bulk of his results in four notebooks of loose leaf paper. These results were mostly written up without any derivations. This is probably the origin of the misperception that Ramanujan was unable to prove his results and simply thought up the final result directly. Mathematician Bruce C. Berndt, in his review of these notebooks and Ramanujan's work, says that Ramanujan most certainly was able to make the proofs of most of his results, but chose not to. This style of working may have been for several reasons. Since paper was very expensive, Ramanujan would do most of his work and perhaps his proofs on slate, and then transfer just the results to paper. Using a slate was common for mathematics students in the Madras Presidency at the time. He was also quite likely to have been influenced by the style of G. S. Carr's book studied in his youth, which stated results without proofs. Finally, it is possible that Ramanujan considered his workings to be for his personal interest alone; and therefore recorded only the results.[94] The first notebook has 351 pages with 16 somewhat organized chapters and some unorganized material. The second notebook has 256 pages in 21 chapters and 100 unorganised pages, with the third notebook containing 33 unorganised pages. The results in his notebooks inspired numerous papers by later mathematicians trying to prove what he had found. Hardy himself created papers exploring material from Ramanujan's work as did G. N. Watson, B. M. Wilson, and Bruce Berndt.[94] A fourth notebook with 87 unorganised pages, the so-called "lost notebook", was rediscovered in 1976 by George Andrews.[6] Notebooks 1, 2 and 3 were published as a two-volume set in 1957 by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India. This was a photocopy edition of the original manuscripts, in his own handwriting. In December 2011, as part of the celebrations of the 125th anniversary of Ramanujan's birth, TIFR republished the notebooks in a colored twovolume collector's edition. These were produced from scanned and microfilmed images of the original manuscripts by expert archivists of Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai.

RamanujanHardy number 1729[edit

source | editbeta]
Main article: 1729 (number) The number 1729 is known as the HardyRamanujan number after a famous anecdote of the British mathematician G. H. Hardy regarding a visit to the hospital to see Ramanujan. In Hardy's words:[95]

I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."

The two different ways are 1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103. Generalizations of this idea have created the notion of "taxicab numbers". Coincidentally, 1729 is also a Carmichael number.

Other mathematicians' views of Ramanujan[edit source | editbeta]

Hardy said : "The limitations of his knowledge were as startling as its profundity. Here was a man who could work out modular equations and theorems... to orders unheard of, whose mastery of continued fractions was... beyond that of any mathematician in the world, who had found for himself the functional equation of the zeta function and the dominant terms of many of the most famous problems in the analytic theory of numbers; and yet he had never heard of a doubly periodic function or of Cauchy's theorem, and had indeed but the vaguest idea of what a function of acomplex variable was...".[96] When asked about the methods employed by Ramanujan to arrive at his solutions, Hardy said that they were "arrived at by a process of mingled argument, intuition, and induction, of which he was entirely unable to give any coherent account."[97] He also stated that he had "never met his equal, and can compare him only with Euler or Jacobi."[97]

Quoting K. Srinivasa Rao,[98] "As for his place in the world of Mathematics, we quote Bruce C. Berndt: 'Paul Erds has passed on to us Hardy's personal ratings of mathematicians. Suppose that we rate mathematicians on the basis of pure talent on a scale from 0 to 100, Hardy gave himself a score of 25, J.E. Littlewood 30, David Hilbert 80 and Ramanujan 100.'" Professor Bruce C. Berndt of the University of Illinois, during a lecture at IIT Madras in May 2011, stated that over the last 40 years, as nearly all of Ramanujan's theorems have been proven right, there had been a greater appreciation of Ramanujan's work and brilliance. Further, he stated Ramanujan's work was now pervading many areas of modern mathematics and physics.[92][99] In his book Scientific Edge, noted physicist Jayant Narlikar spoke of "Srinivasa Ramanujan, discovered by the Cambridge mathematician Hardy, whose great mathematical findings were beginning to be appreciated from 1915 to 1919. His achievements were to be fully understood much later, well after his untimely death in 1920. For example, his work on the highly composite numbers (numbers with a large number of factors) started a whole new line of investigations in the theory of such numbers." During his lifelong mission in educating and propagating mathematics among the school children in India, Nigeria and elsewhere, P.K. Srinivasan has continually introduced Ramanujan's mathematical works.

Recognition[edit source | editbeta]

Further information: List of things named after Srinivasa Ramanujan Ramanujan's home state of Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December (Ramanujan's birthday) as 'State IT Day', memorializing both the man and his achievements, as a native of Tamil Nadu. A stamp picturing Ramanujan was released by the Government of India in 1962 the 75th anniversary of Ramanujan's birth commemorating his achievements in the field of number theory,[100] and a new design was issued on December 26, 2011, by the India Post.[101][102]

Since the Centennial year of Ramanujan, every year 22 Dec, is celebrated as Ramanujan Day by the Government Arts College, Kumbakonam where he had studied and later dropped out. It is celebrated by the Department of Mathematics by organising one-, two-, or three-day seminars by inviting eminent scholars from universities/colleges, and participants are mainly students of mathematics, research scholars, and professors from local colleges. It has been planned to celebrate the 125th birthday in a grand manner by inviting the foreign eminent mathematical scholars of this century viz., G E Andrews. and Bruce C Berndt, who are very familiar with the contributions and works of Ramanujan. Ramanujan's work and life are celebrated on 22 December at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras in Chennai. The Department of Mathematics celebrates this day by organising a National Symposium On Mathematical Methods and Applications (NSMMA) for one day by inviting eminent Indian and foreign scholars. A prize for young mathematicians from developing countries has been created in the name of Ramanujan by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in cooperation with theInternational Mathematical Union, which nominate members of the prize committee. The Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA), based in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India, has instituted the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize of $10,000 to be given annually to a mathematician not exceeding the age of 32 for outstanding contributions in an area of mathematics influenced by Ramanujan. The age limit refers to the years Ramanujan lived, having nevertheless still achieved many accomplishments. This prize has been awarded annually since 2005, at an international conference conducted by SASTRA in Kumbakonam, Ramanujan's hometown, around Ramanujan's birthday, 22 December. On the 125th anniversary of his birth, India declared the birthday of Ramanujan, December 22, as 'National Mathematics Day.' The declaration was made by Dr. Manmohan Singh in Chennai on December 26, 2011.[103] Dr Manmohan Singh also declared that the year 2012 would be celebrated as the National Mathematics Year.

Jagadish Chandra Bose

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Satyendra Nath Bose.

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose

CSI, CIE, FRS

Jagadish Chandra Bose in Royal Institution, London

Born

30 November 1858 Bikrampur, Bengal Presidency,British India

Died

23 November 1937 (aged 78) Giridih, Bengal Presidency, British India

Residence

Kolkata, Bengal Presidency, British India

Nationality British Indian

Fields

Physics, Biophysics, Biology,Botany, Archaeology, Bengali Literature, Bengali Science Fiction

Institutions University of Calcutta University of Cambridge University of London

Alma

St. Xavier's College, Calcutta

mater

University of Cambridge

Academic advisors John Strutt (Rayleigh)

Notable students Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha

Known for

Millimetre waves Radio Crescograph Plant science

Notable awards

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) (1903) Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) (1911) Knight Bachelor (1917)

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose,[1] CSI,[2] CIE,[3] FRS[4] (Bengali: ; 30 November 1858 23 November 1937) was a Bengalipolymath, physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, as well as an early writer of science fiction.[5] He pioneered the investigation of radio andmicrowave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent.[6]IEEE named him one of the fathers of radio science.[7] He is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He also invented the crescograph. Born in Bikrampur (present day Munshiganj District near Dhaka in Bangladesh) during the British Raj, Bose graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. He then went to the University of London to study medicine, but could not pursue studies in medicine due to health problems. Instead, he conducted his research with the Nobel Laureate Lord Rayleigh at Cambridge and returned to India. He then joined the Presidency College ofUniversity of Calcutta as a Professor of Physics. There, despite racial discrimination and a lack of funding and equipment, Bose carried on his scientific research. He made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signalling and was the first to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals. However, instead of trying to gain commercial benefit from this invention, Bose made his inventions public in order to allow others to further develop his research. Bose subsequently made a number of pioneering discoveries in plant physiology. He used his own invention, the crescograph, to measure plant response to various stimuli, and thereby scientifically proved parallelism between animal and plant tissues. Although Bose filed for a patent for one of his inventions due to peer pressure, his reluctance to any form of patenting was well known. To facilitate his research, he constructed automatic recorders capable of registering extremely slight movements; these instruments produced some

striking results, such as Bose's demonstration of an apparent power of feeling in plants, exemplified by the quivering of injured plants. His books include Response in the Living and Non-Living (1902) andThe Nervous Mechanism of Plants (1926).
Contents
[hide]

1 Early life and education 2 Joining Presidency College 3 Radio research 4 Plant research 5 Study of metal fatigue and cell response 6 Science fiction 7 Bose and patents 8 Legacy 9 Publications 10 Honours 11 Notes 12 Bibliography 13 Further reading 14 External links

Early life and education[edit source | editbeta]

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was born in Bikrampur, Bengal, (now Munshiganj District of Bangladesh) on 30 November 1858. His father, Bhagawan Chandra Bose, was a Brahmo and leader of the Brahmo Samaj and worked as a deputy magistrate/ assistant commissioner in Faridpur,[8]Bardhaman and other places.[9] His family hailed from the village Rarikhal, Bikrampur, in the current day Munshiganj District of Bangladesh.[10] Bose's education started in a vernacular school, because his father believed that one must know one's own mother tongue before beginning English, and that one should know also one's own people. [11] Speaking at the Bikrampur Conference in 1915, Bose said: At that time, sending children to English schools was an aristocratic status symbol. In the vernacular school, to which I was sent, the son of the Muslim attendant of my father sat on my right side, and the son of a fisherman sat on my left. They were my playmates. I listened spellbound to their stories of birds, animals and aquatic creatures. Perhaps these stories created in my mind a keen interest in investigating the workings of Nature. When I returned home from school accompanied by my school

fellows, my mother welcomed and fed all of us without discrimination. Although she was an orthodox old-fashioned lady, she never considered herself guilty of impiety by treating these untouchables as her own children. It was because of my childhood friendship with them that I could never feel that there were creatures who might be labelled low-caste. I never realised that there existed a problem common to the two communities, Hindus and Muslims.[9] Bose joined the Hare School in 1869 and then St. Xavier's School at Kolkata. In 1875, he passed the Entrance Examination (equivalent to school graduation) of University of Calcutta and was admitted to St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. At St. Xavier's, Bose came in contact with Jesuit Father Eugene Lafont, who played a significant role in developing his interest to natural science.[9][10]He received a bachelor's degree from University of Calcutta in 1879.[8] Bose wanted to go to England to compete for the Indian Civil Service. However, his father, a civil servant himself, cancelled the plan. He wished his son to be a scholar, who would rule nobody but himself.[citation
needed]

Bose went to England to study Medicine at the University of London. However, he had to quit

because of ill health.[12] The odour in the dissection rooms is also said to have exacerbated his illness.[8] Through the recommendation of Anandamohan Bose, his brother-in-law (sister's husband) and the first Indian wrangler, he secured admission in Christ's College, Cambridge to study Natural Science. He received the Natural Science Tripos from the University of Cambridge and a BSc from the University of London in 1884.[13] Among Bose's teachers at Cambridge were Lord Rayleigh,Michael Foster, James Dewar, Francis Darwin, Francis Balfour, and Sidney Vines. At the time when Bose was a student at Cambridge, Prafulla Chandra Roy was a student at Edinburgh. They met in London and became intimate friends.[8][9] Later he was married to Abala Bose, the renowned feminist, and social worker.[14] On the second day of a two-day seminar held on the occasion of 150th anniversary of Jagadish Chandra Bose on 2829 July at The Asiatic Society, Kolkata Professor Shibaji Raha, Director of the Bose Institute, Kolkata told in his valedictory address that he had personally checked the register of the Cambridge University to confirm the fact that in addition to Tripos he received an MA as well from it in 1884.

Joining Presidency College[edit source | editbeta]

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Bose returned to India in 1885, carrying a letter from Fawcett, the economist to Lord Ripon, Viceroy of India. On Lord Ripon's request, Sir Alfred Croft, the Director of Public Instruction, appointed Bose officiating professor of physics in Presidency College. The principal, C. H. Tawney, protested against the appointment but had to accept it.[15] Bose was not provided with facilities for research. On the contrary, he was a 'victim of racialism' with regard to his salary.[15] In those days, an Indian professor was paid Rs. 200 per month, while his European counterpart received Rs. 300 per month. Since Bose was officiating, he was offered a salary of only Rs. 100 per month.[16] As a form of protest, Bose refused to accept the salary cheque and continued his teaching assignment for three years without accepting any salary.[15][17] After time, the Director of Public Instruction and the Principal of the Presidency College relented, and Bose's appointment was made permanent with retrospective effect. He was given the full salary for the previous three years in a lump sum.[8] Presidency College lacked a proper laboratory. Bose had to conduct his research in a small 24-square-foot (2.2 m2) room.[8] He devised equipment for the research with the help of one untrained tinsmith.[15] Sister Nivedita wrote, "I was horrified to find the way in which a great worker could be subjected to continuous annoyance and petty difficulties ... The college routine was made as arduous as possible for him, so that he could not have the time he needed for investigation." After his daily grind, he carried out his research far into the night, in a small room in his college.[15] Moreover, the policy of the British government for its colonies was not conducive to attempts at original research. Bose spent his own money for making experimental equipment. Within a decade of his joining Presidency College, he emerged a pioneer in the incipient research field of wireless waves. [15]

Radio research[edit source | editbeta]

See also: Invention of radio

Bose's 60 GHz microwave apparatus at the Bose Institute, Kolkata, India. His receiver (left) used a galena crystal detector inside a horn antenna and galvanometer to detect microwaves. Bose invented the crystal radio detector, waveguide, horn antenna, and other apparatus used at microwave frequencies.

The Scottish theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell mathematically predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves of diverse wavelengths, but he died in 1879 before his prediction was experimentally verified. British physicist Oliver Lodge demonstrated the existence of Maxwell's waves transmitted along wires in 188788. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed experimentally, in 1888, the existence of electromagnetic waves in free space. Subsequently, Lodge pursued Hertz's work and delivered a commemorative lecture in June 1894 (after Hertz's death) and published it in book form. Lodge's work caught the attention of scientists in different countries including Bose in India.[18] The first remarkable aspect of Bose's follow up microwave research was that he reduced the waves to the millimetre level (about 5 mm wavelength). He realised the disadvantages of long waves for studying their light-like properties.[18] In 1893, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the first public radio communication.[19] One year later, during a November 1894 (or 1895[18]) public demonstration at Town Hall of Kolkata, Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using millimetre range wavelength microwaves.[17] Lieutenant Governor Sir William Mackenzie witnessed Bose's demonstration in the Kolkata Town Hall. Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), "The invisible light can easily pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation of wires." [18] In Russia, Popov performed similar experiments. In December 1895, Popov's records indicate that he hoped for distant signalling with radio waves.[20] Bose's first scientific paper, "On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals" was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895, within a year of Lodge's paper. His second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October 1895. In December 1895, the London journal the Electrician (Vol. 36) published Bose's paper, "On a new electro-polariscope". At that time, the word 'coherer', coined by Lodge, was used in the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily commented on Bose's coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted from the Electrician and commented as follows:

Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his Coherer, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in our Presidency College Laboratory. Bose planned to "perfect his coherer" but never thought of patenting it.[18]

Diagram of microwave receiver and transmitter apparatus, from Bose's 1897 paper.

In May 1897, two years after Bose's public demonstration in Kolkata, Guglielmo Marconi conducted his wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain.[20] Bose went to London on a lecture tour in 1896 and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office. In an interview, Bose expressed disinterest in commercial telegraphy and suggested others use his research work. In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.[21] Bose's demonstration of remote wireless signalling has priority over Marconi.[20][22] He was the first to use a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves, and he invented various now commonplace microwave components.[20] In 1954, Pearson and Brattain gave priority to Bose for the use of a semiconducting crystal as a detector of radio waves.[20] Further work at millimetre wavelengths was almost non-existent for nearly 50 years. In 1897, Bose described to the Royal Institution in London his research carried out in Kolkata at millimetre wavelengths. He used waveguides, horn antennas, dielectric lenses, various polarisers and even semiconductors at frequencies as high as 60 GHz;[20] much of his original equipment is still in existence, now at the Bose Institute in Kolkata. A 1.3 mm multi-beam receiver now in use on the NRAO 12 Metre Telescope, Arizona, US, incorporates concepts from his original 1897 papers.[20] Sir Nevill Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that "J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time. In fact, he had anticipated the existence of Ptype and N-type semiconductors."[20]

Plant research[edit source | editbeta]

His major contribution in the field of biophysics was the demonstration of the electrical nature of the conduction of various stimuli (e.g., wounds, chemical agents) in plants, which were earlier thought to be of a chemical nature. These claims were later proven experimentally.[23] He was also the first to study the action of microwaves in plant tissues and corresponding changes in the cell membrane potential. He researched the mechanism of the seasonal effect on plants, the effect of chemical inhibitors on plant stimuli and the effect of temperature. From the analysis of the variation of the cell membrane potential of plants under different circumstances, he hypothesised that plants can "feel pain, understand affection etc."

Study of metal fatigue and cell response[edit source | editbeta]

Bose performed a comparative study of the fatigue response of various metals and organic tissue in plants. He subjected metals to a combination of mechanical, thermal, chemical, and electrical stimuli and noted the similarities between metals and cells. Bose's experiments demonstrated a cyclical fatigue response in both stimulated cells and metals, as well as a distinctive cyclical fatigue and recovery response across multiple types of stimuli in both living cells and metals. Bose documented a characteristic electrical response curve of plant cells to electrical stimulus, as well as the decrease and eventual absence of this response in plants treated with anaesthetics or poison. The response was also absent in zinc treated with oxalic acid. He noted a similarity in reduction of elasticity between cooled metal wires and organic cells, as well as an impact on the recovery cycle period of the metal.[24][25]

Science fiction[edit source | editbeta]

In 1896, Bose wrote Niruddesher Kahini, the first major work in Bengali science fiction. Later, he added the story in the Abyakta book as Palatak Tuphan. He was the first science fiction writer in the Bengali language.[26][27]

Bose and patents[edit source | editbeta]

The inventor of "Wireless Telecommunications", Bose was not interested in patenting his invention. In his Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, London, he made public his construction of the coherer. Thus The Electric Engineer expressed "surprise that no secret was at any time made as to its construction, so that it has been open to all the world to adopt it for practical and possibly moneymaking purposes."[8] Bose declined an offer from a wireless apparatus manufacturer for signing a remunerative agreement. Bose also recorded his attitude towards patents in his inaugural lecture at the foundation of the Bose Institute on 30 November 1917.

Legacy[edit source | editbeta]

Acharya Bhavan, the residence of J C Bose built in 1902, has been turned to museum. [28]

Bose's place in history has now been re-evaluated, and he is credited with the invention of the first wireless detection device and the discovery of millimetre length electromagnetic waves and considered a pioneer in the field of biophysics.[21] Many of his instruments are still on display and remain largely usable now, over 100 years later. They include various antennas, polarisers, and waveguides, which remain in use in modern forms today. To commemorate his birth centenary in 1958, the JBNSTS scholarship programme was started in West Bengal. In the same year, India issued a postage stamp bearing his portrait.[29] On 14 September 2012, Bose's experimental work in millimetre-band radio was recognised as an IEEE Milestone in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the first such recognition of a discovery in India.[30]

Publications[edit source | editbeta]

Journals

Nature published about 27 papers. Bose J.C. (1902). "On Elektromotive Wave accompanying Mechanical Disturbance in Metals in Contact with Electrolyte". Proc. Roy. Soc. 70 (459466): 273294. doi:10.1098/rspl.1902.0029.

Bose J.C. (1902). "Sur la response electrique de la matiere vivante et animee soumise une excitation.Deux proceeds d'observation de la reponse de la matiere vivante". Journ. De Phys. 4 (1): 481491.

Books

Response in the Living and Non-living, 1902 Plant response as a means of physiological investigation, 1906 Comparative Electro-physiology: A Physico-physiological Study, 1907 Researches on Irritability of Plants, 1913 Physiology of the Ascent of Sap, 1923 The physiology of photosynthesis, 1924 The Nervous Mechanisms of Plants, 1926 Plant Autographs and Their Revelations, 1927 Growth and tropic movements of plants, 1928 Motor mechanism of plants, 1928

Other

J.C. Bose, Collected Physical Papers. New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1927 Abyakta (Bengali), 1922

Honours[edit source | editbeta]

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE, 1903) Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI, 1912) Knight Bachelor (1917) Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS, 1920)[4] Member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, 1928 President of the 14th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1927. Member of Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1929. Member of the League of Nations' Committee for Intellectual Cooperation Founding fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (now the Indian National Science Academy)

The Indian Botanic Garden was renamed as the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden on 25 June 2009 in honour of Jagadish Chandra Bose.[31]

Notes