Today is the birth anniversary of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, commonly known as CV Raman. Sir CV Raman was born at Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu on November 7, 1888, to Tamil Brahmin parents. Sir CV Raman had topped the undergraduate degree examination at the University of Madras with honours in Physics at the age of 16. Five years later, in 1907, Sir Raman got his MSc degree from the University of Madras with the highest distinctions. Sir CV Raman received the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him -- Raman Effect.
Sir CV Raman was 19 years of age when he joined the Indian Finance Service in Kolkata as Assistant Accountant General. During those times, he became familiarised with the first research institute in India -- Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) -- which allowed Sir Venkata Raman to do independent research in his interesting field of study and where he made the major contributions in acoustics and optics. His first research paper, on diffraction of light, was published in 1906 while he was still a graduate student.
Sir CV Raman started his experiments for studying how light is scattered; and thus came the Raman Spectroscopy for observing the vibrational, rotational and other low-frequency modes in a system. He also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. In 1932 he along with one of his students discovered that photons of light exhibit angular momentum. In 1954, Sir CV Raman received the highest civilian award -- the Bharat Ratna.
The University of Calcutta allotted PhD students to Sir CV Raman to guide them during their doctorate course. Several universities including University of Allahabad, Rangoon University, Queen's College Indore, Institute of Science, Nagpur, Krisnath College and the University of Madras also allotted Sir Raman PhD students. By 1919, Raman had guided more than a dozen students. Sir Raman, in 1919, received two honorary positions at IACS, Honorary Professor and Honorary Secretary. He referred to this period as the "golden era" of his life.
Sir CV Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman Research Institute in Bengaluru in 1949. He served there as its director and remained active there until his death on November 21, 1970.
