Venkatraman Radhakrishnan

Venkatraman Radhakrishnan

Born: 18th May 1929
Died: 3rd Mar 2011

Prof. Radhakrishnan was born on 18th May 1929, in Tondaripet, Madras to Sir C.V Raman, and Lokasundari Ammal as their youngest son. He did his schooling in Madras and graduated in physics from the Central College, Bangalore of the Mysore University in 1950. Sailing, flying, and ham radio were some of his hobbies.

In 1951, Radhakrishnan started his career as a Research scholar at IIS, Bangalore, and joined the British Acoustic films in 1953. During 1955-58, he joined the Chalmers University of Technology as Research Assistant. During 1959-64, he was the Senior Research Fellow at California Institute of Technology, USA. In 1965, Radhakrishnan next moved to the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics in Australia as Principal Research Scientist and worked there up to 1971. Also, he was with Meudon Observatory, France during 1971-72. Prof. Radhakrishnan accepted an invitation from the Raman Research Institute Trust and returned to India. Under his leadership, RRI grew from zero strength to initiating successful programs in Radio Astronomy and Liquid Crystals. Professor retired from RRI in 1994 and joined as a retired professor from 1994 up to his death.

venkatraman radhakrishnan

Prof. Radhakrishnan did a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, in building and using two low-frequency radio observatories at Gauribidanur and Mauritius. He also worked with the Ooty radio telescope, and fully supported TIFR’s Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope project with some censorious front ends and back ends being built at RRI in the 1990s. Along with his students and colleagues, Radhakrishnan worked on many features of pulsars and the interstellar medium such as a model for the ‘X-ray nebula around the Vela pulsar’, ‘A survey of low-frequency recombination lines’, and the proposal of ‘recycled pulsars’. He had contributed in the fields of planetary radiation, radio source polarization and observations, interstellar hydrogen, and many more. Radhakrishnan also spent many years on the design, fabrication, and testing of ultralight aircraft and sailing vessels.

Prof. Radhakrishnan served on various committees in various capacities like he was the Vice President of the International Astronomical Union 1988-1994, he served as the Chairman of Commission J ( Radio Astronomy) of the International Union of Radio Sciences during 1981–1984.

Radhakrishnan was selected by various scientific bodies including both National and International. He was a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Science Academy, a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, etc. He received several awards like M P Birla Memorial Award (2005), Gujarmal Modi Award (2003), Sir Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Award, Amsterdam Univ. Dsc. Professor Radhakrishnan passed away due to cardiac complications, on 3rd March 2011 two months before his 83rd birthday.
On his birth anniversary, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University remembers the man who taught us to look beyond the stars.

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