Chandrasekhara Venkata (C. V.) Raman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him." Raman was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize.

Raman was born on November 7, 1888 near Trichinopoly, India. Through his father, Raman gained a love of music and also developed an early interest in mathematics and science. A gifted student, he earned a BA with highest honors in physics from the Presidency College in Madras at the age of 16. Because of ill health, Raman did not go abroad to continue his studies in physics but stayed at Presidency College where he completed his master's degree in 1907, again earning highest honors. He published his first scientific paper at the age of 17 in The Philosophical Magazine in London.

In that same year, Raman married Lokasundari Ammal, and they moved to Calcutta, where Raman had taken a position in the Finance Department. In Calcutta, he became a member of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and was able to use their facilities for research. For the next 10 years, while working full-time at the Finance Department, Raman carried out research on sound during his spare time and published 30 papers.

In 1917 Raman accepted the Palit Chair in Physics at Calcutta University--even though it meant a drastic cut in salary, he was able to pursue his research interests full-time. Four years later, Raman made his first trip abroad to attend the British Empire Universities' Congress in Oxford, England. During his first sea voyage, he was deeply impressed by the color of the sea and began to question the idea that the water's blue color was due only to the reflection of the sky. On the return voyage, he carried out experiments that definitively showed that this idea was incorrect. He postulated, and later proved, that the deep blue color of the sea is due to the scattering of light by the water. His many investigations on light-scattering culminated in his discovery of the Raman effect in 1928, for which he received the Nobel Prize two years later. His many significant contributions to a great variety of topics were a credit to his ability to design simple, provocative experiments.

Raman died on November 21, 1970 in Bangalore, India.

1. The Nobel Prize Internet Archive: Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
2. Nobel e-Museum: Biography of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

1. Miller, F. A.; Kauffman, G. B. C. V. Raman and the Discovery of the Raman Effect. J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66, 795-801.
2. Raman, C. V. Nobel Lectures, Physics; Elsevier Publishing Company: New York, 1965; pp 262-275.
3. Singh, J. K. S. Krishnan. In Some Eminent Indian Scientists; Publications Division Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: Government of India, Delhi-6, 1966; pp 112-117.