K. Venkataraman
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Krishnaswami Venkataraman
FNA FNA may refer to: * Algerian National Front (French: ') * β-FNA, beta-funaltrexamine, ''beta''-funaltrexamine, an opioid antagonist * Farmers of North America, a Canadian agricultural company * Fars News Agency, in Iran * Fédération Française A ...
, FASc, FNASc, FRSC (1901–1981), popularly known as KV, was an Indian organic chemist and the first Indian director at
National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the CSIR India, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was estab ...
(NCL Pune) and University Department of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (UDCT). He was known for the demonstration of an organic chemical reaction involving 2-acetoxyacetophenones which later came to be known as the
Baker–Venkataraman rearrangement The Baker–Venkataraman rearrangement is the chemical reaction of 2-acetoxyacetophenones with base to form 1,3-diketones. This rearrangement reaction proceeds via enolate formation followed by acyl transfer. It is named after the scientists Wils ...
and for his contributions in developing NCL into one of the leading research centres in organic chemistry. He was an elected fellow of several science academies which included the
Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...
, Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, USSR Academy of Sciences, Prussian Academy of Sciences,
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
, Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. The
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 1961.


Biography

Krishnaswami Venkataraman was born on 7 June 1901 in Madras (present-day
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
), Madras Presidency during the British Colonial rule, to P. S. Krishnaswami, a civil engineer,
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 and the translator of
Valmiki Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
into
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 ...
, as the middle-born of his three sons. His brothers were
K. Swaminathan Krishnaswamy Swaminathan (3 December 1896 – 19 May 1994) was an Indian literary scholar and the Chief Editor of the ''Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi''. Early life and education Swaminathan was born in Pudukottai on 3 December 1896. His fath ...
, a professor of English who was the chief editor of the collected works of
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...
and Krishnaswami Srinivas Sanjivi, a noted medical doctor who founded Voluntary Health Services and is considered by many to be the father of the primary health care movement in India.
Madhav Sharma Madhav Sharma (born 12 November 1939) is an Indian-British actor. Early life Sharma studied at the Scottish Church College in Kolkata, India and later, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Bloomsbury, London. Following the death of his m ...
, an actor of films and television, is his nephew. He studied chemistry at Presidency College, Madras and obtained his MA from
Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...
in 1923. Subsequently, he moved to England where he joined the
University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
on a scholarship from the
Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...
and obtained MSc (Tech) in colour chemistry. He remained in England for his doctoral research, along with another noted chemist, T. R. Seshadri, at the laboratory of Robert Robinson which earned him a PhD and later a DSc from the
University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
. On his return to India in 1927, he worked at the Indian Institute of Science as a research fellow for almost a year and in 1928, joined Forman Christian College,
Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
(then part of undivided India). He stayed in Lahore until 1934 when he joined the then newly formed University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT-present-day Institute of Chemical Technology) of the
University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...
as a reader and became a full Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1936. In 1938, he was appointed as the head of the department and as the director in 1943, thus becoming the first Indian director of the Institute. After retiring from UDCT in 1957, he became the third director of the
National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the CSIR India, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was estab ...
(NCL),
Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
, the first Indian director to hold the post. He served as the director of NCL until 1966, but continued his association with the laboratory eve after his retirement. Venkataraman married Shakunthala at the age of nineteen when his bride was only fourteen. The couple had one daughter,
Dharma Kumar Dharma Kumar (1928 – 19 October 2001) was an Indian economic historian, noted for her work on the agrarian history of India. Her Ph.D at Cambridge on the agrarian history of South India was awarded the Ellen MacArthur Prize, and was publ ...
, who went on to become a noted economic historian.
Lovraj Kumar Lovraj Kumar (1926–1994) was an Indian Civil Service, Indian civil servant who had a role in forming Indian economic policies from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Kumar was born in Nainital in 1926, and attended The Doon School, Dehradun. ...
, an Indian civil servant and a former secretary of the ministries of
Petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
and
Steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
, was his son-in-law and Radha Kumar, a noted author, historian, feminist and academic was his granddaughter. Venkataraman died on 12 May 1981 at New Delhi, survived by his wife and daughter.


Scientific and professional contributions

One of the major scientific achievements of Venkataraman was his experiments with 2-acetoxyacetophenones when he demonstrated, along with
Wilson Baker Wilson Baker FRS (24 January 1900 – 3 June 2002) was a British organic chemist. He was born in Runcorn, the youngest of the four children of Harry and Mary Baker (née Eccles); his father was himself a chemist, having studied under Sir Henry ...
, and English organic chemist, that the compound transformed into o-hydroxydibenzoylmethanes and finally to flavones which later came to be known as Baker-Venkataraman transformation. This process, a variant of
Allan–Robinson reaction The Allan–Robinson reaction is the chemical reaction of o-hydroxyaryl ketones with aromatic anhydrides to form flavones (or isoflavones). If aliphatic anhydrides are used, coumarins can also be formed. (See Kostanecki acylation.) : Mechanism ...
, is in use for the synthesis of flavones and
chromones Chromone (or 1,4-benzopyrone) is a derivative of benzopyran with a substituted keto group on the pyran ring. It is an isomer of coumarin. Derivatives of chromone are collectively known as ''chromones''. Most, though not all, chromones are also ...
. Through his experiments with Artocarpus heterophyllus, commonly known as Jackfruit, he was able to isolate artocarpanone, a tyrosinase inhibitor, as well as eight flavones and later, he isolated similar flavones from
Morus alba ''Morus alba'', known as white mulberry, common mulberry and silkworm mulberry, is a fast-growing, small to medium-sized mulberry tree which grows to tall. It is generally a short-lived tree with a lifespan comparable to that of humans, although ...
(White Mulberry). These experiments helped establish the taxonomical relationship between the two species. Shortly after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Venkataraman was invited for a visit
IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies—BASF, ...
, a German
dyestuff A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...
manufacturing company, and this gave him an opportunity to study the international dyestuff industry. He collected data which was later copied and published as an 8-volume book, ''The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes'', which is considered by many as a seminal work on dye chemistry. He also submitted a report to the Government of India for the development of dyestuff and intermediaries industry in India, known as the ''Pai/Venkataraman report'' which paved way for the development of the industry in the country, earning him the moniker, the ''father of the Indian dyestuff industry''. Another of Venkataraman's contributions was his work on lac pigments. He focused his research on the chemistry of laccaic acid and later on other anthraquinonoid insect pigments. With the help of his findings, he ''proposed revised structures for kermesic acid and ceroalbolinic acid''. He was the first scientist in India to use X-ray crystallographers for finding solutions to problems of organic structure. During his tenure at UDCT, Venkataraman was instrumental in starting several courses chemical technology, combining pure science and technology. He guided around 85 students in their doctoral research which included such notable chemists as B. D. Tilak, B. S. Joshi,
Nitya Anand Nitya Anand (born 1 January 1925 in Layallpur, British India) is a medicinal chemist who was the director of Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow from 1974 to 1984. In 2005, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) appointed him chairman of i ...
and
A. V. Rama Rao Alla Venkata Rama Rao (born 2 April 1935) is an Indian inventor and chemist, known for his pioneering researches in the field of drug technology. He is the founder of the ''A. V. Rama Rao Research Foundation'', a non governmental organization pr ...
. His contributions are reported in the development of National Chemical Laboratory into one of World's leading research centre in dyestuff chemistry. He sat in the editorial boards of many journals, which included ''Tetrahedron'', '' Tetrahedron Letters'' and ''Indian Journal of Chemistry''. Besides ''The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes'', he also edited another 612-page book, ''The Analytical Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes'' and these nine books remain reference texts in the discipline. Besides, he also published 271 scientific articles. Venkataraman served as the president of the Indian Academy of Sciences for three terms (1943–46, 1949–55, 1965–67) and as the vice president from 1952 to 1955. He also served as the vice president of the Indian National Science Academy.


Awards

Venkataraman was elected a fellow of the Chemical Society (FCS) in 1932, which became the
Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...
in 1980. He was elected a founding fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc) in 1934, and as a Fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (FNI, now the Indian National Science Academy in 1939. He was also a fellow of the
National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...
(FNASc). In 1960, Academy of Sciences Leopoldina elected him as a member. He was also a fellow of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, USSR Academy of Sciences, and the
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
. The Government of India awarded Venkataraman the third highest civilian award of the Padma Bhushan in 1961. He received the Professor T. R. Seshadri 60th birthday commemoration medal in 1973. He was also a recipient of the Acharya P.C. Ray Medal of the Indian Chemical Society.


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *


See also

* Subramania Ranganathan * T. R. Govindachari


Notes


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venkataraman, Krishnaswami 1901 births 1981 deaths Indian organic chemists Tamil scientists Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences 20th-century Indian chemists Scientists from Chennai Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences University of Madras alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia alumni Forman Christian College faculty University of Mumbai faculty Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Indian scientific authors