A life dedicated to science

1.C.V. Raman
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, the Indian physicist who made his
motherland proud by becoming the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for
Physics, was a scientist par excellence. He displayed a brilliant mind even as
a child and passed his matriculation examination at a much younger age as
compared to other students. As the son of a lecturer in mathematics and
physics, the young Raman was exposed to an academic environment from the
very beginning. A topper throughout his academic days, he was deeply
interested in research; in fact he began his research work on optics and
acoustics even while he was a student. Even though he started his career as
a Deputy Accountant General, still he could not keep away from research,
often staying up whole nights to discover new things in the field of physics. He
was intrigued by the blue colour of glaciers and the Mediterranean sea and
wanted to unravel the mystery that why water, a colorless liquid, appeared
blue to the eyes. Thus began a series of experiments on the scattering of light
which ultimately led to what came to be known as the ‘Raman Effect’ for which
he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Major Works
He is best known for discovering the ‘Raman Effect’, or the inelastic scattering
of a photon. He showed through experimentation that when light traverses a
transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This
was a ground breaking discovery in early 20th century physics.
Awards & Achievements
 He won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering
of light and for the discovery of the Raman Effect", becoming the first
Indian to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences.
 He was honored with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, in
1954 in recognition of his invaluable contributions to the field of science.
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