C V Raman
C V Raman
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman[2] (7 November 1888 21 November 1970), an
Indian physicist born in the former Madras Province in India. He won nobel prize for physics
in the field of light scattering popularly known as Raman effect.
C.V.Raman was born to a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family in Thiruvanaikaval. At the age
of 16 he passed his Bachelor of Arts and gained master of arts in 1907 with distinction. He
resigned his government job and fully devoted his life in research. On 28 February 1928 he
discovered Raman effect along with collaborators including K.S Krishnan. Raman effect gave
further proof of the quantum nature of light.
Raman also served as the president of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. Raman
was so confident of winning the noble prize in 1930 that he booked tickets even before the
announcement of the award. He was the first Asian and first non-white to receive noble prize
in science. He was the first Indian director of IISC Bangalore. He also worked in acoustics of
musical instruments.
His voyage to Europe in 1921 was actually the turning point in his life. Raman
noticed the blue colour of glaciers and the Mediterranean sea. His curiosity to know the
reason for blue colour finally resulted in Raman effect. In 1954 he was awarded Bharat
Ratna. Raman died on 21 November 1970.
