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