C. N. R. Rao.
Born on 30th June 1934 in Bangaluru in Basavanagudi; He went to middle school at the age of six and Completed lower secondary education [equivalent to seventh] in 1944. He completed SSLC of Mysore state in 1947 with first class. He went to central college Bangaluru as science student. He completed B.Sc. in 1951 from Mysore University. He joined Banarus Hindu University for post graduation in chemistry and completed M.Sc. Chemistry in 1953, with second rank [at the age of 19 years].
He read the book, “the nature of chemical bond” - by Linus Pauling. It was amazing! He went to Purdue, U.S. for PhD studies. Purdue University is in Lafayette, Indiana U S. He became research assistant to Professor Eugene Lieber. Professor Brown used to say, “if it is worth doing, it must be worth publishing.”
The chemical bond idea was proposed by G N Levis of university of California in 1916. C N R Rao returned to India in 1959 and joined I.I.Sc. Bangalore. He joined IIT Kanpur as associate professor in chemistry in 1963. Later on, he became the head of chemistry department [when he was 30year old]. By 1965, at IIT Kanpur students were working in the areas related to spectroscopy, molecular structure and solid state chemistry. His book “modern aspects of solid-state chemistry” was published [from New York]. By 1970 IIT Kanpur was matured into an active and exiting place for education and research. In 1971 Rao received Bhatnagar prize in chemistry.
During 1971, the Government of India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to set up a National committee on science and technology [NCST], and Rao became a member of the committee. In 1974- CNR Rao was awarded PadmaShree. During 1974-75 he worked at Oxford as visiting professor and carried out a variety of experiments involving high resolution electron microscopy, neutron diffraction, photoemission, spectroscopy, and so on. He wrote a book on, phase transition in solids.
During 1976 he returned to India. IISc Bangaluru, or National chemical laboratory Pune, was options for his further work. C N R Rao chose IISc Bangaluru. He established solid state and structural chemistry unit in IISc Bangaluru.
His book phase transition in solids was published. In 1982 Purdue University conferred
The D.Sc.degree, on Rao. He was awarded solid state chemistry medal by Royal society London, and he was elected the fellow of the royal society, London. He was invited to Cambridge to be the first Nehru professor. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi congratulated him. He wrote a book, “New directions in solid state chemistry” with J GopalKrishna. This book was translated to Chinese and Russian.
In 1984, he was appointed Director of IISc Bangaluru. In 1985 he received Padma Vibhushan from President of India. In 1985 he chaired the science advisory council to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Again during 1989 Jawaharlal Nehru centre for advanced scientific research [JNCASR] was established at IISc campus Bangaluru, and CNR Rao was Director up to 1994. During 1990, he was elected a member of the US National Academy of sciences [NAS].
