R. S. Krishnan

Rappal Sangameswaran Krishnan He was a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Institute of Physics, London and a recipient of the C. V. Raman Prize. 25 doctoral students were guided by Krishnan.

Biography

Krishnan was born in a small village named Rappal, in Thrissur district, then in the Kingdom of Cochin and now in the South Indian state of Kerala on 22 September 1911. He did his early schooling at local schools and, securing a scholarship, joined St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli from where he completed his bachelor's degree with honours (BA Hons.) and a first rank in 1933.

Krishnan returned to India the same year and joined the Physics department of the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore in 1942 where he returned to work under C.V. Raman's tutelage. After the retirement of Raman, Krishnan succeeded him as the Head of the Department of Physics in 1948. He served the institution till 1972 and, on his superannuation, he was appointed as the vice chancellor of the University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram in 1973 and held the position till 1977. This is known as Krishnan (reciprocity) Effect and the article was published in IISc journal on recommendation from C. V. Raman in 1936. He is credited with researches on Second Order Raman Spectra in diamond and in alkali halide crystals and is reported to have successfully recorded the phenomena for the first time, using the ultraviolet (mercury 2536 Å) technique of excitation for Raman spectroscopy, a technique he developed, on which he published a number of articles in peer reviewed journals. This is known to have provided conformation of Born's lattice dynamical theory. He was also a member of the London Institute of Science, and the American Physical Society and was associated with several universities in Europe and the US, as a visiting professor.

Awards and honours The Indian Academy of Sciences elected Krishnan as a Fellow in 1944 and the Indian National Science Academy followed suit in 1950. He was also a fellow of the Institute of Physics, London and served as the president of the Physics Section of Indian Science Congress in 1949. He received the C. V. Raman Prize of the Indian Science Congress in 1988, four years after the Indian Institute of Science awarded him the 1984 Platinum Jubilee Distinguished Alumni Award.

Selected bibliography