Wednesday, December 23, 2015

C.N.R Rao: Unedited material collected for Effective People by Prof TV Rao

Case Study: C.N.R Rao
Dr Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has contributed to the development of the field over five decades

Early life and education

C.N.R. Rao was born in Bangalore in a Kannada family to Hanumantha Nagesa Rao and Nagamma Nagesa Rao. He was an only child, and his learned parents made an academic environment. He was well versed in Hindu literature from his mother and in English from his father at an early age. He did not attend elementary school but was home-tutored by his mother, who was particularly skilled in arithmetic and Hindu literature. He entered middle school in 1940, at age six. Although he was the youngest in his class, he used to tutor his classmates in mathematics and English.  He attended Acharya Patashala high school in Basavanagudi Bangalore, which made a lasting influence on his interest in chemistry.
He studied BSc at Central College, Bangalore. Here he developed his communication skills in English and also learnt Sanskrit. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Mysore University in 1951, in first class, and only at the age of seventeen. He initially thought of joining Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for a diploma or a postgraduate degree in chemical engineering, but a teacher persuaded him to attend Banaras Hindu University. He obtained a master's in chemistry from BHU two years later. In 1953 he was granted a scholarship for PhD in IIT Kharagpur. But four foreign universities, MIT, Penn State, Columbia and Purdue also offered him financial support. He chose Purdue. His first research paper was published in the Agra University Journal of Research in 1954. He completed PhD in 1958, only after two years and nine months, at age twenty-four.

Profession

Dr.Rao returned to Bangalore in 1959 to join IISC as a lecturer.. He started his own research with six PhD students. After three years he got permanent appointment in the Department of Chemistry at IIT-K Kanpur. The Director directly appointed him as Head of the department. He worked there from 1963 to 1976.
In 1964, he was elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. In 1976 he returned to IISc to set up a solid state and structural chemistry unit. He became Director of the IISc from 1984 to 1994. He has also been a visiting professor at Purdue University, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge
Rao is currently the National Research Professor, Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore which he founded in 1989. 
He was appointed Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Indian Prime Minister in January 2005, a position which he had occupied earlier during 1985–89. He is also the director of the International Centre for Materials Science (ICMS).
Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has contributed to the development of the field over five decades
Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional oxide materials such as La2CuO4. His work has led to a systematic study of compositionally controlled metal-insulator transitions. Such studies have had a profound impact in application fields such as colossal magneto resistance and high temperature superconductivity. He has made immense contributions to nano materials over the last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials.
He is the author of around 1500 research papers. He has authored and edited 45 books. Rao serves on the board of the Science Initiative Group.





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