Sir C.V. Raman was one of the greatest scientists of India who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his outstanding discovery in Physics. It was named after him and is known as ‘The Raman Effect’.
Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman was born on 7th November, 1888 at Tiruchirappally in Tamil Nadu. Raman was a very brilliant student right from his childhood. After passing his matriculation at the age of 12, he was admitted to the Presidency College, Madras. From there he passed his B.Sc. in 1904 and M.Sc. in Physics in 1907 with the first position in the University. While he was a student in the Presidency College, he modified Melde’s theory on sound.
In 1907 after passing a civil service competitive examination, he became the Deputy Accountant 
General in Calcutta. In 1915, he met Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the Secretary of the Indian Science Association. Raman joined this Association as a member, and started his research work. In the year 1917, he resigned from his post and became the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.
During a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, he observed with wonder, the brilliant blue colour of the Mediterranean, and later the blue colour of glaciers. After returning to India, he experimented on the diffusion of sunlight during its passage through water, transparent blocks of ice and other materials. He then explained the reason for the blue colour of the ocean. His studies on scattering of light led him to the discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ in 1928. ‘Rama Effect’ describes the change in the frequency of light passing through transparent mediums. He used monochromatic light from a mercury arc and the spectroscope to study the nature of diffused radiations emerging from the material under examination. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.
In 1933, he became the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He held this post for 10 years. In 1934, he sponsored the foundation of the Indian Academy of Sciences, of which he became President. In 1943, the Raman Research Institute was set up by him. Then he conducted research work for the rest of his life. He died on 21st November, 1970 at Bangalore.