Scientists of Bharat

1. Sushruta – Born in sixth century B. C. He learnt surgery and medicine at the feat of Divodas Dhanvantary. He was the first physician to advocate Caesarean operations. He was expert in removing urinary stones, locating and treating fractures , eye operations for cataract etc. His suggestion to give wine to pa- tients about to be operated upon, makes him also the father of anaesthesia. In his treatise known as Sushruta Samhita he has described 101 instruments, many of which are similar to those used at present tmes.
2. Charak – Born in 2nd century A. D., wrote the book Charak Samhita, a master piece in the field  of Ayurvedic Medicines.  He was the first Physician to explain the concept of digestion, metabolism and immunity. According to him a body functions because it contains there doshas or humours viz. Bile, phelgum and wind. Illness is caused when the balance of the three doshas is disturbed. He knew fundamentals of genetics and also studied anatomy of the body.
3. Patanjali – Born in second century B. C. He was the person who explained vividly the fundamentals of Yoga in his Yoga Sutras. According to him there are channels called ‘ Nadis’ and centres called ‘Chakras’ in human body and if these are tapped properly, one can acquire super-natural powers. His proclamations are now verified by several scientists throughout the world.
4. Nagarjun – Born in Ist Century AD at Amravati in Andhra Pradesh. He was a great scholar and chemist of his time. His treatise ‘Ras Ratnakar’ and Yogashtika dealt with preparation of Ras (mercury) compounds, extraction of metals such as silver, gold, tin and copper from their ores, the process of distillation. Iiquefication, sublimation and roasting. He also made attempts to prepare elixir of life and transmutation of base metals into gold. His book illustrates a number of apparatus. He also wrote another book Uttaratantra as supplement to Sushrut Samhita dealing with the preparation of medicinal drugs. Arogyamanjari, Kakshapatatantra, Yogsar and Yog Shatak are his other books.
5. Aryabhatta – Born in 476 AD in Kerala. He studied at Nalanda in Bihar and later was made Head of the university by Gupta ruler, Buddhagupta. He was the first to deduce that earth is round and that it rotates on its own axis creating day and night. He also declared that moon was dark and shines only because of sun light. The true reason for Solar and Lunar eclipses were also explained by him. Apart from being a great astronomer, he was an excellent mathematician also. He gave the value of (‘pi’) as 3.1416 for the first time. He also gave the table of sines. His method to find a solution to in determinate equations such as ax-by=c is also recognized the world over. He wrote a book Aryabhatiya dealing with numerous mathematical and astronomical calculations, namely. geometry, mensuration, square root, cube root, progression and celestial sphere. He wrote another book Aryabhatt Siddhanta. India’s first satellite has been named after him. He died in 520 AD.
6. Vararmihir – Born in 499 AD at Kapittha, a village near Ujjain. Came in contact with renowned astronomer and mathematician, Arya Bhatt and determined to take up astrology and astronomy as a lifetime pursuit. Went to Ujjain and soon became so famous that emperor Vikramaditya, Chandra Gupta II made him one of the nine jewels of his court. He was first to declare that earth  was spherical and there was some force which keeps bodies stuck to the earth. This force is now called Gravity. His initial name was Mihir. Varah was the title given to him by the king. He wrote many books, namely. Panch Sidhantika, Brihat Samhita, Brahjjatak which contain vast knowledge about astronomy. He died in 587 A. D.
7. Brahmgupta – Was born in 598 AD at Bhinmall in Gujrat. He became court astronomer to king Vyaghramukh of Chapa dynasty. He was a great astronomer and mathematician. He was first to frame rules for operation of Zero. He declared that addition or subtraction of zero to any quantity, negative or positive does not effect it, product of any quantity with zero is zero and division of any quantity by zero is infinity. He also framed rules to solve a simple equation of the type ax +b=0, a quadratic equation of the       type ax2+bx+c=0 and indeterminate equation like ax2+1=y2.      He was the first to treat algebra as a different branch from arithmatic. He was the founder of a branch of higher mathematics called numerical analysis. He was conferred the title of Ganak Chakra Chudamani by the great mathematician Bhaskar. He wrote books Brahm Sphuta Siddhanta and Karan Khandakhadyaka. He died in 680 AD.
8. Kanad – Born in 600 AD, was the first to enunciate the atomic theory. According to him everything was made up of Parmanus, which is the ultimate particle of the material but does not exist in free state. It is eternal and indestructible. Two or more parmanus, of similar nature or different nature, may combine to produce new materials. He also gave an idea of chemical change and effect of heat on parmanus or combined paramanus.
9. Bhaskara i – He was born in 7th century AD and was an as- tronomer contemporary to Brahma Gupta. India’s second satellite is named after him.
10. Bhaskaracharya ii – Born in 1114 in Bijapur, Karnataka in the Sahyadri hills. He got inspired by Brahamgupta and following his foot steps, became a famous astronomer and mathematician. His most important treatise Sidhanta Shiromani dealt with arithmetic (in a chapter called Leelavati), algebra (in a chapter called Beejganit), spheres (in the chapter Goladhyaya ) and planetary mathematics (in Grihganita). The chapter on arithmetic was dedicated to his daughter Leelavati. He introduced cyclic method (chakraval) to solve algebric equations, which was rediscovered by European mathematicians after 6 centuries and named inverse cycle. His book also contains the methods to determine area and volume of a sphere, some important formulae and theories in trignometry and permutation-combination. He conceived it several centuries before Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz who are considered in the world to be the founders of this subject Calculus. He had even given an example of what is now known as Differential Coefficient and the basic ldea of what is now known as Rolle’s Theorem.
11. Sawai Jai Singh II –  Born in  1686 he  was  crowned as king of Amber at the age of 13. Apart from being king he was an eminent astronomer and architect. In 1727 he designed a new capital Jaipur, a marvellous example of architecture. Pandit Jagannath, a maratha brahmin was his guru. He collected astronomical treatises        and tables from Portugal, Arabia and Europe, and got them translated into Sanskrit and gave them Sanskrit names. He also brought a telescope from Europe and then began to build them himself. He got constructed first Jantar Mantar in 1724 at Delhi and in 1734 published his observa- tions made in Delhi in the form of a table in Persian, titled Ziz Muhammed Shahi in the honour of his patron, the emperor, Muhammed Shah. In Jantar Mantar he built huge instruments    in the form of masonary structures of lime and plaster. Among the instruments he designed himself are Samrat Yantra, Ram Yantra and Jai Prakash. The first is a sun clock which measur- ers the time with an accuracy of half a minute. Ram Yantra,  a  tall pillar inside a graduated cylinder measurers the altitude and azimuth of heavenly bodies to a high degree of precision. The most original of all is Jai Prakash a wide concave bowl on which the position of all heavenly bodies can he mapped round the clock. Later on Jantar Mantars were built at another places also.
12. Jagdish Chander Bose – Born on Nov. 30, 1858 at Mymensingh now in Bangla Desh. In 1885 he was offered lecturership at Presidency College, Calcutta, on a salary half that of his white colleagues. He accepted the job but refused to draw salary. After, three years, when the college principal, a Britisher found him to be a brilliant teacher conceded his demand and paid full salary since his appointment. Published his monograph ‘Response in Living and Non-living’ and showed experimentally, before the Royal Society that plants and metals have life. He can be called the inventor of wireless telegraphy as he held a demonstration about it one year before Marconi got it patented in his name. He was the first to fabricate the device that generated microwaves, radiowaves of very short wave lengths. Also he was the first to use these microwaves to understand the structure of materials. One of the device he had fabricated, now called wave guide, forms an essential component of several sophisticated electronic and nuclear equipments. He fabricated a highly sensitive “coheser” the device that detects radio waves. Most wonderful instrument he invented was crescograph that measures the rate of growth of plants 20,000 times slower than snails speed. He founded Bose Institute at Calcutta. Died on Nov. 23, 1937
13. P.C. Ray -Born an Aug. 2, 1861 at Raruli Katipara, now in Bangla Desh. Apart from proficiency in various languages like Sanskrit. Latin, French and English, he was well versed in Political Science, Economics and History. He turned to Science after reading Benjamin Franklins’s biography in which he described famous kite experiment to know the nature of lightening. In 1888 returned from Edinburgh after getting D. Sc. He got lectureship at Presidency College in Calcutta. He was founder of Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works and is recognised as the father of Indian Chemical Industry. The first product he produced was phosphate of Soda, a medicine. He produced mercurous nitrate in 1896 and several of its derivatives. Although the industry he had established was earning lacs of rupees, he lived like a hermit. He wrote a book, “The History of Hindu Chemistry.”  He died in 1944. 
14. Moksha Gundam Visvesvarya – Was born on Sept. 15, 1861 at Muddenahally in Mysore. After passing his degree examination, he took a degree in civil engineering. He worked out a system   of automatic gates at Khadakwasla dam to control the flood waters. He was the mastermind to build Krishna Sagar dam.  He worked as chief engineer in the state of Mysore and later    as Deewan (Prime Minister) of the State. Among the institutions and schemes which he gifted to Mysore are the Bank of Mysore (1913), the Malnad Improvement Scheme (1914), Engineering College Banglore (1916), Mysore University (1918), the plans    of Bhadhravathi Iron works (1918) and harnessing hydroelectric power at Jog (1918). He was awarded the title of Kaiser -i Hind by English Government and Bharat Ratna in independent India. He worked throughout his life saying that it is better to  work  out than rust out. He died on April 14, 1962 at the age of 101 years.
15. D.N. Wadia – Born an Oct. 25, 1883 at Surat in Gujarat. After passing M. Sc. in Biology and Geology from Baroda college, he joined Prince of Wales College, Jammu. Here he became interested in the Himalayan rocks and made important contri- butions in the study of geology of the Himalayas. He not only gave the mechanism of their formation and  growth, but  tried  to explain the various puzzling features in their structures e.g. actuate hairpin bend in the eastern Himalayas. He was elected fellow of Royal Society, the only Indian Geologist so far to be given this honour.
16. Ramanujan – (Shriniwas Ramanujan)- Born at Erode in Tamil Nadu on Dec. 22, 1887 From early childhood it was evident that he was a prodigy. At the age of 13, Ramanujam was able to get Lony’s trigonometry from the college library. Not only did he mastered this difficult book but also began his own research. Ramanujam secured a first class in mathematics in matricula- tion and was awarded Subramanyam Scholarship, but he failed twice in his first year examination in college, as he neglected other subjects. Although did not have qualifying degree, yet was elected a Fellow of Royal Society and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked with great mathematicians, G. H. Hardy and J. E. Little Wood at Cambridge. His major achievements at Cambridge were Hardy-Ramanujam-Little Wood Circle Method in number theory, Roger-Ramanujam identities in partition of integers, a long list of highest composite numbers, besides work on the number theory and the algebra of inequalities. Died at    an early age of 33 on April 26,1920.
17.  Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman – Born on Nov. 7, 1888 at Thiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. He was initially interested in acous- tics and studied how bowed string instruments like the Violin and Sitar could produce harmonious music at Indian Association for Cultivation of Science at Calcutta. However, while returning from abroad by a ship, he wondered at the blueness of  sky  and sea water. He worked for it and found out that it was due    to scattering of light by water molecules. This research known  as Raman Effect won him Nobel Prize in 1930. He was elected Fellow of Royal Society in 1924. He was also awarded Bharat Ratna. In 1943 he founded his own institute near Banglore, Ra- man Research Institute. He died on Nov. 21, 1970
18. S.K. Mitra (Sisir Kumar Mitra)– Born on Oct. 24, 1890 in Calcutta. He had the privilege of watching J. C. Bose and P. C. Ray doing research. He is renowned for his contributions  to the study of ionosphere, which is vital for radio communication. Due to his untiring efforts, the study of radio science was introduced in many Indian universities. He was elected fellow    of Royal Society in 1958. He died at the age of 73 on Aug 13, 1963
19. Birbal Sahni – Born on Nov.  14, 1891 at Bhera (Punjab) now    in Pakistan. After securing D. Sc. from London University in 1919, he took up research on ferns, conifers and fossil plants under the guidance of noted botanist A. C. Steward. In 1929 he became the first Indian to get D. Sc. from Cambridge University. In 1936, was elected Fellow of Royal Society. He discovered many new genes of plants from Raj Mahal hills in Bihar and new group of fossil gymnosperms (conifers and their allies) called pentoxyleae. He was a geologist too and estimated the age of some old rocks. In archaeology, his investigations led to the discovery of coin moulds in Rohtak in 1936.
20. Meghnad Saha – Born in Seoratali. Dacca, now in Bangla Desh, on Oct. 6, 1893. In childhood, he bycotted  the school on the  visit of Birtish Governor and so was turned out of the school and lost his scholarship. After passing school certificate in Ist Division, he joined Presidency College Calcutta where he was taught by teachers like J. C. Bose and P. C. Ray and had school mates  like S. N. Bose and P. C. Mahalanobis. Working in the field of astrophysics, he put forward an ionization formula, which enabled an astronomer to know the temperature, pressure and other aspects of interior of the sun or any other star.  He was hardly  25 then. In 1927, he was elected Fellow of Royal society. He founded Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta in 1948. He also helped in many river Valley projects including Damodar Valley. Bhakhra- Nangal and Hira Kud projects. He also started  a magazine “Science and Culture.” In 1952 he was elected an M.P. as independent cendidate. He died on Feb 16, 1956.
21. Prasant Chandra Mahalanobis – He was the first Indian statisti- cian to receive world recognition, In fact the history of statistics  in India is his personal history. He made use of statistics to solve many problems, such as disasterous floods due to many rivers. The Hira Kud Hydroelectric project as well as Damodar Valley Hydroelectric project are based on his statistical studies. He founded Indian Statistical Research Institute at Calcutta and it was because of his untiring efforts that statistics found its place in the curriculum of various universities of India. He was elected fellow of Royal Society in 1945. He died in 1972.
22. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar – Born on Feb 21, 1894 at Shahpur now in Pakistan. During his stay aborad, he did excellent research on emulsions and received his D. Sc. from London University in 1921. His other field of work were colloids, industrial chemistry and magneto chemistry. He designed and fabricated a balance in collaboration with R. N. Mathur called Bhatnagar-Mathur interference balance, which is of immense use for studies in chemicals and chemical reactions. He was the first director of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He produced in his laboratory such articles as antigas cloth, unburstable containers and plastics from waste. He was elected Fellow of Royal So- ciety in 1943. He was instrumental in starting chain of national laboratories in India. In his honour the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awards every year the Shanti Swarup Bhat- nagar Prize for Science and Technology to young scientists for outstanding contribution to science and technology. He died on Jan 1, 1955.
23. Satyendra Nath Bose – Born on Jan 1, 1894. Worked with Meghnad Saha for some time on the work done by Max Planck and Einsterin. His most prominent work is how statistics may explain the behavior of radiation and has been called Bose Sta- tistics. Elementary particles such as photons and particles which obey Bose Statistics are called Bosons. He was elected Fellow of Royal Society. He also worked in X-ray crystallography and thermoluminescence He died on Feb 4, 1974.
24. Yellapragada Subbarao – Born on Jan 12, 1895 at Bhima- varam, Andhra Pradesh to poor parents. Had an attitude towards religious pursuits, but his mother prevented him from becoming  a saint. He turned to Ayurvedic medicines and to propogate the importance of Ayurved to West, went to USA,  where he  took to Allopathy. Made many important discoveries, e. g. he discovered that phosphocreatine and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were the sources of muscular energy and make possible all physical activities of living beings. This discovery could have fetched him Nobel Prize but he never pursued for the recognition and is remembered as a saintly scientist.
25. K.S. Krishnan – Was born an Dec. 4, 1898 in Tamil Nadu. In 1920 he joined the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science to work under CV Raman. In 1948 he became the first direc- tor of National Physical Laboratory in Delhi. Although he was physicist yet he was well versed in Sanskrit, English and Tamil literature. His main contributions were in solid state physics and Thermoionics. He received several honours and was elected fellow of Royal Society in 1940. He died in 1961.
26. T. R. Sheshadri – Triuvenkat Rajendra Sheshadri was born on Feb. 3, 1900 at Kulittalai in Tamil Nadu. He is regarded as one of the founders of organic chemistry in India. His main field of researchwas to seek the chemical compounds, present in various flowers which give them colour and fragrance and in plants and trees which give them special qualities. He discovered many new compounds, studied their chemical properties and structures and tried to produce them in laboratories. He had great faith in God and founded Vedanta Samiti in Delhi University. He died in 1975.
27. Raj Chandra Bose – Born on June 19, 1901 at Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh but grew up in Rohtak. Lost his parents when he was just 19 years old and so had to look after his family, which he did by taking tutions while studying himself. He passed M. A. in applied mathematics. The great statistician, Mahalanobis saw one of his research papers in geometry and was so impressed that he called him at Indian Statistical Institute. Later on he mi- grated to U. S. A where he worked as professor of statistics at University of North Carolina and then at Colorado University. He discovered new codes for telecommunication in place of Morse code, which have been named Bose-Ray-Chaudhary code. In 1976 America’s highest honour to a scientist came to Bose- He was elected Fellow of U. S. Academy of Sciences.
28. Panchanan Mahashwari – Was born an Nov 9, 1904 in Jaipur Rajasthan. He was a student of Winfield Dudgon, an American missionary, who was a renowned botanist and president of Indian Botanical Society. He purusued studies in plant embryology and can be called father of modern embryology. He invented the technique of test tube fertilization of angiosperms. Cross breeding of many flowering plants which can not cross breed naturally can be done now by his technique. Many newly discovered plants have been named after him like Panchanania, Jaipuriensis, and Isoetes Panchanani. In 1951 he founded International Society   of Plant Morphology. He died on May 18, 1966.
29. Dattareya Ram Chandra Kaprekar – Was born on Jan. 17, 1905 at Dahanu near Mumbai. He won Wrangler R. P. Paranjpe Mathemati- cal Prize for an original piece of work in mathematics before he was graduate. In 1946 he discovered a magic number 6174 which is called Kaprekar constant. To see how it is constant, take any four digit number in which all digits are different. Arrange the digits in de- scending order and reverse them to make a new number. Substract the new number from the first number. If this process is repeated with the remainder eventually, the constant 6174 is arrived at and this number generates itself. Kaprekar is also recognized for his significant contribution to Demlo Numbers and other recreational mathemetical problems. He passed away in 1988.
30. P. Pal (Benjamin Peary Pal) – Was born on May 26. 1906   at Mukund Pur, Punjab. Spent early days in Burma and in 1929 went to Cambridge for research in wheat . In 1933 joined Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi . He developed NP (New Pusa) 700 and NP-800 and most important NP 809 which can combat all three types of rust. In 1965 became Director General of newly founded Indian Council of Agricultural Research. He was awarded many prizes and in 1972 elected Fellow of Royal Society. He has also done significant research on roses. The origin of green revolution can he traced to his researches and plans.
31. Homi Jehangir Bhabha – Was born on Oct. 30, 1909 in a wealthy Parsi family. Had the opportunity to work with eminent physicists like Fermi and Wolfgang Pauli. In the beginning worked in the field of cosmic rays but became interested in nuclear physics. With the help of his relatives, Tatas he established Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1945. In 1948, Atomic Energy Com- mission was set up and Bhabha was made its chairman. Under his able guidance three atomic reactors, Apsara, Cirus and Zerlina were built. The construction of country’s first atomic power station began at Tarapore. Initially called Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay was renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1967 as tribute to Bhabha. The radio telescope at Otakamund   is one of his creations. He is rightly called the father of Indian nuclear physics. Was elected fellow of Royal society. He died    in a plane crash at the age of 57.
32. Subramanyan Chandrashekhar – Was born on Oct. 19, 1910 in Lahore, now in  Pakistan. His  papers were published  in reputed journals even before he was a graduate. One of them even appeared in the proceeding of Royal Society, a rare honour for one so young. At the age of 27, his reputation as a promising astrophysicist had been established. He is best known for Chandrashekhar’s Limit which imposes a restriction on the size of  highly dense variety of  stars, known as  White Dwarf.   If this type of star has mass in excess of that limit it explodes  like thousands of nuclear bombs ignited together to become a very bright star called Super Nova until all the excess matter is shed into space. He shifted to U. S. A. in 1937 and continued research in the study of stars for which he was awarded Noble Prize in 1983. He passed away on Aug. 21, 1995.
33. Shambu Nath De – Was born in 1915 in the small Village of Garibati Near Calcutta. He did his Ph.D. in London in medicine and came back to work at Neal Ratan Sircar Medical College, Calcutta. His main discovery was of the poisonous or toxic substance, ‘enterotoxin’ that causes Cholera and was published in Nature an 1959. However his discovery could get no recogni- tion, or even attention, till his death in 1985. However later on     it has paved a new path in cholera research and has led to the creation of oral vaccine for its prevention and control.
34. Vikram Sarabhai – Was born on Aug. 12, 1919 in a rich family. His basic interests were maths and physics and in order to provide facilities of study in physics to the country, he established Physical Reseande Laboratory. His first love was the study of cosmic rays, but he is better known as a man to usher the space age in India. The credit for much of what India achieved in space technology goes to him though he did not live to see the fruits of his labour. The first Indian satellite Araybhatt was planned by him. The International Astronomical Union named after him a crator on the moon in the sea of serenity. He was first chairman of the Indian National committee for Space Research. He died in 1971.
35. C.R. Rao – Was born on sept. 20, 1920 at Hadagali in Karna- taka. After passing M.A. in Mathematics, he took up statistics as his field of work, He first caught the attention of the world of statistics when in 1945 he put forward the theory of estimation. The theory enables one to find an unknown quantity from a pile of data. Later on he developed many formulae and theorems, such as Cramer-Rao Inequality, the Fisher Theorem and Rao – Blackwellisation which made him world famous statistician. He was elected fellow of Royal Society in 1967.
36. G. N. Ramchandran – Born in 1922. He had studied under C.V Raman and Lawrence Brogg of Cambridge. He introduced a new subject molecular biophysics in his college and worked on molecular structure of complicated chemical compounds present in human body. He started with collagen, a commonly occurring protein in human body which is found in connective tissues of the skin, bones and tendems as well as linings of many organs eg. leather and was successful. He was elected fellow of Royal society in 1977.
37. Har Gobind Khorana – Was born in Raipur now in Pakistan. After passing B. Sc. and M. Sc. from Punjab university, Lahore, he  did Ph. D. at university of Liver Pool. Went abroad when could not get suitable job in India. In 1959 he produced a chemical called Co-enzyme A and was awarded Nobel Prize for medicine in 1968 for production of artificial gene in his laboratory.
38. Harish Chandra – Was born on Oct. 11, 1923 in Kanpur, U.P. Passed M. Sc. from Allahabad University. Was interested in Physics, specifically in particle physics. He went abroad and had privilege to work under Wolfgang Pauli. Later on he shifted to mathematics and developed a new branch of mathematics, called Infinite Dimensional Group Representation Theory to such an extent that it is now being used in all branches of mathematics. He died on Oct. 16, 1983 in USA.
39. Raja Ramanna – Was born on Jan. 28, 1925. Did his Ph. D. at London University. In 1949 joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and later on headed the Nuclear Physics division of Bhabha Research Centre. He was mainly responsible for design- ing and installing the country’s first series of nuclear reactors, Apsara, Ciras and Purnima, as well as testing of first nuclear device at Pokharan on 18th May, 1974. It was his idea that explosion be attempted underground in desert area so as to prevent its ill effects. 
40. M. S. Swaminathan – Was born on Aug. 7, 1925 at Kumba Konom in Tamil Nadu. Got his Ph. D from School of Agriculture in Cambridge in 1952. He carried out research on various crops and was able to develop many new varieties, high yielding strains of wheat and rice. He is rightly called the Father of Green Revolution in India. He was elected fellow of Royal Society in 1973. He is the first agricultural scientist to win Albert Einstein World Science award in 1986. 
41. Kamal Kant Pande – Was born on Dec. 11, 1926 at Varanasi.  He went to London to do research work on plant genes. After taking his Ph. D., went to New Zealand and settled there. In 1975 he made the discovery of a revolutionary technique in plant breeding, through which selected genes of a flowering plant can be transferred to another plant. He was also able to separate  the desirable genes to make a cross breed. 
42. M.K. Vainu Bappu – Was born an Aug. 10, 1927 at Madras. After intial education at Hyderbad, he went to Horward in 1949 on a scholarship where he came across astronomer who like him was to make important contributions to astronomy . He has many firsts in his name. He is the first Indian astronomer whose name is tagged to a comet (Bappu – Bok- Newkirk comet , after whom an astronomical effect is known (Bappu-Wilson effect) which is used to determine the luminosity and distance of the particular kind of stars and an observatory and India’s most powerful telescope are known (the Kavalin Observatory and the 2.34 metre telescope installed there). He was elected the president of International Astronomical Union. Many of his achievements were made while he was abroad and he could well establish himself there but being a true patriot he came to India, remained un nemployed for sometime, but struggled throughout his life to set up telescopes, astronomical observatories and institutes in the country so that his countrymen could pursue higher studies in astronomy and astrophysics. He died in 1982.
43. M. G. K. Menon – was born on Aug. 28, 1928 at Manglore in Karnatak. He did his Ph. D. in U. K. in 1949 where he did re- search under Nobel Laurate C. F.Powell and discovered a few elementary particles including ions of various energies, k-particles and specifie category of pions. In 1955 he returned home and joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. In 1970 elected fellow of Royal Society. In 1986 he was appointed scientific adviser to the prime minster.
44. Davendra Lal – Was born   on Feb. 14, 1929 in Varanasi, U. P. He made extensive studies of meteorites of Lunar rocks brought from Moon and material from the bed of the ocean. He evolved technique to understand past events in the solar system from cosmic ray signatures, the impression made by cosmic rays on various materials through which they pass. One of the most significant findings is that the intensity of cosmic rays during the last few million years has been the same as it is today.
45.  E. C. G. Sudarshan – Was born on Sept. 16, 1931 in Kottayan, Kerala. After graduating from Madras Christian College he joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay where he came in contact with many world class physicists like P. A. M. Dirac and Wolfgang Pauli. Went to USA for further studies and settled there. He is best known for propounding the existence of Tachyons, particles that move faster than light. The other remarkable works include the theory he propounded, about the weak forces that exist between particles in a nucleus and quantum Zeno Paradox Theory. 
46. Govindjee – Was born on Oct. 24, 1933 at Allahabad. After taking his B. Sc. and M. Sc. from Allahabad University, he left for USA in 1956. His main contributions are in the field of photosynthesis where he was exploring the mechanism that enables plants to evolve oxygen and has been successful to a large extent. He was introduced to the audience at a seminar held at Los Alamos Laboratory New Mexico, thus “we depend upon photosynthesis and photosynthesis depends upon Govindjeei” 
47. Chintamani Nagesh Ramchandra Rao –  Was  born  on  June 30, 1934. Did his M. Sc. from Banaras Hindu University and went to USA for Ph. D. where he worked on various aspects of spectroscopy under the guidance of Noble Laureate H. C. Brown. His research work is mostly confined to solid state chemistry. 
48. Narendra Karmarkar – Was born in Gwalior, M.P. in 1936 into a family of mathematicians. However he took his degree in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay, and went to California for his Ph.D. His main contribution, however is in the field of mathemat-   ics where he developed a new Algorithm, known as karmarkars algorithm, which is 50-100 times faster than previous Algorithm that was being used for making quick mathematical calculations. This is now used in making several computer programmes to help solve problems in a varity of operations at airports, ware houses, factories industrial plants, communication networks and so on. He is working at Bell University, USA 
49. A. M. Chakrabarty – Was born on April 4, 1938 in Sainthia near Calcutta. After completing M. Sc. and Ph. D. from Calcutta Uni- versity, he migrated to USA. He discovered a substance which absorbs hydrocarbons with a rapid rate and is used to remove the crude oil which is spilled into the ocean while being carried from one country to the other through ships and harms the marine plants and animals and is therefore very useful.
50. C. K. N. Patel (Chandra Kumar Naranbhai Patel). Was born on July 2, 1938 at Baramati near Pune. In 1958 he did his B. E. in telecommunication and then went to USA for higher studies. At the age of 23 took his Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and joined Bell Laboratories, USA. He invented carbon dioxide laser which makes laser useful for applications in several branches of science and technology.
51. Jayant Vishnu Narlikar – was born an July 19, 1938 at Kolhapur, Maharashtra, but was brought up in Varanasi in the house of his uncle, a mathematician. After doing his M. Sc. and Ph. D. from Benaras Hindu University, he went to Combridge to do Ph. D. under Fred Hoyle at Kings College. He has propounded a theory on formation of universe called as Steady State Theory according to which the universe has always been as it is today. Apart from this he worked on a new theory of gravitation which has been considered as significant as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
52. Avtar Singh Paintal – Director of Patel Chest Institute in Delhi is the discoverer of so called ‘receptors’ in human body. J. Receptors (Juxtapulmunary capillary receptors) are the nerve terminals in lungs which warn people that they have over worked and must rest. Similarly gastrointestinal stretch receptors are the nerve terminals in stomach which warn people that they can not take more food or water. He discovered a pair of volume receptors    in the heart

Next Chapter>>

<<Back to Index

Top