Born: 2nd August 1861
Died: 16th June 1944
Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray was a chemist, he was born on 2nd August 1861. He is also known as the “Father of Chemistry”. In 1882, he was awarded a fellowship to the University of Edinburgh, where he received his BS and then his Ph.D. in 1887. Ray showed great promise in his studies as a young Bengali man. At the time when organic chemistry was the craze, he chose to go after inorganic chemistry and became an expert in mineral salts, such as sulfates and nitrates.
In 1888, he returned to India and received a position at the Presidency College, Calcutta the next year. Being an Indian, Ray didn’t get a position in the imperial service. In 1896, he reported a major discovery of ‘Mercurous Nitrite’ (a new compound) . It was hard to believe that after so many years of chemical investigations, no one had yet discovered this compound as it was figured out to be quite stable. In 1897, his discovery was published in many papers, including the Chemical Society of London Journal. This discovery made him establish a new school of chemistry in India, which attracted many students. In 1961, he established another chemical school after joining Calcutta University College of Science, as a faculty and retired in 1936. Ray died on 16th June 1944. He was a passionate Bengali nationalist throughout his life, unfortunately, did not live long enough to see his dream become reality. He is remembered for his passion for Independence and his philanthropy. He lived with extreme simplicity, needed very little money, and in 1921, donated his entire salary for research and student support. His lifestyle and humbleness became much like a model for his students and contemporaries similar to his expertise in inorganic chemistry. Ray is considered a scientific hero in India, and in 2011 he was honored with a special exhibition at the Science Centre, Kolkata. Indians always referred to him as Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, ‘Acharya’ being an honorary title meaning “one who leads by example.”
