Venkatraman Radhakrishnan

Venkataraman Radhakrishnan (18 May 1929 – 3 March 2011) was an Indian space scientist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He ended his career as professor emeritus of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, India, of which he had previously been director from 1972 to 1994 and which is named after his father. He served on various committees in various capacities including as the vice president of the International Astronomical Union during 1988–1994. He was also a Foreign Fellow of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.

Early life and education

Radhakrishnan was born in Tondiarpet, a suburb of Madras, to Nobel laureate physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman and his wife Lokasundari Ammal. His early schooling was in Madras. He graduated from the Mysore University before joining the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Career

He worked in the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden as a Research Assistant during 1955–1958. He was a senior research fellow of the California Institute of Technology, USA before joining the Radio physics Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Sydney, Australia initially as the senior research scientist and later as the principal research scientist. He returned to India in 1972 and took up the task of rebuilding the Raman Research Institute as its director. During his tenure as the director of the Raman Research Institute between 1972–1994 he built an international reputation for work in the areas of pulsar astronomy, liquid crystals, and other areas of frontline research in Astronomy. The University of Amsterdam conferred the Doctor Honoris Causa degree on Prof. Radhakrishnan in 1996.

Radhakrishnan served on various committees in various capacities. He was the vice president of the International Astronomical Union during 1988–1994. He served as the chairman of Commission J ( Radio Astronomy) of the International Union of Radio Sciences (1981–1984). He was the member of the Foreign Advisory Committee for the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy, Steering Committee of the Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia, Advisory Committee for the Green Bank Radio Telescope, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA. He was also the Member of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. During the period of 1973–1981 he was a member of the Indian National Committee for Astronomy.

Radhakrishnan was selected to various scientific bodies, both national and international. He was a Foreign Fellow of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Science Academy. He was an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.

Areas of research

Radhakrishnan had been associated with the field of radio astronomy practically from the beginning of its phenomenal post-World War II growth in the 1950s. He was one of the persons who founded the science of observational astronomy in India. His career had been truly international, starting in Sweden in 1954 and proceeding via Caltech and CSIRO, Sydney to Bangalore, where he spent the last thirty three years.

Starting with the electronics of receivers, he moved on to technically innovative and astronomically far-reaching studies of the polarization of the radio waves. These include the detection of radio waves from the Van Allen like belts surrounding Jupiter and the first determination of the true rotation of the core of Jupiter. He was also the first in systematic application of interferometry to polarized brightness distributions and an early study of the Zeeman Effect in the 21 cm line emitted by a hydrogen atom. His measurements of polarization of Vela Pulsar were decisive in establishing the picture of a magnetized rotating neutron star and led him to propose the paradigm of curvature radiation from polar caps of neutron stars which has dominated the subject of pulsar emission mechanisms since that time.

The period of his stay in Australia also marked his leadership of an extensive survey of the absorption and emission of 21cm line radiation by neutral hydrogen which later helped to develop the realistic model of the interstellar medium. He also carried out systematic interferometric study of 21cm absorption towards a large number of galactic and extragalactic sources.

He also contributed in designing and fabricating hang-gliders, micro-light aircraft and sailboats. His original contributions in these fields were acknowledged by the Government of India by way of support from the Aeronautics Research Development Board, Ministry of Defence (for designing hang-gliders) and ISRO (for sailboats).

Publications

Radhakrishnan published more than 80 papers in research journals and also proceedings of different various International Conferences. He also co-edited a book of conference-proceedings, "Supernovae: their Progenitors and Remnants" (1985). He had been the chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy.

Important contributions

Radhakrishnan worked in the Raman Research Institute. He was instrumental and closely involved with the construction of the 10.4 meter millimeter wave radio antenna in the Institute which has been used to study various astrophysical phenomena producing original contributions in pulsar astronomy as well as recombination line studies of the interstellar medium.

He made important contributions in various other areas. Deuterium abundance in the galaxy, Astrophysical Raman Masers, OH emission from clouds and later on building of the low frequency telescopes at Gauribidanur and Mauritius were some of the hallmarks of his career.

He was invited to deliver the Milne Lecture in Oxford in 1987, and also gave the Jansky Lecture in 2000.

He was the member of International Astronomical Union (IAU) and served on many of its committees, including Division VI Commission 34 on ''Interstellar Matter'', Division X Commission 40 on ''Radio Astronomy'', Division XI Commission 44 ''Space & High Energy Astrophysics'', Division VI ''Interstellar Matter'', Division X ''Radio Astronomy'', and Division IX ''Space & High Energy Astrophysics''.

Personal life

He was married to Mrs. Francoise-Dominique Barnard. They have a son Vivek Radhakrishnan.

Sources

Raman Research Institute official website



{{DEFAULTSORT:Radhakrishnan, Venkataraman
1929 births
2011 deaths
20th-century Indian astronomers
Scientists from Chennai
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Chandrasekhar family
University of Mysore alumni
Indian Institute of Science faculty
20th-century American scientists