The Ocean and Other Optics: The Biography of Raman

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Being known as the first person of colour and the first Asian to win a Nobel award, a talented and ambitious Indian Physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman dedicated his whole career life to investigating the two fields of optics and acoustics.

Raman was born in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu on 7 November 1888 to a family of eight siblings, in which physics and academia always ran in his family. Therefore, his proficiency in Physics was recognized early on. He graduated from college at the age of 16, winning medals in both physics and English.

Following his education in India, he made his first trip to London in 1921, where his reputation in the study of optics and especially acoustics was gained by an English name J. J. His specialty had been the study of vibration and the study of sounds of stringed instruments. However, it was not until the return trip from London to Bombay aboard the SS Narkunda that would change forever the direction of Raman's future.

During the trip, his restless and inquisitive mind became enthralled with the deep blue of the Mediterranean. However, the explanation of Lord Rayleigh that the colour of the sea was just a reflection of the colour of the sky couldn’t please an explorer mindset. He proceeded to outline his concerns while still in the sea and a short time later, Raman was able to show conclusively that the colour of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules.

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