The city of Chennai has produced luminaries in field of science like C.V. Raman, S. Ramanujan and Subramaniam Chandrasekhar. One name which should have figured along with them seems to be forgotten. As we celebrate the birth centenary of G.N. Ramachandran on October 8, 2022, there appears to be very little enthusiasm to remember this giant of the Indian Science. The story of this deprived genius, known as GNR among friends and students who went through painful illness in the last years of his life, needs to be told.
Gopalasamudram Narayana Ramachandran was born to G.R. Narayana Iyer, a Professor of Mathematics at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. Ramachandran stood first in the Intermediate examination and was admitted to St. Joseph’s College in Trichy. In 1942, Ramachandran stood first in the B.Sc (Hons), Physics and was admitted to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, to study electrical engineering. Sir C.V. Raman was the director of IISc then. He started visiting Raman’s laboratory. Raman discovered Ramachandran’s talent and transferred him to the physics department because according to him, “he is too talented to be an electrical engineer”. Ramachandran’s M.Sc thesis “deserves at least two doctoral degrees”, according to his examiner K.S. Krishnan, another giant of Indian science. Subsequently, Ramachandran got his D.Sc. in just three years, in 1947.
After this, Ramachandran received a scholarship to go to the University of Cambridge and work at the Cavendish Laboratory. He received a second doctorate (PhD) for this work in two years. There he came to know the famous scientist, Linus Pauling who discovered the helical structure of the protein (Alpha – Helix).
