Towards the end of the 19th century, there were distinct signs of a Renaissance in Science with its centre in Calcutta. Dr. Mahendra Lal Sarkar founded the Association for the Cultivation of Science in an undistinguished house on Bowbazar Street the nineties was the period of valuable researches in Chemistry by Dr. P. C. Ray and in Physics by Dr. J. C. Bose, conducted in the Presidency College laboratories. In this way an atmosphere, conducive to scientific education and fostering a spirit of research, grew up in Calcutta. C.V. Raman, at the invitation of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, gave up his post at the Accountant General’s Office in Calcutta and joined the University Science College at Calcutta.

Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman was born on 7th November, 1888 at Vishakhapattam. His father. Chandrasekhar Iyer, was a Professor of Mathematics at the local A. V. M. College.

Chandra Sekhar was truly a prodigy. He received his early education at the local Hindu College High School from which he matriculated in his twelfth year. He took his B.A. degree in due course, with a brilliant First Class in Physics. He was then only eighteen.

It was a mere accident that, led him to the humble building where the Association for the Cultivation of Science was located. It was here that he started his great researches and continued for long years in the physics laboratory of C. U. Science College. He made the discovery, now known as the Raman Effect, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

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For the next twelve years his work was divided between the University, where he gave lectures and directed his students and his own laboratory at the Association at Bowbazar. In 1924 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and was Knighted by the British Government in 1929.

In 1937 he gave up his post as, Palit Professor of Physics, at the University Science College and went to Bangalore to take up his duties as Director of the Bangalore Institute of Science. He was not the man to rest on his laurels. He retired from the Institute in 1951.

Raman now was free from official duties to carry on the researches in his own laboratory at Bangalore. In 1951 he founded the Raman Institute of Science at Bangalore which is carrying on the torch he had lighted. He had received the highest honours from Universities all over the world for this dedication to fundamental science. A grateful nation conferred on him the coveted Bharat Ratna, the highest civil distinction in the land. C. V. Raman died full of years and honours on 21st November, 1970, only a few days after he had reached his eighty-second years.