CV Raman birth anniversary: Remembering one of India’s greatest scientists

On his birth anniversary, here is a look at some of the achievements of the great scientist.

Raman initially worked as a student in the field of optics and acoustics.

He completed his Master’s degree in Physics from the Presidency College, University of Madras, in 1907, and worked as an accountant in the finance department of the Indian government. In 1917, he joined the University of Calcutta as a professor of Physics.

Raman was fond of Indian classical music and was keenly interested in the acoustics of stringed instruments. He even constructed a mechanical violin.

One of Raman’s discoveries is related to the frequency response of the violin and its quality. The frequency response curve is known as the ‘Raman curve’.

Raman continued his research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) in Calcutta while he worked as a professor at the university. He later became an honorary scholar at the association.

National Science Day 2022: Remembering Raman Effect & the man behind it

It was at the IACS that Raman conducted the ground-breaking experiment that eventually earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics. He discovered that when light passes through a transparent substance through one frequency, a small portion of the light gets deflected at right angles to the original direction. Some of this light also appears to be of different frequencies than that of the incident light.

In 1924, Raman became a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1929.

Raman and Suri Bhagavantam discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further proved the quantum nature of light.

In 1932, Raman joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as the head of the department of Physics. He became the director of Raman Research Institute in Bangalore in 1948 and remained in the position till his death on November 21, 1970.