THE GREAT INDIAN MEN OF SCIENCE

1. Vikram Sarabhai

A physicist and astronomer, Vikram Sarabhai is recognised as the Father of the Indian Space
Program. He founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in 1947, with a focus on researching
cosmic rays and properties of the upper atmosphere. PRL is now known for its contribution to the
research of space sciences in India. Sarabhai helped set up various institutes, including but not
limited to the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the Darpana Academy of
Performing Arts. He began a project to launch the first Indian satellite, and consequently, Aryabhata
was launched in 1975. Vikram Sarabhai is the founder of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
2. Jagdish Chandra Bose

Jagdish Chandra Bose was a biologist who pioneered experimental science in the Indian
subcontinent. He was best known for his contributions to plant science and his investigation of radio
and microwave optics. Not only was he one of the most famous Indian scientists of all time, he was
also quite the skilled writer and was known as the Father of Bengali science fiction. He founded the
Bose Institute, a premier research institute in Calcutta. He conducted a research to study plant
response to stimuli, and consequently proved there were similarities between plant and animal
tissues. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers has named him one of the fathers of radio
science.
3. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

An Indian born British-American structural biologist, Venkatraman “Venki” Ramakrishnan was born
in Tamil Nadu. He did most of his schooling in Vadodara, and received his bachelor’s degree from
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Venkatraman won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for
studies of the structure and function of the Ribosome.” He received the second-highest civilian
award in India, Padma Vibhushan, in 2010. He is also known for his past work on histone and
chromatin structure. He served as the president of the Royal Society from 2015-2020.
4. Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician who was active during British Rule in India. Even
though he never received a formal education in pure mathematics, Ramanujan made notable
contributions to mathematical analysis, infinite series, number theory, and continued fractions.
When he became pen pals with British mathematician G.H. Hardy, the latter was blown away by
Ramanujan’s extraordinary talent. During his lifetime, Ramanujan became famous for his
Ramanujan-Sato series, The Ramanujan Conjecture, and Taxicab numbers. Unfortunately, Srinivasa
lived a very short life, and died at the age of 32 in 1920. Ramanujan is now remembered as one of
the brightest minds India has ever seen, and one of the most famous Indian scientists.
5. Visvesvaraya

An Indian civil engineer and statesman, Visvesvaraya was also the 19th Diwan of Mysore. He was the
chief engineer of Krishna Sagara Dam in Mysore, and the floor protection system of Hyderabad city.
He was consequently awarded the Bharat Ratna for his contributions to the public good. He was also
knighted by George V. His birthday on 15th September is celebrated as the Engineer’s day in India,
Sri Lanka, and Tanzania. He was known as the Father of Modern Mysore State.
6. CV Raman

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was an Indian physicist who is known to have discovered that when
light crosses a transparent material, some of the deflected light has its amplitude and wavelength
changed. This kind of scattering had not been observed before, and thus, this phenomenon came to
be known as the Raman effect. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, becoming the first person
of Asian origin to win a Nobel Prize in a scientific field. He founded the Indian Journal of Physics in
1926. He became the first Indian director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where he
founded the Indian Academy of Sciences. He was the first to receive Bharat Ratna along with C.
Rajgopalachari and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.
7. Meghnad Saha

Best known for developing the Saha Ionization Equation, Meghnad Saha was an Indian
astrophysicist. His work has helped astronomers to correctly determine the temperatures of spectral
classes of stars. He was also elected to the parliament in 1952. He was responsible for organising
various scientific societies, including the Indian Physical Society and the Indian Institute of Science.
He also prepared the original plan for Damodar Valley Project.
8. Satyendranath Bose

A mathematician and physicist, Satyendranath Bose specialised in theoretical physics. Bose famously
collaborated with Albert Einstein in developing the Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of Bose-
Einstein condensate. The particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics were named Boson after Bose.
He was also a member of the Royal Society, and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the
Government of India.
9. S. Chandrasekhar

S. Chandrasekhara was an Indian-American astrophysicist who received the Nobel Prize for physics in
1983 along with William A. Fowler. His work has helped develop many theoretical models
concerning the later evolutionary stages of massive stars and black holes. He has contributed
through his work to a wide variety of subjects including white dwarfs, stellar structures, stellar
dynamics, quantum theory, the radiative transfer among others. He proved that the mass of a white
dwarf could not exceed 1.44 times the mass of the sun, which is now called the Chandrasekhar limit.
He is now remembered as one of the most famous Indian scientists to have changed the course of
science.
10. APJ Abdul Kalam

Perhaps one of the very few political figures in India who is unanimously liked by everyone despite
their ideology, before APJ Abdul Kalam became our president, he was the Missile Man of India. APJ
Abdul Kalam was an aerospace scientist who worked at the DRDO and then ISRO. He played an
important role in the testing of Pokhran II in 1998. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1997.
11. Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Famously known as the Father of the Indian nuclear programme, Homi Jehangir Bhabha was the
founding director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, then known as the Atomic Energy
Establishment, Trombay. He was also the founding director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research. These two institutes were pivotal in the development of Indian nuclear weapons. Bhabha
was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and was also twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
12. Har Gobind Khorana

He was an Indian American biochemist. While on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–
Madison, he shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and
Robert W. Holley for research that showed the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the
genetic code of the cell and control the cell's synthesis of proteins.
13. Daulat Singh Kothari

He was an outstanding Physicist and Educationist worked at the Delhi University from 1934 -1961 in
various capacities as Reader, Professor and Head of the Department of Physics, is considered as the
Architect of Defence Science in India and founder of most of the DRDO labs in India.
14. M.S. Narasimhan

Narasimhan played a key role in the development of mathematics in India. He was the first Chairman
of the National Board for Higher Mathematics. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He
was also a Fellow of all the three science academies in India. He was a recipient of the French
National Order of Merit (1989) and the Padma Bhushan award in 1990.
15. Govind Swarup

Prof. Govind Swarup, a radio astronomer, discovered the ‘type-U’ solar bursts. A recipient of the
Padma Shri, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Department of Atomic Energy, Prof.
Swarup was a promoter of an all-inclusive approach to teaching science. The proposal that he made
along with Prof. V. G. Bhide for a 5-year integrated program for an intensive education in science led
to the establishment of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs).
16. Nambi Narayan

In 1969, Narayanan won a prestigious NASA fellowship that helped him find his way into Princeton
University, where he gained expertise in chemical rocket propulsion. Upon returning to India, where
solid motors were common, he introduced liquid propellant motors. He came into the limelight in
1994 when he was arrested under false charges of espionage. Narayanan was later given a
compensation of Rs 1.3 crore by the Kerala government. Recognising his contribution to the
development of rocket science in India, the Government of India conferred Narayanan with the
country’s third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan, in 2019. Bollywood film Rocketry was made
on his life and work.