Hail the Pioneers! : The Legacy of IACS

 

During colonial rule, as India was reeling under scarce scientific infrastructure, a visionary philanthropist, Dr Mahendra Lal Sarcar, came forward to establish an institution entirely funded by his earnings from his medical practice, where Indians could pursue science through original research. Thus, the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) was established in Kolkata on July 29, 1876.

As IACS just celebrated its 150^th anniversary, it stands not merely as India’s oldest scientific research institution devoted to the pursuit of fundamental research in the frontier areas of basic sciences, but also as a living testimony to some of the greatest scientific minds it has nurtured over its long journey.  It has indeed inspired generations of researchers by cultivating a legacy of intellectual curiosity and scientific excellence through talks delivered by the brilliant minds of that era, like JC Bose, Father Eugene Lafont and Ashutosh Mukherjee among all those who passed through its portals.

Until the early decades of the 20^th century, IACS was the only research institution in India where higher research in the physical sciences could be pursued. It thus attracted brilliant brains like KS Krishnan, S Bhagavantam, L Srivastava, NK Sethi, and C Prosad from all over India to carry out research in Physics. Their pioneering contributions in the fields of molecular light scattering, experimental wave optics and magnetism, etc., built India’s foundation in modern physics.

Among the most celebrated Scientists associated with IACS is Prof CV Raman, whose quest for research is pretty inspiring. Shortly after joining the Accountant General’s office in Calcutta in 1907, one day, young Raman, while going to the office, having noticed the brass signboard: ‘Indian Association for Cultivation of Science’, jumped off the tram and knocked on the door of the institute and befriending the inmates, he acquired unrestricted access to the institute.

From the next day onwards, Raman used IACS as his experimental research base by leading a double life with a grueling schedule: Every day, from 5.30 am to 9.30 am he did research at IACS labs; 10 am to 5 pm attended to his government job at the finance office; and back at the IACS labs from 5.30 pm to 10 pm he carried on with his experiments in physics. He pursued his research thus for almost a decade, till he resigned the government job in 1917 to accept the professorship of Physics at the University of Calcutta. He pursued his research interests at IACS not because he was paid to do it but purely out of his insatiable curiosity to unravel nature’s mysteries. This passion of Raman for research eventually led to one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20^th century.

It was in 1921, while sailing back from Europe after attending a conference, that Raman was fascinated by the striking blue color of the Mediterranean Sea. Wondering if Lord Rayleigh was right in saying that the sea merely reflected the blue color of the sky, he pulled out his pocket Nicol prism and blocked out the sky’s reflection, which should have made the sea surface look colorless. Instead, Raman observed that the blue color “far from being impoverished by suppression of the sky reflection, was wonderfully improved thereby." This instantly made him infer that the water itself was actively scattering the light and excited by his observation, he drafted a paper in his cabin and mailed it to Nature immediately on landing in Bombay.

On returning to IACS, Raman, along with his brilliant student, KS Krishnan erected an experimental set up consisting of: i) light source—raw sunlight focused through a telescope/basic mercury vapour lamp; ii) filter—a cheap, violet-coloured glass filter (to isolate a single wavelength of light); iii) target—beamed this light through various purified liquid samples; and iv) detector —a pocket spectroscope and of course, Raman’s own inquisitive eyes. 

On February 28, 1928, when the pure violet light was sent through the liquid, Raman noticed the scattered light coming out the other side containing entirely new colours, such as green. This change in colour happened because the photons of light were colliding with the molecules of the liquid and exchanging energy with them. This quantum phenomenon proved that light interacting with matter can emerge with altered wavelengths carrying unique information about the substance being studied. And thus emerged the ‘Raman Effect’, revolutionizing physics and chemistry forever. This discovery won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, making him India’s first Nobel Laureate in science.

Here, it is worth recalling a narration in his biography written by Ramaseshan. It seems Raman had “booked two tickets on a steamship for himself and his wife in July 1930, the year he got the Nobel Prize, to enable them to reach Stockholm in early December! Prizes were not announced until November. Had he waited until they announced, he would have been unable to attend the ceremonies”. That was Raman’s confidence about winning the Nobel!  

There is another interesting incident that tells about Raman’s confidence in the worth of his research. In the summer of 1924, Raman, at the invitation of Robert Millikan, went to the US to give some lectures at the California Institute of Technology. Apparently, he was then not that well known in the US, and that must be one reason why very few attended his lectures. Obviously, he was very unhappy about it. Perhaps, peeved by it, he, in one of his conversations with Rosseland, reported to have said, “You see Rosseland, no one knows me now. You just wait, when I go back to India, I will make a great discovery and receive the Nobel Prize. Then everyone will know me”. It appears at that time Rosseland just wrote Raman off, but later he said: “I changed my mind when Raman made good on his promise”. And, to date, he is the only Indian to get the Nobel Prize for work done by an Indian in India. Today, Raman spectroscopy has become a powerful analytical tool across industries worldwide.

Post-independence, Dr Meghnad Saha of the ‘thermal ionization equation’, who became the Director of the IACS, moved it to the Jadavapur campus and transformed it into a world-class institute (1953 to 56) by establishing dedicated research laboratories for active research. Much later, Dr Satyendra Nath Bose of Bose-Einstein statistics and Bosons fame was elected as the President of IACS, and as National Professor, he conducted research within IACS (1959-70), adding lustre to its ecosystem.

Thus, in fostering Indian science, the IACS and Sir CV Raman will forever stand as heroes inspiring generations of young scientists. Hail to IACS and Sir CV Raman!

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