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Ajay V. Bhatt[1] is an Indian computer architect. He has been instrumental in driving definition and development of broadly adopted technologies such as USB (Universal Serial Bus), Accelerated Graphics Port, PCI Express, Platform Power management architecture and various chipset enhancements. Ajay Bhatt rose to fame through the 2009 TV advertisement of Intel where he was featured (portrayed by an actor[2]) as the co-inventor of USB (Universal Serial Bus).[3]

After completing his graduation from India, Bhatt received his master's degree from The City University of New York. Bhatt joined Intel corporation in 1990 as a senior staff architect on the chipset architecture team in Folsom. He holds nine U.S. patents with several in various stages of filing. In 1998, 2003 and 2004 Bhatt was nominated to take part in a Distinguished Lecture Series at leading universities in the United States and Asia. He received an Achievement in Excellence Award for his contribution in PCI Express specification development in 2002.

Bhatt is an industry-recognized expert in the area of I/O technologies. Bhatt leads definition and development of the next-generation Client Platform architecture at Intel. Bhatt continues to hold a position of Intel's Chief I/O architect, where he is responsible for the platform and I/O interconnects directions for Intel.

Intel Fellows are selected for their technical leadership and outstanding contributions to the company and the industry.
 

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Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Tamil: அவுல் பகீர் ஜைனுலாப்தீன் அப்துல் கலாம்; born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam^, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007.[2] During his term as The President, he was popularly known as the People's President[3][4], and a poll conducted by news channel CNN-IBN named him "India's Best President".

Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology.[5]. In India he is highly respected as a scientist and as an engineer.

Kalam played a pivotal organisational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[6] He is a professor at Anna University (Chennai) and adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.

With the death of R. Venkataraman on January 27, 2009, Kalam became the only surviving former President of India.[2]

Kalam as an engineer
Abdul Kalam graduated from Madras Institute of Technology majoring in Aeronautical Engineering. As the Project Director, he was heavily involved in the development of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III). As Chief Executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), he also played a major part in developing many missiles of India including Agni and Prithvi. Although the entire project has been criticised for being overrun and mismanaged[9]. He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development from July 1992 to December 1999. Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period, led by him.

He is one of those scientists who aims at putting technology created by him to multiple use. He used the light weight carbon-compound material designed for Agni to make callipers for the polio affected. This carbon composite material reduced the weight of the calipers to 400 grams (from its original weight of 4kgs.) Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS, Hyderabad) was the birthplace for the defence technology spin offs from Kalam's labs via the DRDL (Defence Research and Development Laboratory), DMRL (Defence Metallurgical Research Lab) and the RCI (Research Centre Imarat). Addressing a conference at Athens, Greece, Kalam told that "Seeing the children run with lighter callipers brought tears to the eyes of their parents. That was the real moment of bliss for me".


Honours
Tamil family in the island town of Rameshwaram, his early schooling at Schwartz High School, Ramanathapuram, his undergraduate education at St. Joseph College, Trichy, then continue a degree course in aeronautic engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, and ends with him moving to the United States for a six month training program at NASA...


Abdul Kalam, the 11th President of India, is seen on the left talking with the top students of La Martinière Lucknow. [10]On Wednesday April 29, 2009, he became the first Asian to be bestowed the Hoover Medal, America's top engineering prize, for his outstanding contribution to public service. Kalam has received honorary doctorates from as many as thirty universities, including the Carnegie Mellon University and the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.[11]

The Government of India has honoured him with the nation's highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Indian government..

Kalam is the Third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna before being elected to the highest office, the other two being Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain. He is also the first scientist and first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Kalam has been chosen to receive prestigious 2008 Hoover Medal for his outstanding public service. The citation said that he is being recognised for making state-of-the-art healthcare available to the common man at affordable prices, bringing quality medical care to rural areas by establishing a link between doctors and technocrats, using spin-offs of defence technology to create state-of-the-art medical equipment and launching tele-medicine projects connecting remote rural-based hospitals to the super-specialty hospital. A pre eminent scientist, a gifted engineer, and a true visionary, he is also a humble humanitarian in every sense of the word, it added. [12]
 

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Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (August 12, 1919 – December 31, 1971) was an Indian physicist. He is considered to be the Father of the Indian space program.

Indian Space Program
The establishment of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was one of his greatest achievements. He successfully convinced the government of the importance of a space programme for a developing country like India after the Russian Sputnik launch. Dr. Sarabhai emphasized the importance of a space program in his quote:

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight."

"But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society."

Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear science program, supported Dr. Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching station in India. This center was established at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity to the equator. After a remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication links, and launch pads, the inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour payload.

As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 - July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no more).

Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian Satellite. As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome.

Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the Centre is called the Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre.

He led the family's 'Sarabhai' diversified business group.

His interests varied from science to sports to statistics. He set up Operations Research Group (ORG), the first market research organization in the country.

Dr Vikram Sarabhai established many institutes which are of international repute. Most notable among them are IIMs (Indian Institute Of Management) which are considered world class for their management studies. Also he helped establishing PRL (Physical Research Laboratory) which is doing commendable job in R&D in Physics. Dr Vikram Sarabhai setup ATIRA (Ahmedabad Textiles Industrial Research Association) which helped the booming textiles business in Ahmedabad. He also setup CEPT (Center for Environmental Planning and Technology). Not stopping with all these he went ahead and setup BMA (Blind Men Association) which helps visually challenged people with necessary skills and support.


Awards
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1962)
Padma Bhushan (1966)
Padma Vibhushan, posthumous (after-death) (1972)

Distinguished Positions
President of the Physics section, Indian Science Congress (1962),
President of the General Conference of the I.A.E.A., Verína (1970),
Vice-President, Fourth U.N. Conference on `Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy' (1971)

Honors
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC), a research institute specialising in solid and liquid propellants for rockets located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of Kerala state, is named in his memory.

Along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists, he played a major role in the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
 

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C. V. Raman

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, FRS (Tamil: சந்திரசேகர வெங்கடராமன்)(7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist and Nobel laureate in physics recognised for his work on the molecular scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him.

Career
In 1917 Raman resigned from his government service and took up the newly created Palit Professorship in Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta, where he became the Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this period as the golden era of his career. Many talented students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of Calcutta.


Energy level diagram showing the states involved in Raman signal.On February 28, 1928, through his experiments on the scattering of light, he discovered the Raman effect. It was instantly clear that this discovery was an important one. It gave further proof of the quantum nature of light. Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred to it in his presidential address to the Royal Society in 1929. Raman was president of the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He was conferred a knighthood, and medals and honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, and was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Richardson in 1928 and to de Broglie in 1929. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news.[1] He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him".[2] He was the first Asian and first non-White to get any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before him Rabindranath Tagore (also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory of transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the mridangam.

In 1934 Raman became the director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where two years later he continued as a professor of physics. Other investigations carried out by Raman were experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light.

He also started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in 1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The Company during its 60 year history, established four factories in Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of Independent India.

In 1948 Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behavior of crystals, approached in a new manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and optical behavior of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly feldspar, agate, opal, and pearls). Among his other interests were the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.

Honours and awards
Raman was honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific societies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924) and knighted in 1929. In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna. He was also awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957.

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman effect in 1928.

Publications
1909
"The Small Motion at the Nodes of a Vibrating String", Nature, 1909
"The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations of a New Type", Nature, 1909
"The Ectara", J. Indian Math. Club, 1909
1910
"The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations", Nature, 1910
"Oscillations of the Stretched Strings", J. Indian Math. Club, 1910
1911
"Photographs of Vibrational Curves", Philos. Mag., 1911
"Remarks on a Paper by J.S. Stokes on 'Some Curious Phenomena Observed in Connection with Melde's Experiment'", Physics Rev., 1911
"The Small Motion at the Nodes of a Vibrating String", Phys. Rev., 1911
1912
"The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations of a New Type", Philos. Mag, 1912
"Some Remarkable Cases of Resonance", Phys. Rev. 1912
"Experimental Investigations on the Maintenance of Vibrations", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1912
1913
"Some Acoustical Observations", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1913
1914
"The Dynamical Theory of the Motion of Bowed Strings", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1914
"The Maintenance of Vibrations", Phys. Rev. 1914
"Dynamical Theory of the Motion of Bowed Strings", Bulletin, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1914
"On Motion in a Periodic Field of Force", Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1914
1915
"On the Maintenance of Combinational Vibrations by Two Simple Harmonic forces", Phys. Rev., 1915
"On Motion in a Periodic Field of Force", Philos. Mag, 1915
1916
"On Discontinuous Wave-Motion - Part 1", Philos. Mag, 1916 (with S Appaswamair)
"On the 'Wolf-Note' of the Violin and Cello", Nature (London). 1916
"On the 'Wolf-Note' in the Bowed Stringed Instruments", Philos. Mag., 1916
1917
"The Maintenance of Vibrations in a Periodic Field of Force", Philos. Mag, 1917 (with A. Dey)
"On Discontinuous Wave-Motion - Part 2", Philos. Mag, 1917 (with A Dey)
"On Discontinuous Wave-Motion - Part 3", Philos. Mag, 1917 (with A Dey)
"On the Alterations of Tone Produced by a Violin 'Mute'", Nature (London) 1917
1918
"On the 'Wolf-Note' in the Bowed Stringed Instruments", Philos. Mag., 1918
"On the Wolf-Note in Pizzicato Playing", Nature (London), 1918
"On the Mechanical Theory of the Vibrations of Bowed Strings and of Musical Instruments of the Violin Family, with Experimental Verification of Results - Part 1", Bulletin, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1918
"The Theory of the Cyclical Vibrations of a Bowed String", Bulletin, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1918
1919
"An Experimental Method for the Production of Vibrations", Phys. Rev., 1919
"A New Method for the Absolute Determination of Frequency", Proc. R. Soc. London, 1919
"On the Partial Tones of Bowed Stringed Instruments", Philos. Mag, 1919
"The Kinematics of Bowed Strings", J. Dept of Sci., Univ. Calcutta, 1919
1920
"On the Sound of Splashes", Philos. Mag, 1920
"On a Mechanical Violin-Player for Acoustical Experiments, Philos. Mag., 1920
"Experiments with Mechanically-Played Violins", Proc. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1920
"On Kaufmann's Theory of the Impact of the Pianoforte Hammer", proc. S. Soc. London, 1920 (with B Banerji)
"Musical Drums with Harmonic Overtones", Nature (London), 1920 (with S. Kumar)
1921
"Whispering Gallery Phenomena at St. Paul's Cathedral", Nature (London) 1921 (with G.A. Sutherland)
"The Nature of Vowel Sounds", Nature (London) 1921
"On the Whispering Gallery Phenomenon", Proc. R. Soc. London, 1922 (with G.A. Sutherland)
"On Some Indian Stringed Instruments", Proc. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 1921
1922
"On Whispering Galleries", Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci., 1922
"On the Molecular Scattering of Light in Water and the Colour of the Sea", Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1922
"The Acoustical Knowledge of the Ancient Hindus", Asutosh Mookerjee Silver Jubilee - Vol 2,
1926
"The Subjective Analysis of Musical Tones", Nature (London), 1926
1927
"Musical Instruments and Their Tones"
1928
"A new type of Secondary Radiation", Nature, 1928
"A new radiation", Indian Journal of Physics, 1928
1935
"The Indian Musical Drums", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1935
"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part I", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1935 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)
"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part II", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1935 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)
"Nature of Thermal Agitation in Liquids", Nature (London), 1935 (with B.V. Raghavendra Rao)
1936
"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part III: Doppler Effect and Coherence Phenomena", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)
"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part IV: Generalised Theory", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)
"The Diffraction of Light by High Frequency Sound Waves: Part V: General Considerations - Oblique Incidence and Amplitude Changes", Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)
"Diffraction of Light by Ultrasonic Waves", Nature (London), 1936 (with N. S. Nagendra Nath)
1937
"Acoustic Spectrum of Liquids", Nature (London), 1937 (with B.V. Raghavendra Rao)
1938
"Light Scattering and Fluid Viscosity", Nature (London), 1938 (with B.V. Raghavendra Rao)
1948
Aspects of Science, 1948
1951
The New Physics: Talks on Aspects of Science, 1951
1953
"The structure and optical behaviour of iridescent opal", Proc. Indian. Acad. Sci. A38 1953 (with A. Jayaraman)
1959
Lectures on Physical Optics, 1959
 

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Homi J. Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (October 30, 1909 – January 24, 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist who played a major role in the development of the Indian atomic energy program and is considered to be the father of India's nuclear program. Bhabha was born into a prominent family, through which he was related to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Homi K Bhabha and Dorab Tata. After receiving his early education at Bombay schools and at the Royal Institute of Science, he attended Caius College of Cambridge University to pursue studies in mechanical engineering. After taking the mechanical engineering Tripos, he pursued studies under Paul Dirac to complete the Mathematics Tripos. Meanwhile, he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory while working towards his doctorate in theoretical physics under R. H. Fowler. During this time, he embarked on groundbreaking research into the absorption of cosmic rays and electron shower production. Afterwards, he published a string of widely-accepted papers on his theories regarding cosmic ray showers.

World War II broke out in September 1939 while Bhabha was vacationing in India. He chose to remain in India until the war ended. In the meantime, he accepted a position at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, headed by Nobel laureate C. V. Raman. He established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute, and began to work on the theory of the movement of point particles. In 1945, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the Atomic Energy Commission of India three years later. In the 1950s, Bhabha represented India in International Atomic Energy Forums, and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. He later served as the member of the Indian Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee and set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research with Vikram Sarabhai. In January 1966, Bhabha died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc, while heading to Vienna, Austria to attend a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.
 

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Jagadish Chandra Bose

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose CSI CIE FRS (Bengali: জগদীশ চন্দ্র বসু Jôgodish Chôndro Boshu) (November 30, 1858 – November 23, 1937) was a Bengali polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction.[1] He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent.[2] He is considered one of the fathers of radio science,[3] and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, in 1904.

Born in Bengal during the British Raj, Bose graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. He then went to the University of London to study medicine, but couldn't complete his studies due to health problems. He returned to India and joined the Presidency College of University of Calcutta as a Professor of Physics. There, despite racial discrimination and a lack of funding and equipment, Bose carried on his scientific research. He made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signaling and was the first to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals. However, instead of trying to gain commercial benefit from this invention Bose made his inventions public in order to allow others to develop on his research. Subsequently, he made some pioneering discoveries in plant physiology. He used his own invention, the crescograph, to measure plant response to various stimuli, and thereby scientifically proved parallelism between animal and plant tissues. Although Bose filed for patent for one of his inventions due to peer pressure, his reluctance to any form of patenting was well known. Now, some 70 years after his death, he is being recognised for many of his contributions to modern science.


Radio research

The British theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell mathematically predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves of diverse wavelengths, but he died in 1879 before his prediction was experimentally verified. British physicist Oliver Lodge demonstrated the existence of Maxwell’s waves transmitted along wires in 1887-88. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed experimentally, in 1888, the existence of electromagnetic waves in free space. Subsequently, Lodge pursued Hertz’s work and delivered a commemorative lecture in June 1894 (after Hertz’s death) and published it in book form. Lodge’s work caught the attention of scientists in different countries including Bose in India.[13]

The first remarkable aspect of Bose’s follow up microwave research was that he reduced the waves to the millimetre level (about 5 mm wavelength). He realised the disadvantages of long waves for studying their light-like properties.[13]

In 1893, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the first public radio communication.[14] One year later, during a November 1894 (or 1895[13]) public demonstration in Kolkata, Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using millimetre range wavelength microwaves.[11] Lieutenant Governor Sir William Mackenzie witnessed Bose's demonstration in the Calcutta Town Hall. Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), “The invisible light can easily pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation of wires.”[13] In Russia, Popov performed similar experiments. In December 1895, Popov's records indicate that he hoped for distant signalling with radio waves.[15]

Bose’s first scientific paper, “On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals” was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895, within a year of Lodge’s paper. His second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October 1895. In December 1895, the London journal the Electrician (Vol 36) published Bose’s paper, “On a new electro-polariscope”. At that time, the word ‘coherer’, coined by Lodge, was used in the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily commented on Bose’s coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted from the Electrician and commented as follows:

”Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his ‘Coherer’, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in our Presidency College Laboratory.”
Bose planned to “perfect his coherer” but never thought of patenting it.[13]

In May 1897, two years after Bose's public demonstration in Kolkata, Marconi conducted his wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain.[15] Bose went to London on a lecture tour in 1896 and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office. In an interview, Bose expressed disinterest in commercial telegraphy and suggested others use his research work. In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.[16]

It appears that Bose's demonstration of remote wireless signalling has priority over Marconi.[17] He was the first to use a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves, and he invented various now commonplace microwave components. In 1954, Pearson and Brattain gave priority to Bose for the use of a semi-conducting crystal as a detector of radio waves. Further work at millimetre wavelengths was almost nonexistent for nearly 50 years. In 1897, Bose described to the Royal Institution in London his research carried out in Kolkata at millimetre wavelengths. He used waveguides, horn antennas, dielectric lenses, various polarisers and even semiconductors at frequencies as high as 60 GHz; much of his original equipment is still in existence, now at the Bose Institute in Kolkata. A 1.3 mm multi-beam receiver now in use on the NRAO 12 Metre Telescope, Arizona, U.S.A. incorporates concepts from his original 1897 papers.[15]

Neville Francis Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that "J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time" and "In fact, he had anticipated the existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors."


Plant research
His next contribution to science was in plant physiology. He forwarded a theory for the ascent of sap in plants in 1927, his theory contributed to the vital theory of ascent of sap. According to his theory, electromechanical pulsations of living cells were responsible for the ascent of sap in plants.

He was skeptical about the then, and still now, most popular theory for the ascent of sap, the tension-cohesion theory of Dixon and Joly, first proposed in 1894. The 'CP theory', proposed by Canny in 1995,[18] validates this skepticism. Canny experimentally demonstrated pumping in the living cells in the junction of the endodermis.

In his research in plant stimuli, he showed with the help of his newly invented crescograph that plants responded to various stimuli as if they had nervous systems like that of animals. He therefore found a parallelism between animal and plant tissues. His experiments showed that plants grow faster in pleasant music and their growth is retarded in noise or harsh sound. This was experimentally verified later on[citation needed].

His major contribution in the field of biophysics was the demonstration of the electrical nature of the conduction of various stimuli (wounds, chemical agents) in plants, which were earlier thought to be of a chemical nature. These claims were experimentally proved by Wildon et al. (Nature, 1992, 360, 62–65). He also studied for the first time action of microwaves in plant tissues and corresponding changes in the cell membrane potential, mechanism of effect of seasons in plants, effect of chemical inhibitor on plant stimuli, effect of temperature etc. He claimed that plants can "feel pain, understand affection etc.," from the analysis of the nature of variation of the cell membrane potential of plants, under different circumstances.


Science fiction
In 1896, Bose wrote Niruddesher Kahini, the first major work in Bangla science fiction. Later, he added the story in the Obbakto book as Polatok Tufan. He was the first science fiction writer in the Bengali language.[19]


Bose and patents
Bose was not interested in patenting his invention. In his Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, London, he made public his construction of the coherer. Thus The Electric Engineer expressed "surprise that no secret was at anytime made as to its construction, so that it has been open to all the world to adopt it for practical and possibly moneymaking purposes."[4] Bose declined an offer from a wireless apparatus manufacturer for signing a remunerative agreement. One of Bose's American friends, Sara Chapman Bull, succeeded in persuading him to file a patent application for "detector for electrical disturbances". The application was filed on September 30, 1901 and it was granted on 29 March 1904 as US patent 755840 .

Speaking in New Delhi in August 2006, at a seminar titled Owning the Future: Ideas and Their Role in the Digital Age, Dr. V S Ramamurthy, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi, stressed the attitude of Bose towards patents:

"His reluctance to any form of patenting is well known. It was contained in his letter to (Indian Nobel laureate) Rabindranath Tagore dated May 17, 1901 from London. It was not that Sir Jagadish was unaware of patents and its advantages. He was the first Indian to get a US Patent (No: 755840) in 1904. And Sir Jagadish was not alone in his avowed reluctance to patenting. Roentgen, Pierre Curie and others also chose the path of no patenting on moral grounds."
Bose also recorded his attitude towards patents in his inaugural lecture at the foundation of the Bose Institute, on November 30, 1917.

Publications
Journals
Nature published about 27 papers.
J. C. Bose. On Elektromotive "Wave accompanying Mechanical Disturbance in Metals in Contact with Electrolyte. Proc. Roy. Soc. 70, 273—294, 1902.
J. C. Bose. Sur la response electrique de la matiere vivante et animee soumise ä une excitation.—Deux proceeds d'observation de la r^ponse de la matiere vivante. Journ. de phys. (4) 1, 481—491, 1902.
Books
Response in the Living and Non-living, 1902
Plant response as a means of physiological investigation, 1906
Comparative Electro-physiology: A Physico-physiological Study, 1907
Researches on Irritability of Plants, 1913
Physiology of the Ascent of Sap, 1923
The physiology of photosynthesis, 1924
The Nervous Mechanisms of Plants, 1926
Plant Autographs and Their Revelations, 1927
Growth and tropic movements of plants, 1928
Motor mechanism of plants, 1928
Other
J.C. Bose, Collected Physical Papers. New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1927
Abyakta (Bangla), 1922

Honors
Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) (1903)
Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) (1912)
Knighthood, 1917
Fellow of the Royal Society (1920)
Member of the Vienna Academy of Science, 1928
President of the 14th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1927.
Member of the League of Nations' Committee for Intellectual Cooperation
Founding fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (now renamed as the Indian National Science Academy)
The Indian Botanical Gardens, Howrah was renamed as the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanical Garden on June 25, 2009 in honor of Jagadish Chandra Bose.[20]
 

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Rakesh Sharma

Rakesh Sharma (born January 13, 1949 in Patiala, Punjab, India) as a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force, was the first Indian and 138th person to travel in space. He retired from the Air force as Wing Commander.

Rakesh Sharma joined the Indian Air Force and progressed rapidly through the ranks. Rakesh Sharma, then squadron leader and pilot with the Indian Air Force embarked on the historic mission in 1984 as part of a joint space program between the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Soviet Intercosmos space program and spent eight days in space aboard the Salyut 7 space station. Launched along with two other Soviet cosmonauts aboard Soyuz T-11 on the 2 April 1984, was 35-year-old Rakesh Sharma. During the flight, Squadron Leader Sharma conducted multi-spectral photography of northern India in anticipation of the construction of hydroelectric power stations in the Himalayas. In a famous conversation, he was asked by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi how India looked from the space and he replied, Saare Jahan Se Achcha, (better than the whole world).

He was conferred with the honour of Hero of Soviet Union upon his return from space. The Government of India conferred its highest gallantry award(during peace time), the Ashoka Chakra on him and the other two Russian members of his mission.

Squadron Leader Sharma and his backup, Wing Commander Ravish Malhotra, also prepared an elaborate series of zero-gravity Yoga exercises which the former had practised aboard the Salyut 7. Retired with the rank of Wing Commander, Rakesh Sharma joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as a test pilot. He was based at the National Flight Test Center (NFTC) in Bangalore and worked on the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft program.

Rakesh Sharma has now retired from active employment and is currently the Chairman of The Board for Automated Workflow Pvt Ltd. [2]

In November 2006 he took part in India's top scientists gathering [3] organized by ISRO which gave the green light to an Indian manned space mission.
 

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Kalpana Chawla



Kalpana Chawla (Hindi: कल्*पना चावला; Punjabi: ਕਲਪਨਾ ਚਾਵਲਾ) (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003), was an Indian-American scientist and a NASA astronaut. She was one of seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

NASA career
Chawla joined the NASA astronaut corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1998.

Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second person of Indian origin to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a Soviet spacecraft. On her first mission Chawla travelled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 360 hours in space. During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.

After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Kalpana was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office, her performance in which was recognized with a special award from her peers


Chawla in the space shuttle simulatorIn 2000 she was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities included the SPACEHAB/BALLE-BALLE/FREESTAR microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.

Chawla's last visit to India was during the 1991–1992 new year holiday when she and her husband spent time with her family.


Awards
Posthumously awarded:

Congressional Space Medal of Honor
NASA Space Flight Medal
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Defense Distinguished Service Medal
 

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Member of The Month SEPTEMBER 2009
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Nice thread rpraveen
 

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Pulickel Ajayan

Pulickel Madhavapanicker Ajayan (Malayalam: പുളിക്കല്* മാധവപ്പണിക്കര്* അജയന്*), known as P. M. Ajayan, is the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering at Rice University,[1] and an adjunct professor of Material Sciences and Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Research
Ajayan's research has been in the field of nanotechnology and has resulted in advances in carbon nanotube technology. In 1992, at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan[2] (the lab of Sumio Iijima, the discoverer of nanotubes), he teamed with Thomas Ebbesen to develop the first method for making macroscopic quantities of nanotubes.[2] They demonstrated that nanotubes can be produced in bulk quantities by varying the arc-evaporation conditions. The experiment involved placing two graphite rods millimeters apart, and wiring them to a power supply. As 100 amperes of current sparked between the rods, hot plasma was created by the vaporization of carbon. Some of this plasma underwent condensation and formed nanotubes.[2]

Ajayan’s research interests are mainly focused on the synthesis and characterization of one-dimensional nanostructures with special emphasis on carbon nanotubes, with more than 3000 citations for his work in this area. He, along with Vinod P. Veedu, Anyuan Cao and Mehrdad N. Ghasemi Nejhad have been awarded a Guinness World Record for creating the smallest nanotube brushes with bristles.[3] According to a Science Watch Analysis, he is the 7th most cited author in Nanotechnology for the period of 1992-2002.[4] In August 2007, he was in the news again for collaborating with several other researchers on the development of the world's first paper battery, which utilizes carbon nanotubes embedded within paper. In a brief interview with Discover Magazine, Ajayan stated he believes the paper battery will have many important future applications in industry and medicine.[5] In 2008, Pulickel Ajayan's team created the darkest material known to man — a carpet of carbon nanotubes that reflects only 0.045% of the light.[6]
 

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Thomas Anantharaman

Thomas S. Anantharaman is a computer statistician specializing in Bayesian inference approaches for NP complete problems. He is best known for his work with Feng-hsiung Hsu from 1985-1990 on the Chess playing computers ChipTest and Deep Thought at Carnegie Mellon University which led to his 1990 PhD Dissertation: "A Statistical Study of Selective Min-Max Search in Computer Chess". This work was the foundation for the IBM chess-playing computer Deep Blue which beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

Anantharaman obtained a B.Tech. degree in Electronics in 1982. He got (in 1977) IIT-JEE rank (AIR) # 2. He could have got admission to any IIT & branch, but as per his father's advice, he joined IT-BHU. (His father Tanjore R. Anantharaman was a Rhodes scholar, world renowned metallurgist and in the faculty of meta dept. and director of IT-BHU.) Anantharaman went to USA and joined Carnegie Mellon University as a PhD student where he worked on the chess playing computers ChipTest and DeepThought with Feng-hsiung Hsu. Anantharaman received his PhD degree in 1990 and joined the field of biotechnology and Feng-hsiung Hsu joined IBM to design the Deep Blue IBM super-computer, which defeated Gary Kasparov in the historic chess match.

In 1985, Carnegie Mellon University graduate students Feng-hsiung Hsu, Anantharaman, Murray Campbell and Andreas Nowatzyk used spare chips they'd found to put together a chess-playing machine that they called ChipTest. By 1987, the machine, integrating some innovative ideas about search strategies, had become the reigning computer chess champion. A successor, Deep Thought, using two special-purpose chips, plus about 200 off-the-shelf chips, working in parallel, achieved grandmaster-level play. [1]

Following this work, Anantharaman focused his attentions into the field of biostatistics and the application of Bayesian methods to the analysis of single molecule Optical Mapping technologies. Currently he is working as Senior Bioinformatics Software Engineer at Opgen, Inc, Madison, Wisconsin.
 

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vinod dham



vinod Dham (Hindi: विनोद धाम) (born 1950 in Pune, Maharashtra, India) is an Indian inventor and venture capitalist.
Coming to India during Partition from Rawalpindi, Dham's father joined the army as a civilian. Dham was born in Pune (across the railway station in Cowasji Hospital, says Dham) as his father was posted there.[1] Dham completed his undergraduate education in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering. In 1971, after graduation, he joined a Delhi-based semiconductor company called Continental Devices. In 1975, he left this job and joined University of Cincinnati to pursue a master's degree in Electrical Engineering, where he specialized in Solid State Science. After completing his masters degree in 1977, he joined NCR Corporation at Dayton, Ohio. He then joined Intel, and started working on the Pentium chip. He is called the "Father of Pentium" for his role in the development of the Pentium processor.[citation needed] He is also one of the co-inventors of non-volatile flash memory.[citation needed] He rose to the position of vice-president of Intel. He left Intel in 1995, and joined a number of startups including NexGen, which was acquired by AMD, and then went on to Silicon Spice, which was acquired by Broadcom in 2000. He is also the co-founding partner of New Path Ventures which has funded companies like Nevis Networks. In an interview, Dham revealed that he came to the United States with only "$8 in his pocket".[1]
He was part of the board of directors of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. that approved the purchase of construction company Maytas (owned by the same family that owns Satyam), worth $225 million, for $1.6 billion. The deal was presented to the shareholders as if it were an irreversible decision by the board. Finally, the deal fell apart due to institutional shareholder protests. He resigned from the Satyam board on December 28, 2008.[2]
[edit]References
 

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Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Pune, India[2]) is a Indian-American venture capitalist. He is an influential personality in Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986. In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures.

Khosla read about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times at the age of fourteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career. Khosla went on to receive degrees from the IIT Delhi, India (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering ), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

After graduating from Stanford University in 1980, Khosla along with his Stanford fellows Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim (another Carnegie Mellon graduate school alumnus), and a UC Berkeley masters degree holder named Bill Joy founded Sun Microsystems. Khosla left Sun in 1985. He then joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1986 as a general partner. Khosla is also one of the founders of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.
 

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Srinivasa Ramanujan



Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan FRS, better known as Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan (Tamil: சீனிவாச இராமானுஜன் or ஸ்ரீனிவாஸ ஐயங்கார் ராமானுஜன்) (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.
Born and raised in Erode, Tamil Nadu, India, Ramanujan first encountered formal mathematics at age 10. He demonstrated a natural ability, and was given books on advanced trigonometry by S L Loney.[1] He had mastered them by age 13, and even discovered theorems of his own. He demonstrated unusual mathematical skills at school, winning accolades and awards. By 17, Ramanujan conducted his own mathematical research on Bernoulli numbers and the Euler–Mascheroni constant. He received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam, but lost it when he failed his non-mathematical coursework. He joined another college to pursue independent mathematical research, working as a clerk in the Accountant-General's office at the Madras Port Trust Office to support himself.[2] In 1912-1913, he sent samples of his theorems to three academics at the University of Cambridge. Only G. H. Hardy recognized the brilliance of his work, subsequently inviting Ramanujan to visit and work with him at Cambridge.
During his short lifetime, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations).[3] Although a small number of these results were actually false and some were already known, most of his claims have now been proven correct.[4] He stated results that were both original and highly unconventional, such as the Ramanujan prime and the Ramanujan theta function, and these have inspired a vast amount of further research.[5] However, some of his major discoveries have been rather slow to enter the mathematical mainstream. Recently, Ramanujan's formulae have found applications in crystallography and string theory. The Ramanujan Journal, an international publication, was launched to publish work in all areas of mathematics influenced by his work.[6]
 

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G. Madhavan Nair

G. Madhavan Nair (Malayalam: ജി. മാധവന്* നായര്*) (born October 31, 1943) is the present Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India since September 2003. He is also the Chairman, Space Commission and acts as the Chairman of Governing Body of the Antrix Corporation, Bangalore. Madhavan Nair was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.[1][2]

Career
Nair is a leading technologist in the field of rocket systems and has made significant contribution to the development of multi-stage satellite launch vehicles, achieving self-reliance in independent access to space using indigenous technologies. Nair and his team have worked relentlessly in the face of several challenges in the regime of technology denials by adopting several innovations and novel techniques to realise world class launch vehicle systems. India today has a pride of place amongst the space-faring nations in launch vehicle technology. Specifically, as Project Director, he led the development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has since become the workhorse for launching mainly Indian remote sensing satellites.[3]

As Director of ISRO’s largest R & D Centre, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, he also saw India’s Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) successfully coming to fruition. Further, as Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of ISRO, he played a central role in the design and development of the crucial cryogenic engine for GSLV. List of Positions held before is listed below:


As Chairman of ISRO
Nair is as the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization entrusted with the responsibility of development of space technology and its applications for National development. During his tenure as Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS, twenty five successful missions were accomplished i.e., INSAT-3E, Resourcesat-1, Edusat, Cartosat-1, Hamsat-1, INSAT-4A, PSLV-C5, GSLV-F01, PSLV-C6, Cartosat-2, INSAT-4B, SRE-1, PSLV-C7,PSLV-C8, GSLV-F04, INSAT-4CR,PSLV-C10, Cartosat-2A, IMS-1,PSLV-C9, Chandrayaan-1, PSLV-C11, PSLV-C12, RISAT-2 and ANUSAT. He has taken initiatives towards development of futuristic technologies to enhance the space systems capabilities as well as to reduce the cost of access to space. Nair has given major thrust for evolving application programmes such as tele-education and telemedicine for meeting the needs of society at large. As Chairman Space Commission Nair is responsible for chalking out the future plan for space research in the country. Major thrust are in scientific exploration of outer space using the Astrosat and Chandrayaan (moon) missions apart from implementing schemes for telemedicine, tele-education and disaster management support systems. He is also providing guidance and leadership in undertaking new technology developments related to launch vehicle, spacecrafts for communication, remote sensing and applications programmes to meet societal needs.

In the international arena, Nair has led the Indian delegations for bilateral cooperation and negotiations with many Space Agencies and Countries, specially with France, Russia, Brazil, Israel, etc., and has been instrumental in working out mutually beneficial international cooperative agreements. Nair has led the Indian delegation to the S&T Sub-Committee of United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) since 1998.

His main focus has always been to achieve self-reliance in the high technology areas and to bring the benefits of space technology to the national development, specially targeting the needs of the rural and poor sections of the society.
 

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Anil Kakodkar

Anil Kakodkar is an eminent Indian nuclear scientist, and is the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy. Before leading India's Nuclear Programme, he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay from 1996-2000. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.

Energy and the Future of Peaceful Nuclear Technology
Making India fully self-reliant in energy, especially from the cheap national thorium resources, seems to be his mission statement and he still pursues this dream with great dedication. He has, over the years, built competent teams of highly specialised scientists and engineers in the reactor engineering programme. Today, he continues to engage in designing the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, that uses thorium-uranium 233 as the primary energy source with plutonium as the driver fuel. The unique reactor system, with simplified but safe technology, will generate 75 per cent of electricity from thorium.

If Kakodkar's dream comes true, it will solve India's energy crisis.

Other Positions of Repute
He is currently the Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and served as its President during 1999-2000.
He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences.
He is a member of the International Nuclear Energy Academy, Honorary member of the World Innovation Foundation and Council of Advisers of World Nuclear Association. He was member of the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) during 1999-2002
He is on the board of Governors of VJTI, Mumbai
He is currently the Chairman, Board of Governors, Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences ,Mumbai

National Awards
Padma Shri in 1998.
Padma Bhushan in 1999.
Padma Vibhushan in 2009.

Other Awards
Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Award (1988)
H. K. Firodia Award for Excellence in Science and Technology (1997)
Rockwell Medal for Excellence in Technology (1997)
FICCI Award for outstanding contribution to Nuclear Science and Technology (1997-98)
ANACON - 1998 Life Time Achievement Award for Nuclear Sciences
Indian Science Congress Association's H. J. Bhabha Memorial Award (1999-2000)
Godavari Gaurav Award (2000)
Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award (2002)
Chemtech Foundation's Achiever of the Year Award for Energy (2002)
Gujar Mal Modi Innovative Science and Technology Award in 2004.
 

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Roddam Narasimha


Roddam Narasimha (Kannada: ರೊದ್ದಮ್ ನರಸಿಂಹ) is one of India's foremost Aerospace scientist and a world renowned Fluid Dynamicist. He is currently the chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at the JNCASR, India. He concurrently holds the Pratt & Whitney chair in science and engineering at the University of Hyderabad.

Education and career
He was educated from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and obtained his PhD degree at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States in 1961.

He joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 1962 and was associated with the department of aerospace engineering in various capacities from that date till 1999. In 1982, he founded the centre for atmospheric sciences (now centre for atmospheric and oceanic sciences), which he headed till 1989. During 1984 to 1993 he was the director of the NAL. For many years since 1983 he held a visiting position at Caltech, as Clark B Millikan Professor or Sherman Fairchild distinguished scholar. Between 1989 and 1990 he was Jawaharlal Nehru professor of engineering at Cambridge University in England. He had also held visiting positions at NASA Langley, University of Strathclyde, University of Brussels, and Adelaide University. From 1990 to 1994 he was INSA golden jubilee research professor, and from 1994 to 1999 the ISRO K. R. Ramanathan distinguished professor at IISc and JNCASR. He was the director of the NIAS during 1997-2004.

Narasimha’s research has been chiefly concerned with aerospace fluid dynamics and certain related problems in the atmosphere. He has made extensive studies of transitions between laminar and turbulent flow (going in either direction), the structure of shock waves, various characteristics of fully developed turbulent flow (e.g. their memory, the bursting phenomenon in boundary layers), the fluid dynamics of clouds, near-surface temperature distributions and eddy fluxes in atmospheric boundary layers. He has been closely associated with aerospace technology development in India at both technical and policy-making levels. During 1977-79, he was the Chief Project Coordinator in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

As Director of NAL he initiated and oversaw several major technology programmes. He served on the Board of Directors of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for several years. As a member of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Scientific Advisory Council he was instrumental in establishing a major parallel computing initiative in the country. He was President of the Indian Academy of Sciences during 1992 till 1994 and spear-headed a new programme on university education in science, leading to the establishment of the journal Resonance and other Academy programmes involving teachers and students. He has served on the National Security Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister Cabinet. He is currently a member of the Space Commission, and co-chairs the Joint Steering Committee and the Joint Scientific Working Group for the Indo-French atmospheric research satellite Megha-Tropiques.

As Director of NIAS Narasimha initiated a series of major dialogues on international security issues with the US National Academy of Sciences and other bodies, and pursued his interests in the history of science and technology.

Honours
He has been widely honoured for his research work as well as his scientific leadership. In 2008 he was awarded the Trieste Science Prize at $50,000 given out by the TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world (Access : News 2008: Prizewinners of the year : Nature News). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Foreign Associate of both the US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences. He is also an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In India his distinctions include the Bhatnagar Prize, the Gujarmal Modi Award and the Padma Bhushan, among many others. He is a Fellow of all the national academies of science and engineering, and an Honorary Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of both Caltech and IISc. He has delivered numerous invited lectures at various international conferences. In 2000 he won the Fluid Dynamics Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He is the author of more than 200 research publications and fifteen books.
 

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Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar

Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, OBE, FRS (February 21, 1894 – January 1, 1955) was a well-known Indian scientist.

Work in India
Prime Minister Nehru was a proponent of scientific development, and after India's independence in 1947, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhatnagar. He became the first director-general of the CSIR. He became known as "The Father of Research Laboratories" and is largely remembered for having established various chemical laboratories in India. He established a total twelve national laboratories such as Central Food Processing Technological Institute,Mysore, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, the Central Fuel Institute, Dhanbad, just to name a few.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar played a significant part along with Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai and others in building of post-independent S&T infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s science and technology policies. Bhatnagar was the Founder Director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),which was to later became a major agency for research in independent India. He was the first Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).


He was Secretary, Ministry of Education and Educational Adviser to Government. Bhatnagar played an important role both in the constitution and deliberations of the Scientific Manpower Committee Report of 1948. ‘It may be pointed out that this was the first-ever systematic assessment of the scientific manpower needs of the country in all aspects which served as an important policy document for the government to plan the post-independent S&T infrastructure.’ Bhatnagar was a University Professor for 19 years (1921-40) first at the Banaras Hindu University and then at the Punjab University and he had a reputation as a very inspiring teacher and it was as a teacher that he himself was most happy. His research contribution in the areas of magneto chemistry and physical chemistry of emulsion were widely recognised. He also did considerable work in applied chemistry. He played an instrumental role in the establishment of the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) of India, which bridges the gap between research and development. Bhatnagar was responsible for the initiation of the Industrial Research Association movement in the country. He constituted the one-man Commission in 1951 to negotiate with oil companies for starting refineries and this ultimately led to the establishment of many oil refineries in different parts of the country. He induced many individuals and organisations to donate liberally for the cause of science and education. He exhibited high poetic talent particularly in Urdu .

On returning to India in August 1921 he joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as Professor of Chemistry. It may be noted that the BHU was founded by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1916. Bhatnagar stayed for three years in BHU and during this short span of time he was able to create an active school of physico-chemical research. Bhatnagar wrote the ‘Kulgeet’ (University song) of the University. Justice N.H. Bhagwati, Vice-Chancellor of BHU said: "Many of you perhaps do not know that besides being an eminent scientist, Professor Bhatnagar was a Hindi poet of repute and that during his stay in Banaras, he composed the ‘Kulgeet’ of the University...Prof. Bhatnagar is remembered with reverence in this University and will continue to be so remembered till this University exists."

From Banaras Bhatnagar moved to Lahore where he was appointed as University Professor of Physical Chemistry and Director of University Chemical Laboratories. He spent 16 years in the Panjab University, Lahore and this period was the most active period of his life for original scientific work. While his major fields of study were colloidal chemistry and magneto-chemistry he did considerable work in applied and industrial chemistry. In 1928 Bhatnagar, jointly with K.N. Mathur, invented an instrument called the Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance. The balance was one of the most sensitive instruments for measuring magnetic properties. It was exhibited at the Royal Society Soiree in 1931 and it was marketed by Messers Adam Hilger and Co, London.

Bhatnagar did considerable work in applied and industrial chemistry. The first industrial problem undertaken by Bhatnagar was the development of a process to convert bagasse (peelings of sugarcane) into food cake for cattle. This was done for the Grand Old Man of Punjab, Sir Ganga Ram. He had undertake industrial problems for Delhi Cloth Mills; J.K. Mills Ltd., Kanpur; Ganesh Flour Mills Ltd., Layallapur; Tata Oil Mills Ltd., Bombay; Steel Brothers & Co. Ltd., London and so on. One of the important achievements of Bhatnagar in applied and industrial chemistry was the work he did for Attock Oil Company at Rawalpindi (representative of Messers Steel Brothers & Co London). Attock Oil Company in their drilling operations confronted a peculiar problem, wherein the mud used for drilling operation when came in contact with the saline water got converted into a solid mass which hardened further. This solidification of the mud rendered all drilling operations impossible.

Bhatnagar realised that this was a problem in colloidal chemistry and developed a suitable method to solve it. ‘The problem was elegantly solved by the addition of an Indian gum which had the remarkable property of lowering the viscosity of the mud suspension and of increasing at the same time its stability against the flocculating action of electrolytes." M/s Steel Brothers was so pleased with the method developed by Bhatnagar that they offered a sum of Rs. 1,50,000/- to Bhatnagar for his research work on any subject related to petroleum. At the instance of Bhatnagar the company placed the amount at the disposal of the University. The grant helped to establish the Department of Petroleum Research under the guidance of Bhatnagar. Investigations carried out under this collaborative scheme included deodourisation of waxes, increasing flame height of kerosene and utilisation of waste products in vegetable oil and mineral oil industries. Realising the commercial importance of the collaborative scheme the Company increased the amount and extended the period from five years to ten years.

Bhatnagar persistently refused to receive any monetary benefit arising out of his applied/industrial chemical research for his personal ends on the ground that it may be utilised for strengthening research facilities at the University. His sacrifices drew wide attention. Meghnad Saha wrote to Bhatnagar in 1934 saying, ‘you have hereby raised the status of the university teachers in the estimation of public, not to speak of the benefit conferred on your Alma Mater’.

Bhatnagar jointly with K.N. Mathur wrote a book ‘Physical Principles and Applications of Magneto chemistry’ and which was published by Macmillan publishers. This book was recognised as a standard work on the subject. Prafulla Chandra Ray wrote: "On turning over the pages of Nature my eyes chanced upon an advertisement of Macmillan’s in which I find your book at last advertised. That the book is of a high standard is indicated by the most excellent review in Current Science by Professor Stoner, who is competent to judge. As far as I know Meghnad’s is the only text book in physical sciences which has been adopted by foreign universities; and it gladdens my heart that another work in physical science is likely to occupy a similar place. My days are practically numbered; and my great consolation is that you, in chemistry, are raising the reputation, abroad, of Indian workers".

In 1930s there were no appropriate research organisations for the development of natural resources and new industries. Thus Sir Richard Gregory, then editor of Nature, who after visiting scientific departments and universities in India in 1933 drew the attention of Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India, to the lack of appropriate research organisation equivalent to those of in DSIR in Britain for the development of natural research and new industries. He observed: "I knew that work of the Geological Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India, Meteorological Department, Forestry and so on; but I think something should be done to form an Indian Research Council to make use of the undoubted capacity of Indians for scientific investigations and its applications. Scientific activities, many of them having a direct bearing upon the development of resources of the country, are scarcely given the attention they deserve." Gregory was not alone in realising the need for appropriate research organisation. C.V. Raman, Lt. Col. Seymour Sewell and Dr. J.C. Ghosh had earlier proposed the creation of an Advisory Board of Scientific Research for India. Indian scientists at Calcutta and Bangalore initiated schemes to launch a National Institute of Sciences and an India Academy Science respectively. At the Fifth Industries Conference in 1933 the Provincial Governments of Bombay, Madras, Bihar and Orissa unanimously reiterated their demand to set up a co-ordinating forum for industrial research, Sir Hoare advised the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon to support the idea of an Indian version of DSIR. However, in May 1934 Willingdon informed Hoare in London that `the creation of a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in India to promote the application of research to natural resources does not appear to be necessary." Having rejected an Indian version of the DSIR the colonial Government decided in 1934 to make a small concession. The Govt. agreed to create an Industrial Intelligence and Research Bureau and which came into operation in April 1935 under the Indian Stores Department. The Bureau had very limited resources (with a budget of Rs. 1.0 lakh per annum) and thus it was not possible for it to undertake any industrial activity. It was mainly concerned with testing and quality control.

When the Second World War began it was proposed to abolish the Bureau. Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar, the Commerce Member, while accepting the recommendation that the Bureau be abolished argued that "the old Bureau should be abolished not as a measure of economy but to make room for a Board of Scientific and Industrial Research with vaster resources and wider objectives. Mudaliar’s persistent efforts led to the creation of the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR) on April 1, 1940 for a period of two years. Bhatnagar, who by then had made remarkable contributions to chemistry was called on to take charge. Bhatnagar was designated Director, Scientific and Industrial Research and Sir Mudaliar became BSIR’s first Chairman. The BSIR was allocated an annual budget of Rs. 500,000 and placed under the Department of Commerce. By the end of 1940, about eighty researchers were engaged under BSIR, of whom one-quarter was directly employed. Within two years of its establishment the BSIR was able to work out a number of processes at the laboratory level for industrial utilisation. Those included techniques for the purification of Baluchistan sulphur anti-gas cloth manufacture, the development of vegetable oil blends as fuel and lubricants, the invention of a pyrethrum emulsifier and cream, the development of plastic packing cases for army boots and ammunition, dyes for uniforms and the preparation of vitamins. Bhatnagar persuaded the Government to set up an Industrial Research Utilisation Committee (IRUC) in early 1941 for translating results into application. Following the recommendation of IURC the Government agreed to make a separate fund out of the royalties received from industry for further investment into industrial research. A resolution moved by Mudaliar, recommending that an Industrial Research Fund be constituted for the purpose of fostering industrial development in the country , and that provision be made for an annual grant of rupees one million for a period of five years was accepted by the Central Assembly in Delhi at its session on 14 November 1941. The efforts of Mudaliar and Bhatnagar led to the constitution of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as an autonomous body, to administer the Research Fund created by the government. The CSIR came into operation on 28th September 1942. The BSIR and IRUC were designated as advisory bodies to the Governing body of the CSIR. In 1943 the Governing Body of the CSIR approved the proposal mooted by Bhatnagar to establish five national laboratories — the National Chemical Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, the Fuel Research Station, and the Glass and Ceramics Research Institute. In 1944 in addition to its annual budget of Rs. 1 million, the CSIR received a grant of Rs.10 million for the establishment of these laboratories. The Tata Industrial House donated Rs. 2 million for the Chemical, metallurgical and fuel research laboratories.





After his death, CSIR established the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for eminent scientists in his honour.
 

RPK

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Piara Singh Gill

Piara Singh Gill, (28 October 1911 - 23 March 2002) was a nuclear physicist who was a pioneer in cosmic ray nuclear physics and worked on the American Manhattan project [1]. Moreover, was the first Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) of India. [2] He was research fellow of Chicago University (1940)[3]. He was research Professorship fellow of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) (1947), Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) with the Atomic Energy Commission in New Delhi. Professor & Head in the Department of Physics at Aligarh University (1949), Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) (1959) and Professor Emeritus Punjab Agricultural University (1971) [3].

He as its Director established (CSIO) as a leader in advanced scientific instrument design in Asia [3]. Moreover, Robert Oppenheimer, was a close colleague and friend who he worked with on the Manhattan project. Oppenheimer asked Gill to present a paper at the California Institute of Technology at a conference arranged to celebrate the 80th birthday of Professor Robert Millikan, winner of the 1928 Physics Nobel Prize. Gill was a key advisor and planner to Nehru on India's nuclear weapons strategy in the 1950-60s [1].

Some free excerpts from Professor Piara Singh Gill's autobiography can be read at Google Books (click on reference to read)[5].


Positions Held
Research Fellow, University of Chicago, 1940-41.
Lecturer in Physics, Forman Christian College, Lahore, 1940-47.
Professor of Experimental Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, 1947-48.
Officer-on-special Duty, Atomic Energy Commission, 1948-49.
Professor and. Head, Dept. of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 1949-63.
Dean, Faculty of Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 1950-53 and 1956-58.
Director, Gulmarg Research Observatory, Gulmarg, 1951-71.
Honorary Scientific Adviser to the Government of Punjab.
Director, Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Chandigarh, 1963-71.
Professor Emeritus, Punjab Agricultural University, 1972-1982.
Chairman, Universal Magnetics (P) Ltd.
Adjunct Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA, 1990-1994.

Honorary Professor of Physics
University of Jammu & University of Kashmir.
Punjab University.

Memebership of Learned Societies
Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Fellow of the Indian Physical Society.
Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of lndia.
Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.
Fellow of the Explorers Club.

Positions held in the Societies
President of the Physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1954).
President of the National Academy of Sciences of India (1957-58).
President of the Indian Physical Society.
Secretary (Outstation) Indian Science Congress Association (1960-63).
Foreign Secretary, Indian National Science Academy (1961-64).
Vice-President, Northern Indian Science Association.
President, Optical Society of India (1970).

Membership of Learned Bodies
Member of the U.P. Scientific Research Committee.
Member of the U.P. University Grants Committee.
Member of the Council of the Indian National Science Academy.
Member of the Council of Indian Physical Society.
Member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences of India.
Member of the Board of Editors of the Indian Journal of Physics.
Member of the Faculties of the University of Lucknow, Banaras and Allahabad.
Member of the National Scientific Advisory Council of the Institute of Comprehensive Medicine and also the Editorial Board of the 'Int. Journal for Comprehensive Medicine', California, U.S.A.
Member, Panel of Consultants in Technological Sciences and Applied Research to the Director-General of UNESCO, 1967.
Chairman, Development Council for Instruments Industry set up by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Internal Trade and Company Affairs (Department of Industrial Development).
Member, Senate, Punjab University, Chandigarh.
Member, Senate, and Syndicate, Punjabi University, Patiala.
Member, Senate, Guru Nanak Dev University, Armitsar.
 

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