Contributions of Indian

Physicists in Science.
Physics Holiday Homework
What are Physicists

▪ A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which

encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and
time scales in the physical universe.
▪ Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate causes
of phenomena, and usually frame their understanding in
mathematical terms.
▪ Physicists work across a wide range of research fields, spanning all
length scales: from sub-atomic and particle physics,
through biological physics, to cosmological length scales
encompassing the universe as a whole.
List of Indian Physicists

▪ Srinivasa Ramanujan
▪ Chandrashekhar Vekanta Raman
▪ Homi Jehangir Bhabha
▪ Satyendra Nath Bose
▪ Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam
▪ Har Gobind Khorana
▪ Meghnad Saha
▪ Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
▪ Raj Reddy
▪ Birbal Sahni
▪ Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
▪ Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
▪ Vikram Sarabhai
▪ G.N Ramachandran
▪ Jayant Narlikar
About the Physicists

PHYSICISTS
Srinivasa Ramanunjan

▪ Srinivasa Ramanujan; born Srinivasa
Ramanujan Aiyangar; 22 December
1887 – 26 April 1920) was an
Indian mathematician who lived during
the British Rule in India. Though he had
almost no formal training in pure
mathematics, he made substantial
contributions to mathematical
analysis, number theory, infinite series,
and continued fractions, including
solutions to mathematical problems then
considered unsolvable.
Chandrasekhara Vekata Raman

▪ Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (7

November 1888 – 21 November 1970)
was an Indian physicist known mainly for
his work in the field of light scattering. In
1954, the Government of India honoured
him with the first Bharat Ratna, its
highest civilian award. He later smashed
the medallion in protest against Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's policies on
scientific research.
Homi Jehangir Bhabha

▪ Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30 October 1909 –

24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear
physicist, founding director, and professor of
physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research (TIFR).Colloquially known as
"father of the Indian nuclear programme“,
 Bhabha was also the founding director of the
Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay
(AEET) which is now named the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre in his honour. TIFR
and AEET were the cornerstone of Indian
development of nuclear weapons which
Bhabha also supervised as director.
Satyendra Nath Bose

▪ Satyendra Nath Bose (January 1894 – 4

February 1974) was an
Indian mathematician and physicist specialisi
ng in theoretical physics. He is best known
for his work on quantum mechanics in the
early 1920s, collaborating with Albert
Einstein in developing the foundation
for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of
the Bose–Einstein condensate. A Fellow of
the Royal Society, he was awarded India's
second highest civilian award, the Padma
Vibhushan in 1954 by the Government of
India.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam

▪ Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam; 15 October

1931 – 27 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist
who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to
2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil
Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering.
He spent the next four decades as a scientist and
science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research
and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was
intimately involved in India's civilian space programme
and military missile development efforts.He thus came
to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on
the development of ballistic missile and launch
vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal
organisational, technical, and political role in
India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since
the original nuclear test by India in 1974.
Har Gobind Khorana

▪ Har Gobind Khorana (9 January 1922 – 9

November 2011) 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.
Khorana and Nirenberg were also awarded
the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia
University in the same year.
Meghnad Saha

▪ Meghnad Saha (6 October 1893 – 16

February 1956) was an
Indian astrophysicist who developed
the Saha ionization equation, used to
describe chemical and physical
conditions in stars. His work allowed
astronomers to accurately relate
the spectral classes of stars to their actual
temperatures. He was elected to
the Parliament of India in 1952.
Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar

▪ Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (19 October

1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-
American astrophysicist and mathematician w
ho spent his professional life in the United
States. He was mostly doing work in
astrophysics. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel
Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for
"...theoretical studies of the physical
processes of importance to the structure and
evolution of the stars". His mathematical
treatment of stellar evolution yielded many of
the current theoretical models of the later
evolutionary stages of massive stars and black
holes. The Chandrasekhar limit is named after
him.
Birbal Sahni

▪ Birbal Sahni (14 November 1891 – 10 April

1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied
the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He also
took an interest in geology and archaeology. He
founded what is now the Birbal Sahni Institute
of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in 1946. His major
contributions were in the study of the fossil
plants of India and in plant evolution. He was
also involved in the establishment of Indian
science education and served as the President
of the National Academy of Sciences, India and
as an Honorary President of the International
Botanical Congress, Stockholm.
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

▪ Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis  (29 June

1893 – 28 June 1972) was an Indian Bengali
scientist and statistician. He is best
remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a
statistical measure, and for being one of the
members of the first Planning Commission of
free India. He made pioneering studies
in anthropometry in India. He founded
the Indian Statistical Institute, and
contributed to the design of large-scale
sample surveys. For his contributions,
Mahalanobis has been considered the father
of modern statistics in India.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

▪ Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (pronunciation)
(19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was
an IndianAmerican astrophysicist and mathemati
cian who spent his professional life in the United
States. He was mostly doing work in
astrophysics.. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel
Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for
"...theoretical studies of the physical processes of
importance to the structure and evolution of
stars". His mathematical treatment of stellar
evolution yielded many of the current theoretical
models of the later evolutionary stages of
massive stars and black holes.
The Chandrasekhar limit is named after him.
Vikram Sarabhai

▪ Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (12 August

1919 – 30 December 1971) was an
Indian physicist and astronomer who
initiated space research and helped
develop nuclear power in India. He was
honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966
and the Padma
Vibhushan (posthumously) in 1972. He is
internationally regarded as the Father of
the Indian Space Program.
Gopalasamudram Narayanan Ramachandran

▪ Gopalasamudram Narayanan
Ramachandran, or G.N.
Ramachandran, (8 October 1922 – 7 April
2001) was an Indian physicist who was
known for his work that led to his creation
of the Ramachandran plot for
understanding peptide structure. He was
the first to propose a triple-helical model
for the structure of collagen. He
subsequently went on to make other
major contributions
in biology and physics.
Jayant Narlikar
▪ Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (born 19 July 1938)
is an Indian astrophysicist and emeritus
professor at the Inter-University Centre for
Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). He
developed with Sir Fred
Hoyle the conformal gravity theory, known
as Hoyle–Narlikar theory. It
synthesises Albert Einstein's theory of
relativity and Mach's principle. It proposes
that the inertial mass of a particle is a
function of the masses of all other particles,
multiplied by a coupling constant, which is a
function of cosmic epoch.
About the Inventions

INVENTIONS
OF
PHYSICISTS
Invention of Srinivasa Ramanunjana
(Magnetic Resonance)

▪ Magnetic resonance is a quantum mechanical resonant effect that can appear when

a magnetic dipole is exposed to a static magnetic field and perturbed with another,
oscillating electromagnetic field. Due to the static field, the dipole can assume a number of
discrete energy eigenstates, depending on the value of its angular momentum quantum
number. The oscillating field can then make the dipole transit between its energy states with a
certain probability and at a certain rate. The overall transition probability will depend on the
field's frequency and the rate will depend on its amplitude. When the frequency of that field
leads to the maximum possible transition probability between two states, a magnetic
resonance has been achieved. In that case, the energy of the photons composing the
oscillating field matches the energy difference between said states. If the dipole is tickled with
a field oscillating far from resonance, it is unlikely to transition. That is analogous to other
resonant effects, such as with the forced harmonic oscillator. The periodic transition between
the different states is called Rabi cycle and the rate at which that happens is called Rabi
frequency. The Rabi frequency should not be confused with the field's own frequency. Since
many atomic nuclei species can behave as a magnetic dipole, this resonance technique is the
basis of nuclear magnetic resonance, including nuclear magnetic resonance
imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Magnetic Resonance

Link For Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=1OrPCNVSA4o
Invention of C.V. Raman (Raman Effect)

▪ Raman effect, change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is
deflected by molecules. When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent
sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions
other than that of the incident (incoming) beam. Most of this scattered light is of
unchanged wavelength. A small part, however, has wavelengths different from
that of the incident light; its presence is a result of the Raman effect.
Raman scattering is perhaps most easily understandable if the incident light is
considered as consisting of particles, or photons (with energy proportional
to frequency), that strike the molecules of the sample. Most of the encounters are
elastic, and the photons are scattered with unchanged energy and frequency. On
some occasions, however, the molecule takes up energy from or gives up energy to
the photons, which are thereby scattered with diminished or increased energy,
hence with lower or higher frequency. The frequency shifts are thus measures of
the amounts of energy involved in the transition between initial and final states of
the scattering molecule.
Raman Effect

Link For Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=yQ1MctWU9Mg
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=SsIYDEma_cU
Invention of Homi Jehangir Bhabha
(Bhabha Scattering)

▪ Electron scattering, deflection of the path of electrons as they pass

through a solid (typically a metal, semiconductor, or insulator).
Deflections, or collisions, are caused by electrostatic forces operating
between the negatively charged electrons and atoms within the solid
(see quantum electrodynamics). These forces reduce the speed of the
electrons, thereby limiting the performance of electronic devices
based on transistors and integrated circuits. The deflection of a beam
of electrons by a target also is called electron scattering and has been
used to probe the size and charge distribution of atomic nuclei. In the
early 1970s, electron scattering helped to confirm
that protons and neutrons are made of still more
elementary subatomic particles known as quarks.
Bhabha Scattering

Link For Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=eRdwDnFBUyM
Invention of A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam
(Pokhran-II)

▪ The Pokhran-II tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test

explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test
Range in May 1998. It was the second instance of nuclear testing
conducted by India; the first test, code-named Smiling Buddha, was
conducted in May 1974. Pokhran-II consisted of five detonations, the first
of which was a fusion bomb while the remaining four were fission bombs.
The tests were initiated on 11 May 1998, under the assigned code name
Operation Shakti, with the detonation of one fusion and two fission
bombs. On 13 May 1998, two additional fission devices were
detonated, and the Indian government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee shortly convened a press conference to declare India as a full-
fledged nuclear state. The tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against
India by a number of major states, including Japan and the United States.
Pokhran-II
Invention of Har Gobind Khorana
(Nucleotides in Protien Synthesis)

▪ Nucleotide, any member of a class of organic compounds in which the

molecular structure comprises a nitrogen-containing unit (base) linked
to a sugar and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are of great
importance to living organisms, as they are the building blocks of
nucleic acids, the substances that control all hereditary characteristics.
▪ In the two families of nucleic acids, ribonucleic acid (RNA)
and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the sequence of nucleotides in the
DNA or RNA codes for the structure of proteins synthesized in the cell.
The nucleotide adenosine triphosphate (ATP) supplies the driving force
of many metabolic processes. Several nucleotides are coenzymes; they
act with enzymes to speed up (catalyze) biochemical reactions.
Nucleotides in Protien Synthesis

Link For Reference:

https://www.khanacademy.or
g/science/high-school-biology
/hs-biology-foundations/hs-bi
ological-macromolecules/v/int
roduction-to-nucleic-acids-an
d-nucleotides
Invention of Meghnad Saha (Saha
Ionization Equation)

▪ The Saha ionisation equation is an expression that relates the ionisation

state of a gas in thermal equilibrium to the temperature and pressure. The
equation is a result of combining ideas of quantum mechanics and
statistical mechanics and is used to explain the spectral classification of
stars. The expression was developed by Indian physicist Meghnad Saha in
1920. Equilibrium ionization, described by the Saha equation, explains
evolution in the early universe. After the Big Bang, all atoms were ionized,
leaving mostly protons and electrons. According to Saha's approach,
when the universe had expanded and cooled such that the temperature
reached about 3,000 K, electrons recombined with protons
forming hydrogen atoms. At this point, the universe became transparent
to most electromagnetic radiation. That 3,000 K surface, red-shifted by a
factor of about 1,000, generates the 3 K cosmic microwave background
radiation, which pervades the universe today.
Saha Ionization Equation

Link For Reference:

https://www.secretsofuniverse
.in/sahas-equation/
Invention of Subrahmanyam
Chandrashekhar (Chandrashekhar Limit)

▪ The Chandrasekhar limit  is the maximum mass of a stable white

dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is
about 1.4 M☉ (2.765×1030 kg).
▪ White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron
degeneracy pressure, compared to main sequence stars, which resist
collapse through thermal pressure. The Chandrasekhar limit is the
mass above which electron degeneracy pressure in the star's core is
insufficient to balance the star's own gravitational self-attraction.
Consequently, a white dwarf with a mass greater than the limit is
subject to further gravitational collapse, evolving into a different type
of stellar remnant, such as a neutron star or black hole. Those with
masses up to the limit remain stable as white dwarfs.
Chandrashekhar Limit
Invention of Vikram Sarabhai
(Aryabhatta)

▪ The Aryabhata spacecraft, named after the famous Indian

astronomer, was India's first satellite; it was completely designed and
fabricated in India and launched by a Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket from
Kapustin Yar on April 19, 1975.
Aryabhatta

Link For Reference:

https://scroll.in/video/876158/
video-on-this-day-in-1975-indi
as-first-indigenously-made-sa
tellite-aryabhata-was-launche
d
Invention of Gopalasamudram Narayanan
Ramachandran (Collagen Structure)

▪ Collagen is the most abundant protein in animals. This fibrous, structural

protein comprises a right-handed bundle of three parallel, left-handed
polyproline II-type helices. Much progress has been made in elucidating the
structure of collagen triple helices and the physicochemical basis for their
stability. New evidence demonstrates that stereoelectronic effects and
preorganization play a key role in that stability. The fibrillar structure of type
I collagen–the prototypical collagen fibril–has been revealed in detail.
Artificial collagen fibrils that display some properties of natural collagen
fibrils are now accessible using chemical synthesis and self-assembly. A
rapidly emerging understanding of the mechanical and structural properties
of native collagen fibrils will guide further development of artificial
collagenous materials for biomedicine and nanotechnology.
Collagen Structure

Link For Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=H3oAFvYsuq8
Invention of Jayant Narlikar (Hoyle-
Narlikar Theory)

▪ The Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity is

a Machian and conformal theory of gravity proposed by Fred
Hoyle and Jayant Narlikar that originally fits into the quasi steady
state model of the universe.
Hoyle-Narlikar Theory
Credits

▪ Submitted To: Physics Teacher

▪ Submitted By: Prerna Adhana
▪ Submitted As: Holiday Homework

▪ PPT ON CONTRIBUTIONS OF INDIAN PHYSICISTS IN THE FIELD OF

SCIENCE