Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1930
Born: 7 November 1888, Tiruchirappalli, India
Died: 21 November 1970, Bangalore, India
Affiliation at the time of the award: Calcutta University, Calcutta, India
Prize motivation: “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”
Prize share: 1/1
Work
When light meets particles that are smaller than the light’s wavelength, the light spreads in different directions. This occurs, for example, when light packets—photons—encounter molecules in a gas. In 1928 Venkata 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. Among other things, the phenomenon is used to analyze different types of material.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
