Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970), Indian physicist best known for his research on the molecular scattering of light. For his discovery of this effect, known as the Raman effect, he was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in physics.

Raman was born in Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirapalli) and educated at Presidency College in Madras (now Chennai). He was professor of physics at the University of Calcutta (now Kolkata) from 1917 to 1933 and in the latter year was appointed head of the department of physics of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. In 1947 he became director of the Raman Research Institute, also in Bangalore. He was knighted in 1929 and was named president of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1934. Raman also studied the physical nature of musical sounds and the mechanics of musical instruments. He wrote Molecular Diffraction of Light (1922) and The New Physics; Talks on Aspects of Science (1951).