CV Raman was the first person to receive the Nobel Prize from the Asian country. He received honors for his work on the discovery of the Raman effect and the scattering of light. The Nobel Prize is the greatest honor and recognition for a scientist.
CV Raman aka Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman was born on 8 November 1888 in Chennai (then, Madras). He is the only Nobel laureate in India to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. His father was a lecturer in Visakhapatnam, where he did his schooling. Raman joined the Financial Civil Service in 1907 as an Assistant Accountant General in Calcutta.
Raman’s part time research work and lecture was quite effective. This established him as a very talented physicist. In 1917, he received an offer from the University of Calcutta. He was 28 at the time. He accepted the offer and devoted all his time to science.
The Raman effect states that when light passes through a transparent material, a change in the wavelength of light is seen. That is, when a wave of light comes out of a liquid, some part of this light wave propagates in a direction which is different from the direction of the incoming light wave. In 1930, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in the field of light.
His work in the field of light is still being used in many fields. Raman spectroscopy is used in chemical labs around the world, with the help of which the substance is identified. It is used in the pharmaceutical field for research on cells and tissues and for the detection of cancer. Raman spectroscopy also contributed to the detection of water on the moon during the mission Chandrayaan.
