C. V. Raman
1888–1970, Tiruchirappalli, India, Bangalore, India
Indian physicist who discovered the Raman effect — inelastic scattering of light by molecules — the foundation of Raman spectroscopy; he received the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born in Tiruchirappalli, excelled in his studies, and earned a master's degree in physics at the University of Madras in 1907. Lacking research opportunities in colonial India, he worked in the finance service for a decade while pursuing experiments in his spare time at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta.
In 1917 he took the Palit chair of physics at the University of Calcutta. He discovered the effect bearing his name in 1928, then became director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1933. In 1948 he founded the Raman Research Institute, where he worked until his death. He was the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Nobel-winning work
On 28 February 1928, Raman and his collaborator K. S. Krishnan observed in Calcutta that monochromatic light scattered by transparent liquids contains a small fraction of frequency-shifted radiation — distinct from elastic Rayleigh scattering. They announced the result in Nature as 'A New Type of Secondary Radiation'. The frequency shifts corresponded to vibrational and rotational energies of the scattering molecules.
The 'Raman effect' became a spectroscopic tool: the spectrum of shifted lines directly reveals molecular vibrational structure, giving rise to Raman spectroscopy — now a standard technique in chemistry, materials science, and biology. The 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded 'for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him'.
Workplaces: University of Calcutta, Indian Institute of Science
India