Ramanuja Vijayaraghavan (born 3 January 1931) is an Indian
physicist
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 caus ...
, specializing in
condensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...
.
Vijayaraghavan pioneered active research in the areas of
metal physics
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
,
magnetic resonance
Magnetic resonance is a process by which a physical excitation (resonance) is set up via magnetism.
This process was used to develop magnetic resonance imaging and Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy technology.
It is also being used to ...
in biophysical systems, and fine particle physics, a forerunner to
nanoscience. He is a fellow of several science academies and twice elected as a member of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics commission on magnetism.
Early life
He was born in a well-off family. He was the grandson of
Mahawidwan R. Raghava Iyengar, a renowned Tamil and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
scholar of the 20th century.
Career
After graduating from the
Annamalai University
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, motto = "With Courage and Faith"
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in 1951, he joined the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at Bombay as a Research Student, eventually rising to the position of Distinguished Professor and Dean (Physics Faculty).
[ He formally retired in 1996 . He was deputed twice by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, as an Expert to set up the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at the Atomic Energy Centre, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He was awarded an Indian National Science Academy Senior Scientist position from 1996 to 2001, during which he worked at SAMEER, ]Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
, in collaboration with TIFR. In the 1950s, he constructed a crossed circle wide line NMR spectrometer which could detect deuterium and oxygen-17 isotopes in their natural abundance. Using oxygen-17 as a probe, he demonstrated chemical shifts in organic liquids due to electronic bonding. He subsequently developed an interdisciplinary group which used NMR and susceptibility measurements in metals to show that susceptibility and the hyperfine field at the nucleus were related and could be modified by alloying. The oscillatory nature of the conduction electron polarisation was established in rare earth alloys. The findings from experiments performed in bulk samples of transition metals, rare earths, Heusler alloys and spin glass were related to results obtained from microscopic techniques such as NMR, Mossbauer and neutron diffraction. In 1986, his group organized one of the first international conferences on high Tc superconductors. He and his collaborators, are credited with the discovery of superconductivity in borocarbides with magnetic elements (under the leadership of R. Nagarajan and L. C. Gupta) and new valence fluctuating materials, heavy fermions, rare earth magnetism phenomena and highly correlated electron systems. His group also made early contributions to the detection of tumors by magnetic resonance.
As a tribute to his contribution to physics, two felicitation volumes were published in 1991 on the occasion of his 60th birthday: ''Frontiers in solid state series, Superconductivity (Vol.1)'', and ''Magnetism (Vol. 2)'', by World Scientific Publishing
World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore. The company was founded in 1981. It publishes about 600 books annually, along with 135 journals in various f ...
, in Singapore. These volumes incorporate articles written by leading international scientists, including Nobel laureates
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ou ...
.
Vijayaraghavan was conferred the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1976, and received the UGC Raman award in Physical Sciences in 1983.[ Apart from science, he is well versed in ]Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy encompasses the philosophies, world views and teachings of Hinduism that emerged in Ancient India which include six systems ('' shad-darśana'') – Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.Andrew Nicholson (20 ...
and Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
literature.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vijayaraghavan, Ramanuja
1931 births
20th-century Indian physicists
Living people
Tamil scientists
Annamalai University alumni
Scientists from Chennai
Indian condensed matter physicists
Rare earth scientists