Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, born on June 30, 1934, turns 87 this year. Recently, he was announced as the recipient of the prestigious International Eni Award for Energy Research 2021, considered the ‘Nobel Prize in Energy Research’ by the international scientific community due to the prestige associated with its awardees. He is one of only three Indian scientists to have been awarded the Bharat Ratna, the other two being Sir C V Raman and A P J Abdul Kalam.
Prof Rao, known to the Indian scientific community as ‘CNR’ and to foreigners as ‘Ram’, has brought Indian Chemistry, especially, Solid State Chemistry, Materials Chemistry and Nanoscience to the world level. He is a rare combination of a great chemist and an institution builder, with hardly a parallel in the world.
Legend in the Making
If one looks at Prof Rao’s life history, it becomes adequately clear that from young age itself, he was a legend in the making. Prof Rao’s early spiritual and scientific education was conducted at home, but he could clear his secondary school examination with ease and with distinction. His love for Chemistry started during senior secondary school when he was studying at the Acharya Patashala in Basavangudi, Bangalore, and was nurtured during his days at Central College, Bangalore, which boasted of alumni like Sir M Visvesvararya and Dr C Rajagopalachari. During his college days, Sir C V Raman and Mahatma Gandhi were his ideals. Upon advise by his teachers, Prof Rao went to Banaras Hindu University (BHU), then the greatest seat of learning, for his master’s degree in Chemistry, leaving the possibility of studying at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in his home town, Bangalore. Prof S S Joshi at BHU wanted him to start his research from the beginning of his master’s programme, and Prof Rao’s first research publication appeared in the Journal of Research in 1954, when he was only 20.
Prof Rao chose Purdue University in the US for higher studies, with full financial support, even though he had fully-supported offers from many Indian and other American universities due to his excellence in Chemistry. Purdue is where Prof Rao got moulded to become the great chemist he is. Prof Rao’s guide permitted him to explore research work with professors in the Chemistry Department of Purdue University. This is the reason he could finish his PhD in less than three years.
Two people, who he met at Purdue University, left lasting impression on Prof Rao’s life – Nobel laureates Prof Linus C Pauling and Prof Herbert C Brown. Prof Pauling is dear to Prof Rao’s heart and he has innumerable stories about Pauling for youngsters. Pauling’s book on the subject of chemical bonding impressed Prof Rao and he started working on the structure of molecules. On the other hand, Prof Brown advised him to publish anything that he would work on or not work on it at all; this is the reason Prof Rao has at least more than one score publications every year even today.
A Disciplined Life
One of the hallmarks of Prof Rao is that he is an excellent science communicator; once he starts working on a research publication, he would have gone through it at least 10 times before sending it out for publication in less than a week.
He has told younger colleagues and students that he is at his creative best in the morning around 5 to 7 am, which historically is known as the ‘Brahma Muhurtha’. Hence, he writes down his new ideas or begins work on a manuscript or anything new during this time. He always uses his afternoon and evenings to finetune his writing or repetitive work or discussions. Another great thing about Prof Rao is his phenomenal memory – he remembers all his publications, including the authors on the publication. When someone mentions a topic and if he has worked on it anytime in his life, he will immediately remember it and he would even find it out in his collection of publications, which runs close to over 1800 in number. This also leads to another important trait, that he is very meticulous in his scientific rigour. Even today, you won’t find him using a computer to write his papers, he is still the old-fashioned professor who writes down his papers using different colored pens and gets them typed by students and secretaries, proofreading again and again for the language and grammar. His father was the person who encouraged him to learn English along with his mother tongue Kannada and Sanskrit, and his knowledge of the English language is that of an accomplished writer.
Prof Rao went on to do his post-doctoral research at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, before he decided to return to India even though he could have easily settled in any country he wanted to at that time. At UC, Berkeley, he was greatly influenced by the stories of Prof G N Lewis, who is the greatest Chemist in history and who didn’t get a Nobel Prize for the innumerable and phenomenal discoveries he made even after being nominated over 41 times. There seems to be an unfortunate similarity here with Prof Rao, who has been honoured with all possible prestigious awards in the world except the Nobel Prize. He always used to tell the young colleagues and friends that at UC, Berkeley, they all believed that the Chemistry department had Lewis’s ghost as a guiding light and he would like to be one such.
Science Diplomat
Upon his return to India at the age of 24, to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, as a lecturer, Prof Rao realised the hard reality of lack of funds to carry out research in India. This led him to develop international collaboration. He always joked that he used to go to friends’ laboratories abroad and borrow chemicals to do research, but in reality, he was developing international collaboration, of which he was a great proponent and always wanted it to be for the advantage of Indian science. This has greatly influenced his outlook about pursuing science in India. Throughout his career, he has always worked hard to get unhindered funds into science and has always been at the forefront to convince the government to get it to invest in scientific research, which has benefited all branches of sciences. This moulded him as a science advisor to the government.
While as a young faculty member at IISc, he felt the difficulty of the hierarchical structure of scientific administration and realised that he needed to move up early to head the scientific administration to change this trend. He moved to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, and helped in developing the Department of Chemistry there. The story goes, as I heard from one of the senior faculty in the Department of Chemistry at IISc, that Prof Rao told them that he would return to head the institution, which turned out to be prophetic as he returned on the invitation of Prof Satish Dhawan to be the Director of IISc, Bangalore.
Establishing Solid State Chemistry in India
Prof Rao started a new branch of Chemistry in India to challenge the dominance of Organic Chemists in the country, namely Solid State Chemistry. He was ridiculed by then stalwarts in Chemistry in India, but he soon disproved them. He started getting recognition in India and abroad for his work in the field. He even got a note from Sir C V Raman — after reading Prof Rao’s book on Infrared Spectroscopy and his contributions to Chemistry — asking him if he could nominate Prof Rao to the Indian Academy of Sciences as a Fellow. Prof Rao was unstoppable in his scientific achievements and the world started taking note of the young scientist.
Many a time, when Prof Rao finds time to discuss or when he is in the mood to advise, he always says, try to find a niche for yourself even if you are the only one doing so, only then you can leave a mark. He has another piece of advice for youngsters — one should know how to select a research problem and also know when to leave it too. This is the reason Prof Rao has contributed to many areas of Chemistry.
His stint at IIT Kanpur nurtured two important aspects of Prof Rao’s personality, besides that of a great teacher — a great Indian scientist was born and he learned the art of scientific institution building. Department of Chemistry of IIT Kanpur became the hub for Chemistry and Solid State Chemistry became a leading science in India.
After taking over as the Director of IISc, Bangalore, and starting a new department called the Solid State Structural Chemistry Unit, IISc Chemistry department started to be ranked equal to some of the best departments in the world. Here was born the Superconductivity research in India, where Prof Rao has made significant contributions; noteworthy is the discovery of the high Tc superconductor in his laboratory, simultaneously with the people who ended up getting the Nobel Prize for superconductivity. This could have got Prof Rao the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
It is difficult to be the head of the institution and be a hands-on researcher, but Prof Rao used to balance both things excellently. Watching him closely, one could see that he knew everything happening in the laboratory and he was up-to-date with the research and science in his laboratory as well as in the world. When Prof Rao looks back, he always feels that he could have done much better if he had not been the Director of IISc, but what IISc is today is because of the transformation that started during Prof Rao’s term.
Relentless Researcher
Another person who influenced Prof Rao whom he met at the University of Cambridge was Prof Nevill Mott. Prof Rao along with Prof Mott had contributed to the electronic structure of magnetic materials and disordered systems, which got Prof Mott the Nobel Prize in Physics. Prof Rao was impressed with his dedication to his research and always said that Prof Mott got his Nobel Prize after finishing his tenure as Cavendish Professor of Cambridge University. Prof Rao would also say that he would like to follow Prof Mott, who went on to do research till the last day of his life and published even in the year he died. This was the reason Prof Rao started a new institution after retiring from IISc, called the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, which has turned out to be another great Indian institution.
The post-IISc days make the golden era of Prof Rao in research. He started Materials Science research which is now one of the leading sciences in India and the world. In 2005, he started Nanoscience research. The year 2005 was also a turning point for Indian Science when Prof Rao brought mega-science funding into Indian research through Nanoscience and Technology, which took India to be one of the top countries in the world in research in Materials Science and Chemistry. In both these areas, Prof Rao has made historic contributions to magnetism, electronic properties, nanostructures, carbon chemistry, catalysis, energy research, and many more.
Prof Rao has been passionate about science education and one such initiative was the starting of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) institutes, which are turning out to be the top institutions of world repute in science in India. Prof Rao has not only contributed to Science, especially Chemistry and institution building but has nurtured young talent in the country in all the subject areas. In Indian science, he has influenced every researcher in some way or the other and he is always available to listen to both the scientists and students to find ways to solve their problems in doing quality research. Indian science owes a lot to him and we wish him a long active research life where he continues to serve India and science as long as possible. Prof Rao is truly a legend and inspires everyone who embarks on scientific research.
