Skip to main content

CV Raman's 125th birth anniversary marked by a Google doodle


google-doodle-cv-raman.jpg
CV Raman's 125th birth anniversary has been marked by Google with a doodle in his honour. One of India's most prolific scientists, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1930 for discovering that when light passes through a transparent material, some part of the deflected light changes in wavelength. The phenomenon was part of a theory that was named Raman effect, after the physicist himself.

Thursday's Google doodle features a postage stamp like graphic with Sir CV Raman's head shot along with the diagram of the apparatus demonstrating the Raman effect, all somehow also looking like the alphabets of the Google logo.

CV Raman was born in Thiruvanaikaval, Trichinopoly, Madras Presidency, in British India to R. Chandrasekhara Iyer and Parvati Ammal on 7 November 1888. He passed his Bachelors degree in 1904 he passed securing first place and bagged a gold medal in physics. He got his Masters degree with the highest distinctions in 1907.

On 28 February 1928, Raman conducted experiments with collaborators, such as K. S. Krishnan, on the scattering of light, and discovered the Raman effect, which offered further proof of the quantum nature of light.

Raman was conferred a knighthood, as well as medals and honorary doctorates by various universities and was president of the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect". Raman was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences.

CV Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments and on a theory of transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also interested in optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.

CV Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1944 and founded the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Raman died on 21 November 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In pics: The Bachchan Family Tree

The Bachchans:  Bachchans are busy celebrating the arrival of Aishwarya and Abhishek's daughter. Let's meet the Bachchan clan Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan's father was a famous Hindi poet. He is most popular for his book 'Madhushala'. He passed away in 2003. Harivansh Rai Bachchan got married to Shyama in 1926. Shyama died after ten years of marriage. Harivansh married Teji Bachchan (in the picture) in 1941. They had two sons, Amitabh and Ajitab. Born in 1969, Amitabh Bachchan is the most popular Bollywood celebrity today. Ajitabh Bachchan (second from left) is Amitabh's younger brother Amitabh Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bachchan. They have two children, Abhishek Bachchan and Shweta Nanda. Jaya was born in a Hindu Bengali family to Taroon Kumar Bhaduri and Indira Bhaduri. Her father was a writer, journalist and stage artist. Abhishek's elder sister Shweta Bachchan Nanda is married to industrialist Nikhil Nanda. Nikhil and Shweta have t...

Google doodle celebrates André-Jacques Garnerin and the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump

Google has created a ‘doodle’ to celebrate the 216th anniversary of the world’s first parachute jump. The doodle is based on Andre-Jacque Garnerin’s daring leap on October 22 1797 at Parc Monceau in Paris, which saw the then 28-year-old leap from a balloon using a seven-metre silk parachute that resembled an umbrella. Once Garnerin’s balloon reached a height of approximately 3,000 feet, the Parisian daredevil severed the rope that attached it to his basket, automatically opening the parachute. This left Garnerin plummeting towards the earth still inside the container, with just the attached silk parachute in place to decrease the speed of its fall. Although the basket lurched violently during the descent and suffered a violent landing, Garnerin somehow emerged totally uninjured. Following the jump, Garnerin was granted the title Official Aeronaut of France and he went on to become a well-known international figure. He and his wife Jeanne Genevieve Labross...

Anandi Gopal Joshi’s 153rd Birthday

In 1886, a young doctor stepped off a ship from America, eager to take up the role of physician in charge of the female ward at Kolhapur’s Albert Edward Hospital. Not only was she India’s first female doctor, but she was only 19 years old at the time. Her name was Anandi Gopal Joshi, and her story is one of courage and perseverance. Joshi was married at the age of nine, as was the custom in 19th century India. Her husband encouraged her to continue her education and her interest in medicine. At sixteen, battling ill-health but determined to succeed, Joshi set sail for America. She earned her medical degree from the  Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now known as Drexel University College of Medicine) and returned to India with dreams of opening a medical college for women. Joshi’s young life was tragically cut short when she died of tuberculosis before her 22nd birthday. However, her legacy and the path she paved for generations of women continues today. Interesting...