Raman

 Raman.

P.K.Ghatak, MD

No.41.

Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman was an Indian Science prodigy. He graduated in science at age 16, obtained a master's degree at age 19, published his scientific paper at age 18. and obtain Nobel prize in Physics at age 42, the same age as of Einstein when he was awarded his Nobel prize.

He was born in Madras in 1888 when India was under the British Rule. Raman's life shows the how the British in colonial India suppressed Indians to excel in science and technology at the same time the British in England always ready to help Indian whenever they detected a rare talent.

Raman was given an opportunity to go the England for research but denied permission on health grounds by a British surgeon on the pretext that he would die of tuberculosis if he went to a cold country.

During the student days he was researching under his British professor. He wrote his findings and gave him to review with a hope that he would appreciate the work and even suggest publication in a since journal. Raman did not hear from his advisor for months, one day he asked about his paper. The professor pretended that he forgot it completely. He took a chance and rewrote the paper, and the paper was published in the Journal of science.

His interest was in Physics, specially in Optics and Acoustics. He obtained his master's in physics and then sat at a competitive administrative examination in finance and stood first. He was appointed as a administrative officer in the finance department. In his spare time, he researched in unique acoustics properties of Vena, a classical string instrument that is being used since the earliest days in Indian civilization.

The financial job with the government took him to Calcutta, in a time when University of Calcutta had a high reputation for academic excellence among all the universities in India. Many luminaries of the Calcutta university were familiar with the work of Raman. The Vice Chancellor, Asutosh Mukherjee of the university appointed Raman as a research fellow in Physics and posted him at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and began assigning research students under his tutelage. Later he appointed as Professor in Physics of Calcutta university in 1914. But the British members of the Senate objected his appointment because Raman did not yet received PhD. Asutosh Mukherjee bestowed an honorary PhD degree on Raman at the next convocation of the university.

Raman moved to the newly completed Science Collage in Rajabazar. Here Raman developed his Spectroscope and completed his work in optics and wrote his paper, titled - A New Radiation and published it 1928 in the Indian Journal of Physics. He was awarded Nobel prize in physics in 1930. The new radiation he discovered is now known as Raman Effect.

In 1921 he visited Oxford University in England on the invitation by Lord Rutherford. That visit bonded these two scientists permanently. Rutherford nominated him for Nobel prize and also as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1933 he moved to Bangalore and founded Raman Institute with the financial help of Maharajah of Mysore, R.D Tata, and Nizam of Hyderabad. He invited Max Born to his institute and gave a research position when he was expelled from Germany by Nazi.

The other side of C.V Raman:

He disliked government involvement in scientific research and publication of science journal. He often fought with J. L. Nehru, Indian Prime minister, and disagreed with Homi Bhabha of Atomic Research and S.S.Bahatagar and did not have any good things to say about his favorite student and research associate K.S.Krishnan. It is said that he shattered a bust of Nehru and smashed his Bharat Ratna medal in a fit of anger provoked after a disagreement with Nehru. He could not accept Max Born's Lattice Theory, and even later when the whole scientific world accepted Bron's theory. In a policy disagreement of resigned his Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Controversy of Nobel award:

Russian scientists Lansberg and Mandelstam working in their laboratory, independently discovered Raman effect and published their findings a few weeks earlier than Raman's publication. The Nobel committee selected Raman over the Russian scientist on the ground that Raman described Raman effect on gas, liquid and solid, whereas the Russian presented effect only on Chrystals.

Raman rumored to be Christian:

Raman and his wife often visited St. John Church, Calcutta because of his interest in acoustics and his wife love for Church music. He was also thought to be an agnostic and followers of other religions.

He however was a firm believer of Advaita Vedanta of Shankara school.

Final word:

Raman was first non-white person to receive Nobel prize in any science subject and the second India after Rabindranath Tagore to receive a Nobel prize. His elder brother's son, Chandrasekhar Subramaniam is the second Indian to receive Nobel prize in Physics in 1983 for his work on The Formation of Stars. The second person form Indian Subcontinent to receive Nobel prize in Physics is Abdus Salam of Pakistan for his contribution on the United Weak Forces. 

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Footnote:

 Raman Effect. When light traverse transparent materials, the refracted light changes its wavelength.

Advaita Vedanta: Brahman alone is real, the world is an illusion, and the individual self is nothing but Brahman.

How Raman effect is different from Lord Rayleigh's work on reflected light:

 While Rayleigh's work dealt with elastic scattering, where photons do not change energy Raman effect is an inelastic scattering process in which photons exchange energy with molecules.

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