First Indian Scientist to Win Nobel Prize

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (C.V. Raman) was the first Indian scientist to win Nobel Prize. C.V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him. Raman effect relates to the inelastic scattering of a photon. When light is scattered from an atom or molecule, most photons are elastically scattered (Rayleigh scattering). The scattered photons have the same energy (frequency) and, therefore, wavelength, as the incident photons. However, a small fraction of scattered light (approximately 1 in 10 million photons) is scattered from excitations with optical frequencies different from, and usually lower than, the frequency of the incident photons. Raman effect is helpful in analyzing the composition of liquids, gases, and solids