Indian Nobel Prize Winners
RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1913)
Nobel Prize for Literature
Popularly known as Gurudev, India's most famous writer and poet was
awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of his work Geetanjali, a
collection of poems, in 1913. Tagore was also involved in teaching. In
1901 he founded the famous Santiniketan which later came to be known as
Vishwabharati University. Rabindranath Tagore is also the author of
India's National Anthem.
CHANDRASHEKAR VENKATA RAMAN (1930)
Nobel Prize for Physics
Born at Thiruvanaikkaval in Tamil Nadu, Raman studied at Presidency
College, Madras. Later, he served as Professor of Physics at Calcutta
University. C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for an important research in
the field of optics (light). Raman had found that diffused light
contained rays of other wavelengths-what is now popularly known as Raman
Effect. His theory explains why the frequency of light passing through a
transparent medium changes.
HARGOBIND KHORANA (1968 )
The Nobel Prize for Medicine
Dr. Khorana was born in Raipur, Punjab (now in Pakistan). He went abroad
to get his doctorate in Chemistry and later settled there. It was his
study of the human genetic code and the role it plays in protein
synthesis that got him the Nobel Prize.
MOTHER TERESA (1979)
The Nobel Peace Prize
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu at Skopje, now in
Yugoslavia. She wanted to become a nun and joined the Irish order of the
Sisters of Loretto (at Dublin) in 1928. It is as a nun that Agnes came
Calcutta in 1929. Here she was extremely touched by the misery of the
poor and the sick. She decided to dedicate her life to serving them. She
then founded a group of similar minded people called the Missionaries
of Charity and set up Nirmal Hriday a center where she took care of the
dying, the lepers and other people who had been left alone on the
streets of Calcutta to die. Today her group has centers all over the
world.
SUBRAMANIAN CHANDRASHEKAR (1983)
The Nobel Prize for Physics
Dr S. Chandrashekar, is an Indian-born astrophysicist (a branch of
astronomy or the study of space). After studying at the Presidency
College in Madras, Dr. Chandrashekhar went to the United States for work
and settled there. He has written many books on his field Astrophysics
and Stellar Dynamics. He developed a theory on white dwarf stars
forecasts the limit of mass that dwarf stars can have. This limit is
known as the Chandrashekar Limit. His theory also explains the final
stages of the evolution of stars. Dr. Chandrashekar is the nephew of
another Nobel Prize winner Sir C.V. Raman.
AMARTYA SEN (1998 )
Nobel Prize for Economics
Prof. Amartya Sen is the first Asian to win the Economics Nobel. He is
one of the most respected economics thinker in the world. He is also an
excellent teacher. He won the Nobel for his work in the area of economic
theory. Some of his most important work is in the areas of poverty,
democracy, development and social welfare.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
Ramakrishnan is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of EMBO and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was awarded the 2007 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, the 2008 Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society and the 2009 Rolf-Sammet Professorship at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath. He received India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2010
