Achievements of Indians in S&T

C.V.Raman

• Raman was an Indian physicist who carried out ground-breaking work in the field of light scattering.
• Raman led an experiment with K. S. Krishnan, on the scattering of light, when he discovered what is called the Raman effect.
• It gave proof of the quantum nature of light.
• He won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect”.
• He was the first Asian and first non-white to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences.
• In 1933, Venkatraman became the first Indian director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
• In 1943, he started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (now known as TCM Limited) which manufactured potassium chlorate for the match industry.
• Raman retired from the IISC in 1948 and established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore in 1949.
• His works-

Raman Effect: Raman conducted research about light scattering in gases, liquids and solids. When light meets particles that are smaller than the light’s wavelength, the light spreads in different directions. This occurs when photons encounter molecules in a gas.

• In 1928 C.V.Raman discovered that a small portion of the scattered light acquires other wavelengths than that of the original light.
• This is because some of the incoming photons’ energy can be transferred to a molecule, giving it a higher level of energy.
• They observed the effect in gases, crystals and glass. In Raman’s work, the light scattered by liquids was polarized, which Ruled Out the possibility of Fluorescence.

This phenomenon which came to be known as the Raman effect – a colour change accompanied by polarization, had never been seen before.

• The inelastic scattering was a very strong confirmation of the quantum theory.
• Raman Spectroscopy (1929): Raman showed that the energy of photons scattered inelastically serves as a ‘fingerprint’ for the substance the light is scattered from. Raman spectroscopy is now commonly used in chemical laboratories all over the world to identify substances.
• It is also used in medicine to investigate living cells and tissues, even detecting cancers without causing harm.

Meghnad Saha

• He was an Astrophysicist noted for his development in 1920 of the thermal ionization equation.
• This equation has been widely applied to the interpretation of stellar spectra, which are characteristic of the chemical composition of the light source.
• Used to determine either the temperature of the star or the relative abundance of the chemical elements investigated.

Satyendra Nath Bose

• He was a Bengali Indian physicist, specializing in mathematical physics.
• He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate.
• Bosons, a class of elementary subatomic particles in particle physics were named after Satyendra Nath Bose to commemorate his contributions to science.
• Although seven Nobel Prizes were awarded for research related to S N Bose’s concepts of the boson, Bose-Einstein statistics and Bose-Einstein condensate, Bose himself was not awarded a Nobel Prize—the latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was given for advancing the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates.
• SN Bose’s work on particle statistics, which clarified the behaviour of photons (the particles of light in an enclosure) and opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory, was one of the top ten achievements of 20^th century Indian science and could be considered in the Nobel Prize class.

Janaki Ammal

• Indian botanist who worked on plant breeding, cytogenetics and phytogeography.
• Her work involved studies on cytogenetics of a range of plants and co-authored the Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants (1945) with C.D. Darlington.
• She also took an interest in ethnobotany and took an interest in plants of medicinal and economic value from the rain forests of Kerala, India.
• She was awarded a Padma Shri.
• To honour her work in plant breeding, the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley, U.K.named a variety of Magnolia she created as Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal.

Asima Chatterjee

• Indian organic chemist noted for her work in the fields of organic chemistry and phytomedicine.
• Her most notable work includes research on vinca alkaloids, the development of anti-epileptic drugs, and the development of anti-malarial drugs.
• She also authored a considerable volume of work on medicinal plants of the Indian subcontinent.
• She was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science from an Indian university.
• She won the C.V Ramen award, P.C Ray Award, and the S.S Bhatnagar award. She was nominated by the President of India as a Member of the Rajya Sabha from February 1982 to May 1990.
• She was conferred Padma Bhushan and became the first female scientist to be elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress Association .

Bibha Chowdhry

• She was an Indian physicist.
• She worked on particle physics and cosmic rays.
• The IAU has re-christened the Star HD 86081 as Bibha (a yellow-white dwarf star in the constellation Sextans south of the celestial equator) after her.
• First to discover mesons using nuclear emulsion.
• Identifying new particles by studying their tracks in cloud chambers and on photographic plates.
• KGF Experiments: Energetic muons experiments at Kolar Gold Fields.
• Her life was described in the book, A Jewel Unearthed: Bibha Chowdhuri.

Gagandeep Kang

• She is an Indian virologist.
• She is executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
• Her research focusses on viral infections in children, and the testing of rotaviral vaccines.
• She also works on other enteric infections and their consequences when children are infected in early life, sanitation and water safety.
• In 2019, she became the first Indian woman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
• She was on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2020.