Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao , also known as C.N.R. Rao (born 30 June 1934), is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He currently serves as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Rao has honorary doctorates from 60 universities from around the world. He has authored around 1,500 research papers and 45 scientific books.
On 16 November 2013, the Government of India announced his selection for Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, making him the third scientist after C.V. Raman and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to receive the award.He was conferred the award on 4 February 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee in a special ceremony in the Durbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Profession
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.His work on transition metal oxides has led to basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.
Rao was one of the earliest to synthesise 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. Oxide semiconductors have unusual promise. He has made immense contributions to nanomaterials over the last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials.
After completion of his graduate studies Rao returned to Bangalore in 1959 to take up a lecturing position, joining IISC and embarking on an independent research program. From 1963 to 1976 Rao accepted a permanent position in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, during which time he was elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1964. He returned to IISc in 1976 to establish a solid state and structural chemistry unit.and became director of the IISc from 1984 to 1994. At various points in his career Rao has taken appointments as a visiting professor at Purdue University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and University of California, Santa Barbara. He was the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at the King’s College, Cambridge during 1983–1984.
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) and serves on the board of the Science Initiative Group.
He shares co-authorship of around 1500 research papers and has co-authored and edited 45 books.
Awards and recognition
Scientific awards
DSc from Mysore University in 1961
Marlow Medal by the Faraday Society of England in 1967
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Chemical Science in 1968
Yedanapalli Medal and Prize in 1973
C. V. Raman Award in Physical Science by the University Grants Commission of India in 1975
S. N. Bose Medal by the Indian National Science Academy in 1980
Royal Society of Chemistry (London) Medal in 1981
Member of many of the world’s scientific associations, including the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society (London, 1982), Royal Society of Canada, French Academy, Japanese Academy, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Polish Academy of Sciences, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Serbian Academy of Sciences, Slovenian Academy of Sciences, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Korea, African Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is also member of the Pontifical Academy and Foreign Member of Academia Europaea.
Honorary doctorates from several universities including Bordeaux, Caen, Colorado, Khartoum, Liverpool, Northwestern, Novosibirsk, Oxford, Purdue, Stellenbosch, Universite Joseph Fourier, Wales, Wroclaw, Notre Dame, Uppsala, Aligarh Muslim University, Anna, AP, Banaras, Bengal Engineering, Bangalore, Burdwan, Bundelkhand, Delhi, Hyderabad, IGNOU, IIT Bombay, Kharagpur, Delhi, Patna, JNTU, Kalyani, Karnataka, Kolkata, Kuvempu, Lucknow, Mangalore, Manipur, Mysore, Osmania, Punjab, Roorkee, Sikkim Manipal, SRM, Tumkur, Sri Venkateswara, Vidyasagar, Amity University, Gurgaon and Visveswaraya Technological University.
Hevrovsky Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1989
Meghnath Saha Medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1990
Einstein Gold Medal of UNESCO in 1996
Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London in 2000
Hughes Medal by the Royal Society in 2000
Doctor of Science from University of Calcutta in 2004
Somiya Award of the International Union of Materials Research in 2004
India Science Award in 2004
Dan David Prize from Tel Aviv University in 2005 shared with George Whitesides and Robert Langer.
Foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences
Abdus Salam Medal by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2008
Nikkei Asia Prize for Science, Technology and Innovation, by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc., Japan in 2008
Royal Medal by the Royal Society in 2009
August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann Medal by the German Chemical Society in 2010.
Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize for materials research in 2011
2012 Award for International Scientific Cooperation from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013
Elected honorary foreign member of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013
Distinguished Academician Award from IIT Patna in 2013
Indian governmental honours
Padma Shri in 1974
Padma Vibhushan in 1985
Karnataka Ratna by the Karnataka State Government in 2001[30]
Bharat Ratna in 2014
Foreign honours
Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit from the President of Brazil in 2002
Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour, France) in 2005
Order of Friendship by the President of Russia in 2009
Order of the Rising Sun (Gold and Silver Star) of Japan in 2015
Personal life
Rao is married to Indumati Rao in 1960. They have two children, Sanjay and Suchitra. His son Sanjay Rao is engaged in popularising science in Bangalore’s schools.[citation needed] His daughter Suchitra is married to K.M. Ganesh, the director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Pune, Maharashtra.Rao is quite technophobic. He removed computers from his tables and never checks his email by himself. He also said that he uses the mobile phone only to talk to his wife.
(Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._N._R._Rao & indiatoday.intoday.in)