Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was a pioneering Indian physicist born on November 7, 1888, in Tiruchirappalli, Southern India to Tamil Brahmin parents who were academics. Demonstrating exceptional academic talent from a young age, Raman was educated at St. Aloysius' Anglo-Indian High School in Visakhapatnam, where he passed matriculation at age 11 and completed his intermediate examination (First Examination in Arts) at age 13 before joining Presidency College in Madras in 1902, and earned his Bachelor's degree with honors in physics from Presidency College, University of Madras at only 16 years old. Initially joining the Indian Finance Service as Assistant Accountant General at age 19, he pursued scientific research independently at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta. In 1917, he transitioned fully to academia when he was appointed as the first Palit Professor of Physics at Calcutta University, later serving as Professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore from 1933 to 1948.
Raman's most groundbreaking contribution to science was the discovery of the Raman effect in 1928, which describes how light scatters when passing through transparent materials with a change in wavelength. Using a spectrograph he developed, Raman and his student K.S. Krishnan observed this previously unknown type of light scattering, which fundamentally transformed the understanding of quantum interactions between light and matter. This seminal discovery provided a vital tool for analyzing molecular structures and became the foundation of Raman spectroscopy, with applications spanning physics, chemistry, and materials science. For this paradigm-shifting work, which demonstrated that the scattering of light could reveal the vibrational properties of molecules, Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, becoming the first Asian and non-White person to receive a Nobel Prize in any scientific field.
Beyond his Nobel Prize-winning discovery, Raman established the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926 and founded the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1934, significantly advancing the scientific infrastructure of independent India. In 1948, he established and endowed the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, where he continued his scientific investigations until his death in 1970, remaining actively engaged in research throughout his later years. His contributions to science and nation-building were recognized with India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1954, and his legacy endures through India's annual National Science Day on February 28, commemorating the discovery of the Raman effect. Raman's pioneering work continues to inform diverse scientific fields, with modern applications extending to pharmaceutical analysis, forensic science, and nanotechnology, cementing his status as one of the most influential physicists of the twentieth century.
