Indian Scientists : Biography and Achievements 

Introduction :-

  • Generally science has two facets - basic sciences and application of sciences. 
  • Applied sciences impact the economy of the country and is known to have qualitative effect on life. 
  • Basic sciences develop the scientific attitude, understanding and knowledge where as the applied sciences help in our progress. 
  • From the ancient times the Indian scientists have been working towards development of both the scientific approaches to make our lives better. 
  • In this context biographies and achievements of a few Indian scientists are described below in short. 

Sushruta :- 

  1. Descendant of Vishwamitra, Sushruta was born around six hundred years before Christ. 
  2. He learnt primary medical education in the ashram of Dhanwantri. 
  3. Sushruta was the first to give the sophisticated knowledge of surgery in medical sciences.
  4. He refined the procedures of surgery and performed many complex surgeries and provided knowledge regarding equipments used in the surgical procedures. 
  5. He has written 'Sushruta Samhita' in which details of surgery is described. 
  6. Long before the Joseph Ester, Sushruta thought of antiseptic and sterilization. 
  7. He directed his subordinates and disciples to heat the equipment's to kill bacteria. 
  8. He used non poisonous leeches to speed up blood clotting. 
  9. In ancient scriptures, around 26 centuries old, examples of plastic surgery of ear, nose, lips etc. performed by him were given. Sushruta is one of the greatest surgeons. 
  10. He may be called the father of plastic surgery. 
  11. He provided knowledge of 101 equipment's. Many of his equipment's were earlier versions of spring forceps or cutter or forceps for bandage etc.  

Charak :-

  1. Charak was the great acharya (Professor) of Ayurveda form of medical sciences. 
  2. He was the first doctor who gave the concept of digestion, metabolism and body immunity. 
  3. According to him the body has three main defects in its functioning - Pitt, Vaat and Kaf. Imbalance of these three leads to different diseases. 
  4. He wrote a grantha named 'Charak Samhita' around 200 years before Christ. It is one of the ancient surviving grantha on medical sciences. It is written in Sanskrit. The grantha is divided into 8 sections and is both in proses and verses. 
  5. More than 2000 years ago Charak discussed about principles of genetics. 
  6. He knew the reason of determination of gender of child. 
  7. Children suffer from genetic defects like blindness, lameness because of some deficiency or defect in child's father or mother. 
  8. He told that heart is the controlling center of the body and is connected to main arteries. 
  9. He has also given directives for doctors and medical students. 
  10. According to him doctors should not keep enmity with patients in any case. People associated with medical profession should not disclose household information of a patient to others. Doctors should always be ready to learn and acquire knowledge. 
  11. Charak has a meaning - to walk (Sanskrit). Acharya Charak used to travel a lot to cure common people suffering with various ailments and to educate them and hence he was called Charak. 

C.V. Raman :-

  1. Chandrashekhara Venkat Raman born on November 07,1888 in Tiruchirappalli city of Tamil Nadu state of India. 
  2. His father was Chandrashekhar Ayyer and mother was Parvati Ammal. 
  3. His father was a lecturer in physics in Waltear college. 
  4. Raman passed Inter in first division with scholarship from Waltear college in Visakhapatnam. 
  5. He passed Master of Sciences in 1907 at the age of 19. He got M.Sc. with the highest distinction from University of Madras. 
  6. At the age of 19 he passed government competitive exam of economics in which literature, history, sanskrit and political sciences were the topics. He joined as Deputy Auditor General in government of India. 
  7. He also worked on musical instruments like Veena, Mirdang, Tanpura and other Indian instruments as well as western musical instruments like piano, violin etc and discovered the harmonic nature of the sound. 
  8. In 1917 Raman resigned from his government job because he was not able to give time to scientific research and became the First Palit Professor of Physics in Calcutta University.
  9. During his tenure he discovered Raman effect in 1928. In 1930 Raman got Nobel prize for his famous discovery of Raman effect. Raman effect is also known as Raman scattering. 
  10. Raman scattering is the inelastic scattering of a photon by molecules which are excited to higher vibrational or rotational energy levels. 
  11. Important fact with this discovery is that he and his student K.S. Krishnan used very few and cheap equipment around costing two hundred rupees for the experiments. 
  12. In 1949 he was appointed as the First National professor by the Government of India. 
  13. In 1954 Raman was conferred Bharat Ratna' by Government of India. 
  14. For his work towards friendship between nations he was awarded Lenin Peace prize in 1957. 
  15. He was also given Knighthood in 1929. 
  16. He explained the reason for blue colour of sea and space. 
  17. He studied the Raman Effect in solids, liquids and gases. 
  18. He also carried out scientific research on magnetic field, X-rays, structure of crystal, and acoustics. 
  19. He died on November 20, 1970. 
  20. In his honour on 28 February India celebrates Science day. 

Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha :-

  1. Bhabha was not only a great scientist but also an art administrator and lover. 
  2. He was also an excellent artist and his paintings are exhibited in British art galleries. 
  3. Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on October 30,1909 in a prosperous Parsi family in Mumbai. 
  4. His early studies were in Cathedral and John Connon school in Mumbai and at the age of 15 he entered Elphinstone College Mumbai. Afterwards he went abroad to Cambridge University for further studies. 
  5. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering in 1930 and then started working on theoretical physics. 
  6. His research was mainly in cosmic rays and nuclear energy. In 1942 he was appointed lecturer in cosmic rays. 
  7. Bhabha was related to industrialist Tata family. 
  8. In 1937 he studied cosmic rays with Walter Heitler and described that primary cosmic rays from other space interact with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level. 
  9. The particles interact with air particles and produce showers of particles like electrons. He discovered these nuclear particles which were afterwards known as Mesons. 
  10. Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha He was instrumental in the establishment of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 1945 with the help of Dorabji Tata. 
  11. In 1948, Atomic Energy Commission was formed and Bhabha was appointed its first chairman. 
  12. He was also appointed the director of nuclear programme in India. 
  13. Under his guidance atomic reactors Apsara, Cyrus and Zerlina were commissioned. 
  14. In 1963 the construction of first atomic power plant was started in Tarapur, Maharashtra. 
  15. He is also known as the father of Indian nuclear science programme. 
  16. In September 1956, 81 nations held conference in New York for establishment of atomic agency and Bhabha was elected chairman of the conference by common consent . 
  17. He died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc in Germany on January 24, 1966. In 1967, the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) was named after Bhabha to honour his dedication to nuclear energy in India and was named Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). 


Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ray :-

  1. Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ray was born in Raruli Katipara village of Khulana district of erstwhile Bengal on August 02,1861. 
  2. His father Harish Chandra Ray was a wealthy person and an expert in Persian. 
  3. His early school education was in this village. Then his father migrated to Calcutta and he was admitted to famous Hare sch000l of Calcutta. Because of severe illness he returned to his village for a few years and again he resumed studies at Albert school Calcutta. 
  4. Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ray In 1879 he cleared the entrance examination for admission to Metropolitan school. 
  5. As there was no science classes in Metropolitan school so he used to go to Presidency college for science classes and laboratories as external student. 
  6. He developed his curiosity towards chemistry and in 1982 he was awarded one of the two Gilchrist prize scholarships after an all India competitive exam. 
  7. He did not complete his course for his degree and went to Edinburgh University, Britain for  B.Sc. Afterwards Ray completed B.Sc. from the same university in 1887. 
  8. Among his fellow workers were Professor James Walker, FRS, Alexander Smith and. Huff Marshall. 
  9. They all were motivating factors for his interest in chemistry He was elected vice president of Edinburgh University chemical Society in 1988. 
  10. After his return to India he joined Presidency College as temporary Assistant Professor in chemistry. 
  11. He observed that many British teachers with lesser qualification than him were on higher posts and higher salaries. 
  12. He complained about this inferior treatment to native intelligentsia to the director. 
  13. The director told him satirically that if your are such an able chemist then why don't you start your business. 
  14. He took this seriously and with a meagre sum of Rs. 800 he started Bengal Chemical Works in 1892. 
  15. Afterwards it was renamed Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd in 1901. 
  16. It was first pharmaceutical company in India. 
  17. Soon it became a big business and gave way to other entrepreneurs to start businesses. 
  18. He died on June 19, 1944 at the age of 83. 

Dr. Panchanan Maheshwari :-

  1. He was an Indian Botanist. 
  2. He was born on November 09,1904 in Jaipur. 
  3. He studied at Allahabad University and started teaching at Agra college. 
  4. Afterwards he taught in Allahabad, Lucknow and Dhaka universities. 
  5. In 1948 he joined Delhi University as head of Botany Department. 
  6. His research contribution was in plant embryology. 
  7. He developed a new branch by mixing embryology and tissue culture. 
  8. He developed technique to provide artificial nutrition to different parts of flowers for their development. 
  9. His students were from America, Argentina, Australia and other countries. Around 60 students did doctorates under his supervision. 
  10. Dr. Maheshwari represented India in many international conferences in botany. 
  11. He developed centre for tissue culture and embryology and to honour his research he was elected a Fellow of Royal Society (FRS) in 1965. 
  12. He died in May 18,1966 in Delhi 

Dr. Salim Ali :-

  1. Dr Salim Ali was born on November 12, 1896 in Sulemani Muslim family. 
  2. He was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. He is also referred to as Birdman of India. 
  3. He was the first person who systematically conducted surveys on birds all around India. 
  4. His books on Indian birds helped in popularising ornithology in India. 
  5. In 1976, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest Civilian Honour of India.
  6. After 1947, he became the main person behind the Bombay Natural History Society. 
  7. He used his personal influence for getting government support for the organisation. 
  8. He was also instrumental in creating Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park). 
  9. He worked hard to stop the construction of a dam that was a threat to Silent Valley National park. 
  10. Under the guidance of the secretary of Bombay Natural History Society, W.S. Millard, Salim started studying birds thoroughly and identified an unusual sparrow that he had shot for sport with his toy air gun. 
  11. Millard identified it as yellow throated sparrow and showed Salim the collection of stuffed birds in the collection of society. 
  12. He gave a few books to start collecting birds and one of the books was common 'birds of Mumbai.' In his autobiography "The Fall of a sparrow " 
  13. Dr. Salim Ali (Ornithology) Salim writes that the event of yellow throated sparrow was life changing event for him because this event led him into ornithology. 
  14. Primary education of Salim All took place in Bombay. 
  15. Later on he went to St Xavier's College, Bombay. He decided to take up the job of a guide to lecture in Prince of Wales Museum for Rs. 350 as he was not having formal university degree and then decided to continue his studies. 
  16. He was awarded honorary doctorate by Aligarh Muslim University (1958), Delhi University (1973) &Andhra University (1978). 
  17. He died in 1987 after prolonged cancer of prostate at the age of 91. 
  18. In 1990 Government of India established Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural history.

 Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam :-

  1. Dr Abdul Fakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on october 15, 1931 in Dhanush Kodi town of Rameshwaram district of Tamilnadu. 
  2. His father was Jainulabdeen and mother was Ashiamma. 
  3. His elementary education was in Rameshwann and for high school he went to nearby town Ramnathpruam's Schwartz Higher Secondary School to study science. 
  4. Iydura Soloman was his source of inspiration. 
  5. Kalam made three points of teachings of Solomon as the basis of his life. 
  6. In Solomon's words-willpower, faith and hope are three necessary points for a successful life. 
  7. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam In 1954 he joined Madras Institute of Technology to study aeronautical engineering. In 1958 Kalam was appointed senior scientist in Hovercraft project under Defence Research and Development Organisation. 
  8. Influenced by Kalam's dedication and hard work, Prof M.CI Menon took him to Indian Space Research organisation in 1962. His golden period of life started from here. 
  9. Kalam took the training of technique of launching of Rockets from NASA and first Rocket 'Nike Apache' was launched by India from Thumba. 
  10. He was appointed project director of SLV project and under his directorship SLV III successfully deployed Rohini' Satellite into orbit. 
  11. In 1983 Kalam was appointed Chief Executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) and he played very important part in development and launching of 'Prithvi', 'Agni', 'Trishul', 'Nag', and 'Akash' missiles. 
  12. He was present during First Nuclear Test at Pokaran and was Chief Project Coordinator for Pokaran-II nuclear test in 1998. 
  13. For his important contribution to the development of missiles in India he is also known as 'Missile Man'. 
  14. Dr. Kalam was elected to the highest Constitutional post and served as the president of India from 2002-2007. 
  15. Government of India honoured him with Padma Bhushan (1981), Padma vibhushan (1990) and Bharat Ratna (1997). 
  16. On July 27, 2015 Dr. Kalam died of cardiac arrest while delivering a lecture in IIM Shillong.