K.S. Krishnan: The Physicist Behind the Raman Effect

On 28 February 1928, a light-scattering discovery made C.V. Raman India’s first Nobel laureate in science. His close collaborator on that very discovery, K.S. Krishnan, never got the prize himself, even though Raman’s own Nobel lecture credited his role.

Credited, But Not the Prize

SciTech0114

1920

Joins Raman’s Team

IACS, Kolkata

28 Feb 1928

Raman Effect Discovered

Now National Science Day

1930

Nobel Goes to Raman Alone

His own lecture credits Krishnan

4 Jan 1947

First NPL Director

National Physical Laboratory

1958: Krishnan becomes the first Physical Sciences winner of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize.

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Timeline

• 4 December 1898: Born in Watrap, Madras Presidency.
• 1920: Joins C.V. Raman’s group at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.
• 28 February 1928: Raman and Krishnan together discover the Raman Effect. India now marks this date as National Science Day.
• 1930: The Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Raman alone. His Nobel lecture credits Krishnan’s role.
• 4 January 1947: Becomes the first Director of India’s National Physical Laboratory.
• 1958: Becomes the first Physical Sciences awardee of the newly-created Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize.

Must Know

• Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan worked closely with C.V. Raman at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.
• On 28 February 1928, Raman and Krishnan together discovered the light-scattering phenomenon later named the Raman Effect. India marks this date every year as National Science Day.
• The 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery went to Raman alone. In his own Nobel lecture, Raman said Krishnan “very materially assisted” him, and had separately found the same effect in organic vapours.
• On 4 January 1947, Krishnan became the first Director of India’s National Physical Laboratory.
• He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1940, and knighted in 1946.

Good to Know

• He studied at Madras Christian College before moving to Calcutta University for his post-graduate physics work.
• Right after the 1928 discovery, he moved to Dacca University as Reader in Physics. He returned to the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in 1933, as its Mahendralal Sircar Professor.
• In 1942, he moved again, to Allahabad University, as Professor and Head of the Physics Department. There, he shifted his research toward the physics of metals and solids.
• He received the Padma Bhushan in 1954.
• In 1958, Krishnan became the first Physical Sciences category winner of the newly-instituted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, India’s leading science award, created by CSIR.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. The discovery K.S. Krishnan helped make with C.V. Raman, on 28 February 1928, is commemorated each year as which national observance?

National Science Day

National Technology Day

National Mathematics Day

National Engineers’ Day

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Great to Know

• Krishnan later helped shape India’s own scientific institution-building, much like other researchers who moved from pure discovery into building lasting research infrastructure. See SciTech0093 — Technology Development Board (TDB) for a later, related chapter in India’s science-institution story.
• Raman crediting Krishnan by name in his own Nobel lecture, while the Prize itself went to Raman alone, is an awkward historical fact. It shows how scientific credit and formal recognition don’t always move together, even when the people involved clearly know who did what.