great personalities related to science

Rakesh Sharma

Born: January 13, 1949 (age 63), Patiala

Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, AC (Ashok Chakra Award), Hero of the Soviet

Union, is a former Indian Air Force test pilot who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 as part

of the Intercosmos program.

Sharma was the first Indian to travel in space.

The Intercosmos Research Team was a program that was conducted by the

Soviet Union and included active participation from allied countries such as

India, Syria and France. Rakesh Sharma was chosen for this assignment and

ever since, he has been an inspiration to upcoming cosmonauts.

Early Life:

On January 13th 1949, Rakesh Sharma was born in the well-known district of Patiala located in the state

of Punjab. As a young boy, he enrolled at St. George's Grammar School in Hyderabad and received his

early education from there.

Sharma joined the Indian Air Force in 1970 as a pilot officer after joining the NDA as an IAF cadet in

1966.

Career:

In 1970, after joining the Indian Air Force as a test pilot, his passion for flying opened up several

opportunities such as being a part of war operations against Pakistan.

He flew various Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) aircrafts starting from 1971. Rakesh swiftly progressed

through many levels and in 1984 he was appointed as the Squadron Leader and pilot of the Indian Air

Force.

He was a squadron leader with the Indian Air Force, when he flew into space in 1984 as part of a joint

programme between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Soviet Intercosmos space

program.

He spent eight days journeying around the Earth's orbit in a space station called Salyut 7. He joined two

other Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz T-11 spacecraft which blasted off on April 2, 1984.

Spaceflight:

Sharma joined the Indian Air Force and progressed rapidly through the ranks.

Sharma, then a Squadron Leader and pilot with the Indian Air Force embarked on a historic mission in

1984 as part of a joint space program between the Indian Space Research Organisation and

First Indian to travel into Space

the Soviet Intercosmos space program, and spent eight days in space aboard the Salyut7 spacestation.

Launched along with two Soviet cosmonauts aboard Soyuz T-11on the 3 April 1984.

On 3rd April 1984 when the space flight took off, Rakesh had made history by being the first Indian to

travel in space.

Sharma was 35-year-old.Rakesh along with the Soviet Cosmonauts spend 7 days, 21 hours and 40

minutes (Appx. Eight days) in space and board the Salyut 7 space station, a low earth orbit space station,

conducting an earth observation programme concentrating on India. He also did life sciences and

materials processing experiments, including silicium fusing tests. He is also reported to have

experimented with practicing Yoga to deal with the effects of prolonged orbital spaceflight.

While Rakesh was in space, he was asked by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on a famous

conversation, who asked him how does India looks from space, Rakesh replied

"Saare Jahan se Achcha Hindustan Hamara"

Meaning 'Our land of Hindustan, is the Best in the world'.

A few years later he retired from the Indian Army as a Wing Commander.

He joined the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in 1987 and served as Chief Test Pilot in the HAL Nashik

Division until 1992.

He then shifted to National Flight Test Center (NFTC) in Bangalore and began to work on Light Combat

Aircraft program, along with a few others.

He retired from test flying in 2001.

In 2006, Sharma took part in a conference involving a gathering of the best scientists of ISRO, who were

responsible for one of India's space missions. Currently, he has retired from his services and is now the

chairperson for the Automated Workflow.

Honors:

� He was conferred with the honor of Hero of Soviet Union upon his return from space.

� The Government of India conferred its highest gallantry award (during peace time), the Ashoka

Chakra on him and the other two Soviet members of his mission.

Timeline: 1949: Rakesh Sharma was born in Patalia into a Punjabi family. 1966: He joined the National Defense Academy as an Air Force trainee. 1970: Appointed as a test pilot by Indian Air Force. 1971: Rakesh Sharma flew the Mikoyan-Gurevich, a Russian jet. 1984: He was a part of a space mission owing to which he became the first man to travel to space. 2006: He took part in a space conference held by ISRO.

Kalpana Chawla

Born: July 1, 1961, Karnal

Died: February 1, 2003, Texas

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut who, was a mission

specialist on the space shuttle Columbia.

She first flew on the space shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist

and primary robotic arm operator. Chawla was one of seven crew members

killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Kalpana Chawla was India's first women aeronautical engineer to travel into

space. She has been a role model to several women in terms of achievement

and contributions to the field of aeronautics.

Early Life:

Kalpana Chawla was born on the 1st of July, 1961 in a small town in Karnal located in the state of

Haryana. Her parents, Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi had two other daughters named Sunita and

Deepa and a son named Sanjay.

Kalpana was the youngest in her family and hence, she was the most pampered too.

She got educated at the Tagore Public School and later enrolled into Punjab Engineering College to

complete her Aeronautical Engineering Degree in 1982. In the same year, she moved to the US. She got

married to Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1983. He was her flying instructor and an aviation author.

In 1984, she completed her M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in Arlington. In

1988, she obtained a Ph.D. in the same subject from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Career:

Kalpana Chawla was a certified flight instructor who rated aircrafts and gilders. She also held a

commercial pilot license for single and multi-engine airplanes, hydroplanes and gliders. Kalpana was a

licensed Technician Class Amateur Radio person certified by the Federal Communication commission.

Owing to her multiple degrees in Aerospace, she got a job in NASA as the Vice President of the Overset

Methods, Inc. in 1993. She was extensively involved in computational fluid dynamics research on

Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing

Chawla joined the NASA 'Astronaut Corps' in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996.

She spoke the following words while traveling in the weightlessness of space, "You are just your

intelligence". She had traveled 10.4 million km, as many as 252 times around the Earth.

First Indian Woman to Travel into

Space

First Space Mission:

Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew

the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.

Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space, following

cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a spacecraft.

On her first mission Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than

372 hours in space. During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which

malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite.

A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces

and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.

After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the

astronaut office to work on the space station, her performance in which was recognized with a special

award from her peers.

Next Space Mission:

In 2000, she was again assigned on her second flight mission as a part of Flight STS-107. Kalpana's

responsibility included microgravity experiments. Along with her team members, she undertook a

detailed research on advanced technology development, astronaut health & safety, the study of Earth

and space science. During the course of this mission, there were several mishaps and cracks were

detected in the shuttle engine flow liners.

On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107

mission.

Death:

It was on February 1st 2003 that the space shuttle, STS-107, collapsed over the Texas region when it re-

entered the Earth's atmosphere. This unfortunate event ended the lives of seven crew members

including Kalpana.

Awards:

She was the first Indian woman to travel in a space shuttle for 372 hours and complete 252 rotations

around the Earth's atmosphere. Her achievements have been an inspiration to many others in India and

abroad. There are many science institutions named after her.

Posthumously awarded:

� Congressional Space Medal of Honor

� NASA Space Flight Medal

� NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Memorials:

� Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven named after the Columbia's crew.

� On February 5, 2003, India's Prime Minister announced that the meteorological series of

satellites, "METSAT", will be renamed as "KALPANA". The first satellite of the series, "METSAT-

1", launched by India on September 12, 2002 will be now known as "KALPANA-1". "KALPANA-2"

is expected to be launched by 2007.

� 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City has been renamed 74th Street Kalpana

Chawla Way in her honor.

� The University of Texas at Arlington (where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree in

Aerospace Engineering in 1984) opened a dormitory named in her honor, Kalpana Chawla Hall,

in 2004.

� Kalpana Chawla Award was instituted by the government of Karnataka in 2004 for young

women scientists.

� NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named

the Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster,

including Chawla Hill after Kalpana Chawla.

� Her brother, Sanjay Chawla, remarked:

"To me, my sister is not dead. She is immortal. Isn't that what a star is? She is

a permanent star in the sky. She will always be up there where she belongs."

� Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star

Treknovel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.

� Government of Haryana has made a Planetarium after her name called as Kalpana Chawla

Planetarium in Jyotisar, Kurukshetra.

Timeline:

1961: She was born on 1st July in Karnal.

1982: She moved to the United States to complete her education.

1983: Married a flying instructor and aviation author, Jean-Pierre Harrison.

1984: got an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in Arlington.

1988: She received a Ph.D. in the same field and began to work for NASA.

1993: Joined Overset Methods Inc. as Vice President and Research Scientist.

1995: She joined the NASA 'Astronaut Corps.

1996: Kalpana was the mission specialist for prime robotic arm operator on STS-87.

1997: Her first mission on Flight STS-87 took place.

2000: Assigned on her second mission as part of Flight STS-107.

2003: Chawla got a second chance for the mission on Flight STS-107. On February 1st, she died when the

space shuttle broke down.

Vikram Sarabhai

Born: August 12, 1919, Ahmedabad

Died: December 31, 1971, Kovalam

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was an Indian physicist.

He is considered to be the “father of the Indian space program”

Early Years & Education:

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was born on August 12, 1919 at Ahmedabad in an

affluent family of progressive industrialists. He was one of eight children of

Ambalal and Sarla Devi. He had his early education in a private school,

“Retreat” run by his parents on Montessori lines.

Marriage and children:

In September, 1942, Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini Sarabhai, a celebrated classical dancer. The

wedding was held in Chennai without anyone from Vikram's side of the family attending the wedding

ceremony because of the ongoing Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.

Vikram and Mrinalini had two children - Kartikeya and Mallika. Vikram Sarabhai had a troubled

marriage and was in a long term relationship with Dr.Kamala Choudhary.

His daughter Mallika Sarabhai was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor for

the year 2010 and his son Kartikeya Sarabhai was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012.

After his matriculation, Vikram Sarabhai proceeded to Cambridge for his college education and took the

tripods degree from St. John's college in 1940. When World War II began, he returned home and joined

as a research scholar under Sir C. V. Raman at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore His interest in

solar physics and cosmic ray led him to set up many observation stations around the country. He built

the necessary equipment with which he took measurements at Bangalore, Poona and the Himalayas. He

returned to Cambridge in 1945 and completed his Ph.D in 1947.

Physical Research Laboratory:

Vikram Sarabhai was instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad

in November 1947. The laboratory was established in a few rooms in M.G. Science Institute of the

Ahmedabad Education Society, which was founded by his parents. Subsequently, it got support from the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Atomic Energy.

At the young age of 28, he was asked to organise and create the ATIRA, the Ahmedabad Textile

Industry’s Research Association and was its Honorary Director during 1949-56. He also helped build and

direct the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad from 1962-1965.

Father of the Indian Space Program

Indian Space Programme:

Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear science program, supported

Dr. Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching station in India (TERLS)

at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity

to the equator. After a remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication

links, and launch pads, the inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour

payload.

As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television

Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 – July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no more).

Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian satellite. As a result, the first

Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome.

Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a Community Science Centre at

Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the centre is called the Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre.

After the sudden death of Homi Bhabha in an air crash, Vikram Sarabhai was appointed Chairman,

Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966. He wanted the practical application of science to reach the

common man. He decided to acquire competence in advance technology for the solution of country’s

problems based on technical and economic evaluation of its real resources. He initiated India’s space

programme, which today is renowned all over the world.

Death:

Sarabhai died on 30 December 1971 at Halcyon Castle, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was visiting

Thiruvananthapuram to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Thumba railway station

being built to service the newly created Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station.

Awards:

� Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1962)

� Padma Bhushan (1966)

� Padma Vibhushan, posthumous (after-death) (1972)

Distinguished Positions:

� President of the Physics section, Indian Science Congress (1962),

� He was the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1966,

� President of the General Conference of the I.A.E.A., Verína (1970),

� Vice-President, Fourth U.N. Conference on 'Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy' (1971)

Honours:

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC), which is the Indian Space Research Organization's lead

facility for launch vehicle development located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of Kerala

state, is named in his memory.

Along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists, he played a major role in setting up of the Indian

Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

In 1974, the International Astronomical Union at Sydney decided that a Moon Crater BESSEL in the Sea

of Serenity will be known as the Dr. Sarabhai Crater.

C V Raman

Born: November 7, 1888, Tiruchirapalli

Died: November 21, 1970, Bangalore

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Rāman, FRS, was an Indian physicist whose

work was influential in the growth of science in India.

He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the

discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the

light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now

called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman Effect.

Early Life:

Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman was born on November 7, 1888 in

Tiruchinapalli, Tamil Nadu. He was the second child of Chandrasekhar Iyer and Parvathi Amma. His

father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics, so he had an academic atmosphere at home. He

entered Presidency College, Madras, in 1902, and in 1904 passed his B.A. examination, winning the first

place and the gold medal in physics. In 1907, C.V. Raman passed his M.A. obtaining the highest

distinctions.

Career:

During those times there were not many opportunities for scientists in India.

Therefore, Raman joined the Indian Finance Department in 1907. After his office hours, he carried out

his experimental research in the laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science at

Calcutta. He carried out research in acoustics and optics

In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service and took up the newly created Palit Professorship

in Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research at the Indian

Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta, where he became the Honorary Secretary.

He was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1924 and the British made him a knight of the British

Empire in 1929.

On February 28, 1928, Raman led experiments at the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science with

collaborators, including K. S. Krishan, on the scattering of light, when he discovered the Raman effect

that tells when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in

wavelength.

Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred to it in his

presidential address to the Royal Society in 1929.

Raman was president of the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He was conferred

a knighthood, and medals and honorary doctorates by various universities.

Second Indian & First

Indian Scientist to Receive the Nobel Prize

Raman was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, and was disappointed when the

Nobel Prize went to Richardson in 1928 and to de Broglie in 1929.

He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards

were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the

prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel Prize in

Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him".

He was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences.

Before him Rabindranath Tagore (also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

During his tenure at IISc, he recruited the then talented electrical engineering student, G. N.

Ramachandran, who later was a distinguished X-ray crystallographer himself.

Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory

of transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities.

He was also the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as

the tabla and the mridangam.

Raman and his student, Nagendra Nath, of Mim high school, provided the correct theoretical

explanation for the acousto-optic effect (light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting

in the celebrated Raman-Nath theory.

In 1934, Raman became the assistant director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where

two years later he continued as a professor of physics

He also started a company called cv Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in 1943 along with Dr.

Krishnamurthy. The Company during its sixty year history established four factories in Southern India.

In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government of Independent

India.

He retired from the Indian Institute in 1948 and a year later he established the Raman Research Institute

in Bangalore, where he worked till his death.

Sir C.V. Raman died on November 21, 1970.

Personal life:

He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal (1892–1980) with whom he had two sons,

Chandrasekhar and Radhakrishnan.

On his religious views, he was said to be an agnostic.

C.V. Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel Prize in

Physics (1983) for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his subsequent work on the

nuclear reactions necessary for stellar evolution.

Honours and Awards:

Raman was honored with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific

societies.

• He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924)

• The British made him a knight of the British Empire in 1929.

• In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

• In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin Medal.

• In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.

• He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957.

• In 1998, the American Chemical Society and Indian Association for the Cultivation of

Science recognized Raman's discovery as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.

National Science Day:

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of

the Raman Effect in 1928.

Subrahmanyam Chandrashekar

Born: October 19, 1910, Lahore

Died: August 21, 1995, Chicago

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

astrophysicist who, with William A. Fowler

Physics for key discoveries that led to the currently accepted theory on the

later evolutionary stages of massive stars.

after him.

Chandrasekhar was the nephew of

who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

Chandrasekhar served on the University of Chicago

his death in 1995 at the age of 84. He became a

the United States in 1953.

He did commendable work in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics

Early life:

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in

His father, Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyar

Audits and Accounts Department.

His mother Sita was a woman of high intellectual attainments.

C.V. Raman, the first Indian to get Nobel Prize in science was the younger brother of Chandrasekhar's

father.

Till the age of 12, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar had his education at home under his parents and private

tutors. In 1922, at the age of 12, he attended the Hindu High School. He joined the Madras Presidency

College in 1925. Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar passed his Bachelor's degree, B.Sc. (Hon.), in physics in

June 1930. In July 1930, he was awarded a Government of India

Cambridge, England.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar completed his Ph.D. degree at Cambridge in the summer of 1933. In

October 1933, Chandrasekhar was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College for the period 1933

37. In 1936, while on a short visit to Harvard University, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, was offered a

position as a Research Associate at the University of Chicago and remained there ever since. In

September 1936, Subrahmanyan Chandra Shekhar married Lomita Dorai

the Presidency College in Madras.

His first scientific paper, Compton Scattering and the New Statistics

of the Royal Society in 1928. On the basis of this paper he was accepted as a research st

Fowler at the University of Cambridge. On the voyage to England, he developed the theory of white

Subrahmanyam Chandrashekar

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, FRS was an Indian-American

William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for

that led to the currently accepted theory on the

later evolutionary stages of massive stars. The Chandrasekhar limit is named

nephew of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman,

who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

University of Chicago faculty from 1937 until

his death in 1995 at the age of 84. He became a naturalized citizen of

He did commendable work in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore.

Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyar was an officer in Government Service in the Indian

high intellectual attainments.



1922, at the age of 12, he attended the Hindu High School. He joined the Madras Presidency


June 1930. In July 1930, he was awarded a Government of India scholarship for graduate studies in


October 1933, Chandrasekhar was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College for the period 1933

1936, while on a short visit to Harvard University, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, was offered a


September 1936, Subrahmanyan Chandra Shekhar married Lomita Doraiswamy. She was her junior at

Compton Scattering and the New Statistics, was published in the Proceedings

of the Royal Society in 1928. On the basis of this paper he was accepted as a research st


Second

Scientist to win Nobel

was an officer in Government Service in the Indian



1922, at the age of 12, he attended the Hindu High School. He joined the Madras Presidency


scholarship for graduate studies in


October 1933, Chandrasekhar was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College for the period 1933-

1936, while on a short visit to Harvard University, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, was offered a


swamy. She was her junior at

, was published in the Proceedings

of the Royal Society in 1928. On the basis of this paper he was accepted as a research student by R.H.


Second Indian

Scientist to win Nobel Prize

dwarf stars, showing that a star of mass greater than 1.45 times themass of the sun could not become a

white dwarf. This limit is now known as the Chandrasekhar limit.

He obtained his doctorate in 1933. Soon after receiving his doctorate, Chandrasekhar was awarded the

Prize Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1937, he accepted the position of Research Associate

at the University of Chicago. Chandrasekhar stayed at University of Chicago throughout his career,

becoming the Morton D. Hall Distinguished ServiceProfessor in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1952. In

1952 he established the Astrophysical Journal and was its editor for 19 years, transforming it from alocal

publication of the University of Chicago into the national journal of the American Astronomical Society.

He became a US citizen in 1958.

Career:

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is best known for his discovery of Chandrasekhar Limit. He showed that

there is a maximum mass which can be supported against gravity by pressure made up of electrons and

atomic nuclei.

The value of this limit is about 1.44 times a solar mass. The Chandrasekhar Limit plays a crucial role in

understanding the stellar evolution. If the mass of a star exceeded this limit, the star would not become

a white dwarf. It would continue to collapse under the extreme pressure of gravitational forces. The

formulation of the Chandrasekhar Limit led to the discovery of neutron stars and black holes. Depending

on the mass there are three possible final stages of a star - white dwarf, neutron star and black hole.

Apart from discovery of Chandrasekhar Limit, major work done by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

includes:

• Theory of Brownian motion (1938-1943)

• Theory of the illumination and the polarization of the sunlit sky (1943-1950)

• Theory of the illumination and the polarization of the sunlit sky (1943-1950)

• The equilibrium and the stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, partly in collaboration with

Norman R. Lebovitz (1961-1968)

• The general theory of relativity and relativistic astrophysics (1962-1971) and

• The mathematical theory of black holes (1974- 1983).

Nobel Prize:

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was awarded (jointly with the nuclear astrophysicist W.A. Fowler) the

Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. He died on August 21, 1995.

Legacy:

• In 1999, NASA named the third of its four "Great Observatories" after Chandrasekhar. This

followed a naming contest which attracted 6,000 entries from fifty states and sixty-one

countries. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched and deployed by Space

Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999.

• The Chandrasekhar number, an important dimensionless number of magneto hydrodynamics, is

named after him.

• The asteroid 1958 Chandra is also named after Chandrasekhar.

• American astronomer Carl Sagan, who studied Mathematics under Chandrasekhar, at the

University of Chicago, praised him in the book The Demon-Haunted World:

“I discovered what true mathematical elegance is from Subrahmanyan

Chandrasekhar.”

Awards:

� Fellow of the Royal Society (1944)

� Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1949)

� Bruce Medal (1952)

� Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1953)

� Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1957)

� National Medal of Science, USA (1966)

� Padma Vibhushan (1968)

� Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1971)

� Nobel Prize in Physics (1983)

� Copley Medal of the Royal Society (1984)

� Honorary Fellow of the International Academy of Science (1988)

� Gordon J. Laing Award (1989)

� Humboldt Prize

Homi J Bhabha

Born: October 30, 1909, Mumbai

Died: January 24, 1966, Mont Blanc

Homi Bhabha, whose full name was Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, was a famous

Indian atomic scientist.

In Independent India, Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, with the support of Jawaharlal

Nehru, laid the foundation of a scientific establishment and was responsible

for the creation of two premier institutions, Tata Institute of Fundamental

Research and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(former name is the Trombay

Atomic Energy Establishment).

Homi Bhabha was the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission.

Colloquially known as “father of Indian nuclear programme”

Early life:

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on October 30, 1909, in Bombay in a rich Parsi family. He received his

early education at Bombay's Cathedral Grammar School and entered Elphinstone College at age 15 after

passing his Senior Cambridge Examination with Honors.

His name, Jahangir (Jehangir), is from Persian meaning “conqueror of the world.”

He then attended the Royal Institute of Science until 1927 before joining Caius College of Cambridge

University. This was due to the insistence of his father and his uncle Dorab Tata, who planned for

Bhabha to obtain a degree in Mechanical engineering from Cambridge and then return to India, where

he would join the Tata Steel Mills in Jamshedpur as a metallurgist.

Research in Nuclear physics:

In January 1933, Bhabha received his doctorate in nuclear physics after publishing his first scientific

paper, "The Absorption of Cosmic radiation".

In the publication, Bhabha offered an explanation of the absorption features and electron shower

production in cosmic rays. The paper helped him win the Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934, which he

held for the next three years. The following year, he completed his doctoral studies in theoretical

physics under Ralph H. Fowler.

During his studentship, he split his time working at Cambridge and with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In

1935, Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which performed

the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron

scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field.

First chairman of

India's Atomic Energy

Commission

Return to India:

Due to outbreak of Second World War, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, returned to India in 1939.

He set up the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore under C. V. Raman in 1939.

With the help of J.R.D. Tata, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at Mumbai.

In 1945, he became director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

Apart from being a great scientist, Homi Bhabha, was also a skilled administrator. After independence he received the blessings of Jawaharlal Nehru for peaceful development of atomic energy.

He established the Atomic Energy Commission of India in 1948 and was its chairman.

Under his guidance Indian scientists worked on the development of atomic energy, and the first atomic reactor in Asia went into operation at Trombay, near Bombay, in 1956.

Under his guidance, nuclear reactors like the Apsara, Cirus and Zerlina were built. Homi Bhabha was chairman of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic

Energy, held in Geneva in 1955.

He advocated international control of nuclear energy and the outlawing of atomic bombs by all countries. He wanted nuclear energy to be used for alleviating poverty and misery of people.

He was the President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics from 1960 to 1963.

Death:

Homi Bhabha died in an aeroplane crash in Switzerland on January 24, 1966.

Legacy:

After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic

Research Centre in his honour.

In addition to being an able scientist and administrator, Bhabha was also a painter and a classical music and opera enthusiast, besides being an amateur botanist

The Homi Bhabha Fellowship Council has been giving the Homi Bhabha Fellowships since 1967 Other noted institutions in his name are the Homi Bhabha National Institute, an Indian deemed university and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, India.

He is the recipient of the Adam’s Award, Padma Bhushan, an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Born: November 30, 1858, Bikrampur

Died: November 23, 1937, Giridih

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, CSI, CIE, FRS was an Indian Bengali

polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, as well as an early

writer of science fiction.

He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very

significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations

of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent.

He was the first to prove that plants too have feelings. He invented

wireless telegraphy a year before Marconi patented his invention.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) named him one of

the fathers of radio science.

He is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction.

He was the first person from the Indian subcontinent to receive a US patent, in 1904.

He also invented the crescograph (A crescograph is a device for measuring growth in plants. It was

invented in the early 20th century by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian scientist)

Early Life:

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was born in Bikrampur, Bengal, (now Munshiganj District of Bangladesh) on

30 November 1858.

His father Bhagabanchandra Bose was a Deputy Magistrate. Jagadish Chandra Bose had his early

education in village school in Bengal medium. In 1869, Jagadish Chandra Bose was sent to Calcutta to

learn English and was educated at St.Xavier's School and College. He was a brilliant student. He passed

the B.A. in physical sciences in 1879.

In 1880, Jagdishchandra Bose went to England. He studied medicine at London University, England, for a

year but gave it up because of his own ill health. Within a year he moved to Cambridge to take up a

scholarship to study Natural Science at Christ's College Cambridge. In 1885, he returned from abroad

with a B.Sc. degree and Natural Science Tripos (a special course of study at Cambridge).

Joining Presidency College

Bose returned to India in 1885, carrying a letter from Fawcett, the economist to Lord Ripon, Viceroy of

India.

Father of the Bengali Science Fiction &

Inventor of Cresco graph

On Lord Ripon’s request Sir Alfred Croft, the Director of Public Instruction, appointed Bose officiating

professor of physics in Presidency College. The principal, C. H. Tawney, protested against the

appointment but had to accept it.

Bose was not provided with facilities for research. On the contrary, he was a ‘victim of racialism’ with

regard to his salary.

In those days, an Indian professor was paid Rs. 200 per month, while his European counterpart received

Rs. 300 per month. Since Bose was officiating, he was offered a salary of only Rs. 100 per month. With

remarkable sense of self respect and national pride he decided on a new form of protest.

Bose refused to accept the salary cheque. In fact, he continued his teaching assignment for three years

without accepting any salary.

Finally both the Director of Public Instruction and the Principal of the Presidency College fully realized

the value of Bose’s skill in teaching and also his lofty character. As a result his appointment was made

permanent with retrospective effect. He was given the full salary for the previous three years in a lump

sum.

As a teacher Jagdish Chandra Bose was very popular and engaged the interest of his students by making

extensive use of scientific demonstrations. Many of his students at the Presidency College were destined

to become famous in their own right. These included Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha.

Radio Research:

In 1894, Jagadish Chandra Bose decided to devote himself to pure research. He converted a small

enclosure adjoining a bathroom in the Presidency College into a laboratory. He carried out experiments

involving refraction, diffraction and polarization. It would not be wrong to call him as the inventor of

wireless telegraphy.

In 1895, a year before Guglielmo Marconi patented this invention, he had demonstrated its functioning

in public.

Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), “The invisible light can easily pass through

brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation

of wires.”

Jagdish Chandra Bose later switched from physics to the study of metals and then plants. He fabricated a

highly sensitive "coherer", the device that detects radio waves. He found that the sensitivity of the

coherer decreased when it was used continuously for a long period and it regained its sensitivity when

he gave the device some rest. He thus concluded that metals have feelings and memory.

In May 1897, two years after Bose's public demonstration in Kolkata, Guglielmo Marconi conducted his

wireless signaling experiment on Salisbury Plain.

In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in

a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.

Sir Nevill Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked

that:

"J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time" and "In fact, he had anticipated the

existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors."

Plants research:

Jagdish Chandra Bose showed experimentally plants too have life. He invented an instrument to record

the pulse of plants and connected it to a plant. The plant, with its roots, was carefully picked up and

dipped up to its stem in a vessel containing bromide, a poison. The plant's pulse beat, which the

instrument recorded as a steady to-and-fro movement like the pendulum of a clock, began to grow

unsteady. Soon, the spot vibrated violently and then came to a sudden stop. The plant had died because

of poison.

He founded the Bose Institute at Calcutta, devoted mainly to the study of plants. Today, the Institute

carries research on other fields too.

Science Fiction:

In 1896, Bose wrote Niruddesher Kahini, the first major work in Bengali science fiction. Later, he added

the story in the Abyakta book as Palatak Tuphan.

He was the first science fiction writer in the Bengali language.

Legacy:

To commemorate his birth centenary in 1958, the JBNSTS scholarship programme was started in West

Bengal. In the same year, India issued a postage stamp bearing his portrait.

On September 14, 2012, Bose's experimental work in millimeter-band radio was recognized as an IEEE

Milestone in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the first such recognition of a discovery in India.

Books:

� Response in the Living and Non-living , 1902

� Plant response as a means of physiological investigation, 1906

� Comparative Electro-physiology : A Physico-physiological Study, 1907

� Researches on Irritability of Plants , 1913

� Physiology of the Ascent of Sap, 1923

� The physiology of photosynthesis, 1924

� The Nervous Mechanisms of Plants, 1926

� Plant Autographs and Their Revelations, 1927

� Growth and tropic movements of plants, 1928

� Motor mechanism of plants, 1928

Honours:

� Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE, 1903)

� Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI, 1912)

� Knight Bachelor (1917)

� Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS, 1920)

� Member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, 1928

� President of the 14th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1927.

� Member of Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1929.

� Member of the League of Nations' Committee for Intellectual Cooperation

� Founding fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (now renamed as the Indian National

Science Academy)

� The Indian Botanic Garden was renamed as the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic

Garden on 25 June 2009 in honor of Jagadish Chandra Bose.

Meghnad Saha

Born: October 6, 1893, Dhaka District

Died: February 16, 1956, Delhi

Meghnad Saha FRS was an Indian Bengali astrophysicist best known for his

development of the Saha equation ("ionization formula), used to describe

chemical and physical conditions in stars.

He was the first director of Indian Association for the Cultivation of

Science (IACS), the oldest research institute in India.

Early Life:

Meghnad Saha was born on October 6, 1893 in Sheoratali, a village in the

District of Dacca, now in Bangladesh. He was the fifth child of his parents,

Sri Jagannath Saha and Smt. Bhubaneshwari Devi.

His father was a grocer in the village. Meghnad Saha had his early schooling in the primary school of the

village. As his family could hardly able to make both ends meet, Meghnad Saha managed to pursue his

schooling only due to the generosity of a local medical practitioner, Ananta Kumar Das, who provided

him with boarding and lodging in his house.

In 1905, he joined the Dhaka Collegiate School. Here he not only received a free studentship, but also a

stipend. However he lost both his free studentship and stipend when he participated in a boycott

against the then British Governor of Bengal Sir Bampfylde Fuller when he came on a visit to Dacca.

He took admission in the Kishorilal Jubili School and passed the Entrance Examination of the Calcutta

University in 1909, standing first among the student from East Bengal obtaining the highest marks in

languages (English, Bengali and Sanskrit combined) and in Mathematics.

In 1911, he ranked third in the ISc exam while the first position went to another great scientist

Satyendranath Bose.

Meghnad Saha took admission in Presidency College Calcutta. In 1913 he graduated from Presidency

College with Mathematics major and got the second rank in the University of Calcutta while the first one

was taken by S.N. Bose.

In 1915, both S.N.Bose and Meghnad Saha ranked first in M.Sc. exam, Meghnad Saha in Applied

Mathematics and S.N. Bose in Pure Mathematics.

While studying in Presidency College, Meghnad got involved with Anushilan Samiti to take part in

freedom fighting movement. He also came in contact with nationalists like Subhash Chandra Bose and

Rajendra Prasad.

First director of Indian

Association for the

Cultivation of Science

Scientific Career

In 1917, Meghnad Saha joined as lecturer at the newly opened University College of Science in Calcutta.

He taught Quantum Physics. Along with S.N. Bose, he translated the papers published in German by

Einstein and Minkowski on relativity into English versions.

In 1919, American Astrophysical Journal published - "On Selective Radiation Pressure and it's

application" - a research paper by Meghnad Saha.

He put forward an "ionization formula" which explained the presence of the spectral lines. The formula

proved to be a breakthrough in astrophysics. He went abroad and stayed for two years. He spent time in

research at Imperial College, London and at a research laboratory in Germany.

In 1927, Meghnad Saha was elected as a fellow of London's Royal Society.

Back to India

Meghnad Saha moved to Allahabad and in 1932 Uttar Pradesh Academy of Science was established. He

returned to Science College, Calcutta in 1938. During this time Saha got interested in Nuclear Physics.

In 1947 he established the Indian Institute of Nuclear Physics (now known as the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics).

He took the first effort to include Nuclear Physics in the curriculum of higher studies of science. Having

seen cyclotrons used for research in nuclear physics abroad, he ordered one to be installed in the

institute. In 1950, India had its first cyclotron in operation.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics four times- 1930, 1937, 1939, and 1940."

In 1952 he stood as an independent candidate for Parliament and was elected by a wide margin. He died on February 16, 1956 due to a heart attack.

M Visvesvaraya

Born: September 15, 1860, Chikballapur

Died: April 12, 1962, Bangalore

Sir Mokshagundam Visveswaraiah, KCIE was a notable Indian engineer,

scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918.

He was a recipient of the Indian Republic's highest honour, the Bharat

Ratna, in 1955.

He was knighted as a Commander of the British Indian Empire by King

George V for his myriad contributions to the public good.

Every year, 15 September is celebrated as Engineer's Day in India in his

memory.

He was the chief designer of the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad, as well as the chief

engineer responsible for the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mysore.

Early Life:

Sir M. Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860 in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar district of the

erstwhile princely state of Mysore (present day Karnataka). His father Srinivasa Sastry was a Sanskrit

scholar and Ayurvedic practitioner. His mother Venkachamma was a religious lady. He lost his father

when he was only 15 years old.

Visvesvaraya completed his early education in Chikkaballapur and then went to Bangalore for higher

education. He cleared his B.A. Examination in 1881. He got some assistance from the Government of

Mysore and joined the Science College in Poona to study Engineering. In 1883 he ranked first in the

L.C.E. and the F.C.E. Examinations (equivalent to B.E. Examination of today).

Career as an Engineer

Upon graduating as an engineer, Visvesvaraya took up a job with the Public Works Department (PWD)

of Mumbai and was later invited to join the Indian Irrigation Commission.

He also designed and patented a system of automatic weir water floodgates that were first installed in

1903 at the Khadakvasla Reservoir near Pune. These gates were employed to raise the flood supply

level of storage in the reservoir to the highest level likely to be attained by a flood without causing any

damage to the dam.

Based on the success of these gates, the same system was installed at the Tigra Dam in Gwalior and

the Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mandya/ Mysore,Karnataka.

Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system for the city

of Hyderabad.

Father of the Modern Mysore State

Visvesvaraya supervised the construction of the KRS Dam across the Cauvery River from concept to

inauguration. This dam created the biggest reservoir in Asia when it was built.

Diwan of Mysore (1912-1918)

After opting for voluntary retirement in 1908, he took a foreign tour to study industrialized nations and

after, for a short period he worked for the Nizam of Hyderabad, India.

He suggested flood relief measures for Hyderabad town, which was under constant threat of floods by

Moosi river.

Later, during November 1909, Visvesvaraya was appointed as Chief Engineer of Mysore State.

Further, during the year, 1912, he was appointed as Diwan (First Minister) of the princely state

of Mysore. He was Diwan for 7 years.

He was rightly called the "Father of modern Mysore state" (now Karnataka).

During his period of service with the Government of Mysore state, he was responsible for the founding

of, (under the Patronage of Mysore Government), the Mysore Soap Factory, the Parasitoide Laboratory,

the Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now known as Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) in Bhadravathi, the

Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic Institute, the Bangalore Agricultural University, the State Bank of

Mysore, The Century Club, Mysore Chambers of Commerce and numerous other industrial ventures.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya voluntarily retired as Dewan of Mysore in 1918. He worked actively even after his

retirement.

Awards & Honours:

• 1904: Honorary Membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken period of

50 years

• 1906: "Kaisar-i-Hind" in recognition of his services

• 1911: C.I.E. (Companion of the order of the Indian Empire) at the Delhi Darbar

• 1915: K.C.I.E. (Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire)

• 1921: D.Sc. - Calcutta University

• 1931: LLD - Bombay University

• 1937: D.Litt - Benaras Hindu University

• 1943: Elected as an Honorary Life Member of the Institution of Engineers (India)

• 1944: D.Sc. - Allahabad University

• 1948: Doctorate - LLD., Mysore University

• 1953: D.Litt - Andhra University

• 1953: Awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Town Planners, India

• 1955: Conferred ' BHARATH RATNA'

• 1958: 'Durga Prasad Khaitan Memorial Gold Medal' by the Royal Asiatic Society Council of

Bengal

• 1959: Fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

• He was president of the 1923 Session of the Indian Science Congress.

• He was the most popular person from Karnataka, in a newspaper survey conducted by Praja

Vani

Recognition

The Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, a museum in Bangalore is named in his honor.

Books

� Reconstructing India

� Planned economy for India

� Memories of my working life

� Unemployment in India, its causes and cure

� Speeches

Satyendra Nath Bose

Born: January 1, 1894, Kolkata

Died: February 4, 1974, Kolkata

Satyendra Nath Bose was an outstanding Indian physicist. He is known for his work in Quantum Physics. He is famous for "Bose-Einstein Theory" and a kind of particle in atom has been named after his name as Boson.

A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 by the Government of India.

Early Life

Satyendranath Bose was born on January 1, 1894 in Calcutta. His father Surendranath Bose was employed in the Engineering Department of the East India Railway. Satyendranath was the eldest of his seven children.

Satyendra Nath Bose had his schooling from Hindu High School in Calcutta. He was a brilliant student.

He passed the ISc in 1911 from the Presidency College, Calcutta securing the first position. Satyendra

Nath Bose did his BSc in Mathematics from the Presidency College in 1913 and MSc in Mixed

Mathematics in 1915 from the same college. He topped the university in BSc. and MSc. Exams.

Career

In 1916, the Calcutta University started M.Sc. classes in Modern Mathematics and Modern Physics. S.N. Bose started his career in 1916 as a Lecturer in Physics in Calcutta University. He served here from 1916 to 1921.

In 1921, he joined as Reader of the department of Physics of the then recently founded University of

Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) by the then Vice Chancellor of University of Calcutta Sir Ashutosh

Mukherjee,

In 1924, Satyendra Nath Bose published an article titled Max Planck's Law and Light Quantum

Hypothesis. This article was sent to Albert Einstein. Einstein appreciated it so much that he himself

translated it into German and sent it for publication to a famous periodical in Germany - 'Zeitschrift fur

Physik'.

The hypothesis received a great attention and was highly appreciated by the scientists. It became

famous to the scientists as 'Bose-Einstein Theory'.

Indian physicist

In 1926, Satyendra Nath Bose became a Professor of Physics in Dhaka University. Though he had not

completed his doctorate till then, he was appointed as professor on Einstein's recommendation.

In 1929 Satyendranath Bose was elected chairman of the Physics of the Indian Science Congress and in

1944 elected full chairman of the Congress. In 1945, he was appointed as Khaira Professor of Physics in

Calcutta University. He retired from Calcutta University in 1956. The University honored him on his

retirement by appointing him as Emeritus Professor. Later he became the Vice Chancellor of the

Viswabharati University.

In 1958, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, London.

Although several Nobel Prizes were awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose–

Einstein statistics and Bose–Einstein condensate—the latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics given

for advancing the theory of Bose–Einstein condensates—Bose himself was not awarded the Nobel Prize.

Honours

In 1937, Rabindranath Tagore dedicated his only book on science, Visva-Parichay, to Satyendra Nath

Bose.

Bose was honored with title Padma Vibhushan by the Indian Government in 1954.

In 1959, he was appointed as the National Professor, the highest honor in the country for a scholar, a

position he held for 15 years.

In 1986, S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences was established by an act of Parliament,

Government of India, in Salt Lake, Calcutta in honor of the world-renowned Indian scientist.

Bose became an adviser to then newly-formed Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He was the

President of Indian Physical Society and the National Institute of Science.

He was elected General President of the Indian Science Congress. He was the Vice President and then

the President of Indian Statistical Institute.

He was nominated as member of Rajya Sabha.

Anil Kakodkar

Born: November 11, 1943 (age 68), Barwani

Anil Kakodkar is an eminent Indian nuclear scientist and mechanical

engineer.

He is the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the

Secretary to the Government of India, he was the Director of the Bhabha

Atomic Research Centre, Trombay from 1996-2000.

He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian

honour, on January 26, 2009.

Early Life

Kakodkar was born in 1943 (November 11, 1943), in Barwani Princely State (present day Madhya

Pradesh state) to Mrs. Kamala Kakodkar & Mr. Purushottam Kakodkar, both Gandhian Freedom Fighters.

He had his early education at Barwani and at Khargone, until moving to Mumbai for post-matriculation

studies.

Kakodkar graduated from Ruparel College, then from VJTI, University of Mumbai with a degree

in Mechanical Engineering in 1963. He joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 1964. He

obtained a masters degree in experimental stress analysis from the University of Nottingham in 1969.

Career in BARC

He joined the Reactor Engineering Division of the BARC and played a key role in design and construction

of the Dhruva reactor, a completely original but high-tech project.

Anil Kakodkar also has the credit of being a member of the core team of architects of India's Peaceful

Nuclear Tests that were conducted during the years 1974 and 1998.

He also led the indigenous development of the country's Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor Technology.

Anil Kakodkar's efforts in the rehabilitation of the two reactors at Kalpakkam and the first unit at

Rawatbhatta is noteworthy as it were about to close down.

In the year 1996, Anil Kakodkar became the youngest Director of the BARC after Homi Bhabha himself.

From the year 2000 onwards, he has been leading the Atomic Energy Commission of India and playing

secretary to the Department of Atomic Energy.

Dr Anil Kakodkar has been playing a crucial part in demanding sovereignty for India's nuclear tests. In

fact, he is known for being a strong advocate of India's self-reliance by employing Thorium as a fuel for

nuclear energy.

Indian nuclear scientist

Awards:

National Awards

� Padma Shri in 1998.

� Padma Bhushan in 1999.

� Padma Vibhushan in 2009.

Other Awards

� Highest civilian award of the Maharashtra state-Maharashtra Bhushan Award(2012)

� Highest civilian award of the Goa state-Gomant Vibhushan Award(2010)

� Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Award (1988)

� H. K. Firodia Award for Excellence in Science and Technology (1997)

� Rockwell Medal for Excellence in Technology (1997)

� FICCI Award for outstanding contribution to Nuclear Science and Technology (1997-98)

� ANACON - 1998 Life Time Achievement Award for Nuclear Sciences

� Indian Science Congress Association's H. J. Bhabha Memorial Award (1999-2000)

� Godavari Gaurav Award (2000)

� Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award (2002)

� Chemtech Foundation's Achiever of the Year Award for Energy (2002)

� Gujar Mal Modi Innovative Science and Technology Award in 2004.

� Homi Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award 2010.

� Acharya Varahmihir Award (2004) by Varahmihir Institute of Scientific Heritage and Research, Ujjain

(M.P.), India

APJ Abdul Kalam

Born: October 15, 1931 (age 81), Dhanushkodi

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam is an Indian scientist and

administrator who served as the 11th President of India.

He is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development

of the country and is also often also referred to as the ‘Missile Man of

India’ for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch

vehicle technology.

People loved and respected Dr APJ Abdul Kalam so much during his tenure

as President that was popularly called the People's President.

Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi

Sahgal and was supported by both the Indian National Congress and

the Bharatiya Janata Party, the major political parties of India.

He is the first Indian person to win the Hoover Prize.

Early Life & Education

Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 to Jainulabdeen, a boat owner and Ashiamma, a housewife,

at Rameswaram, located in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

He came from a poor background and started working at an early age to supplement his family's

income. He was brought up in a multi-religious environment but did follow a religious routine.

After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers in order to financially contribute to his father's

income.

In his school years, he had average grades, but was described as a bright and hardworking student who

had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on his studies, especially mathematics.

"I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness

and deep kindness as did my three brothers and sisters."

—A quote from Kalam's autobiography

After completing his school education at the Rameswaram Elementary School, Kalam went on to

attend Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli where he graduated in physics in 1954. He then moved

to Madras in 1955 to study aerospace engineering at the MIT Madras, India.

While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with the lack of progress

and threatened revoking his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next two days. He

worked tirelessly on his project and met the deadline, impressing the Dean who later said:

"I [Dean] was putting you [Kalam] under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline".

Missile Man of India

Career as a Scientist

After graduating from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT – Chennai) in 1960, Kalam

joined Aeronautical Development Establishment of Defense Research and Development

Organization (DRDO) as a chief scientist.

Kalam started his career by designing a small helicopter for the Indian Army, but remained unconvinced

with the choice of his job at DRDO.

Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram Sarabhai, the renowned space

scientist.

In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)where he was the

project director of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully deployed

the Rohini satellite in near earth orbit in July 1980.

Joining ISRO was one of Kalam's biggest achievements in life and he is said to have found himself when

he started to work on the SLV project.

Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965. In 1969,

Kalam received the government's approval and expanded the program to include more engineers.

In 1963–64, he visited Nasa's Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, Goddard Space Flight

Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Flight Facility situated at Eastern Shore of Virginia.

During the period between the 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar SLV and

SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be success.

Kalam was invited by Raja Ramanna to witness the country's first nuclear test Smiling Buddha as the

representative of TBRL(Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory), even though he had not participated in

the development, test site preparation and weapon designing.

In the 1970s, a landmark was achieved by ISRO when the locally built Rohini-1 was launched into space,

using the SLV rocket.

In the 1970s, Kalam also directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant , which sought

to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.

Kalam and Dr. V. S. Arunachalam, metallurgist and scientific adviser to the Defense Minister, worked on

the suggestion by the then Defense Minister, R. Venkataraman on a proposal for simulataneous

development of a quiver of missiles instead of taking planned missiles one by one.

R Venkatraman was instrumental in getting the cabinet approval for allocating 388 crore rupees for the

mission, named Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P) and appointed Kalam as

the Chief Executive.

He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and

Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999.

The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an intensive political

and technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R.

Chidambaram during the testing phase.

In 1998, along with cardiologist Dr.Soma Raju, Kalam developed a low cost Coronary stent. It was

named as "Kalam-Raju Stent" honouring them.

In 2012, the duo, designed a rugged tablet PC for health care in rural areas, which was named as "Kalam-

Raju Tablet".

Tenure as President (2002-2007)

Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K. R. Narayanan. He won the 2002

presidential election defeating Lakshmi Sahgal. He served from 25 July 2002 to 25 July 2007.

Kalam was the third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna, India's highest

civilian honour, before becoming the President. Dr. Sarvapali Radhakrishnan(1954) and Dr. Zakir

Hussain (1963) were the earlier recipients of Bharat Ratna who later became the President of India.

He was also the first scientist and the first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan.

During his term as President, he was affectionately known as the People's President.

In his words, signing the Office of Profit Bill was the toughest decision he had taken during his tenure.

Article 72 of the Constitution of India empowers the President of India to grant pardon, suspend and

remit death sentences and commute the death sentence of convicts on death row.

Kalam acted on only one mercy plea in his 5 year tenure as a President, rejecting the plea of rapist

Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was hanged thereafter. The most important of the 20 pleas is thought to be

that of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri terrorist who was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on

the Indian Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India in 2004. While the

sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006, the pending action on the mercy plea

resulted in him continuing in the death row.

Frisking by American security authorities

Abdul Kalam was frisked at the JFK Airport (John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York, while

boarding a plane on 29 September 2011. He was subjected to "private screening" as he does not come

under the category of dignitaries exempt from security screening procedures under American

guidelines.

He was frisked again after boarding the Air India aircraft with the US security officials asking for his

jacket and shoes, claiming that these items were not checked according to the prescribed procedures

during the "private screening", despite protests from the airline crew confirming him as India's

president.

India threatened retaliatory action as there was a "general sense of outrage" around the country. The

Indian Ministry of External Affairs protested over this incident and a statement by the ministry said that

the US Government had written a letter to Kalam, expressing its deep regret for the inconvenience.

Kalam was previously frisked by the ground staff of the Continental Airlines at the Indira Gandhi

International Airport, New Delhi in July 2009 and was treated like an ordinary passenger, despite him

being on the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security's list of people exempted from security screening in India.

Popular Culture

In May 2011, Kalam launched his mission for the youth of the nation called the What Can I Give

Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption. He also has interests in writing Tamil poetry and

in playing veenai, a South Indian string instrument.

He was nominated for the MTV Youth Icon of the Year award in 2003 and in 2006.

In the 2011 Hindi film I Am Kalam, Kalam is portrayed as an extremely positive influence to a poor but

bright Rajasthani boy named Chhotu (role played by Harsh Mayar), who renames himself Kalam in

honour of his idol.

Awards & Honours

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's 79th birthday was recognized as World Students' Day by United Nations.

He has also received honorary doctorates from 40 universities.

The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padma

Vibhushan in 1990 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the

Government.

In 1997, Kalam received India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, for his immense and valuable

contribution to the scientific research and modernization of defence technology in India.

Year of Award Name of the Award Awarding Organization

2012 Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) Simon Fraser University

2011 IEEE Honorary Membership IEEE

2010 Doctor of Engineering University of Waterloo

2009 Hoover Medal ASME Foundation, USA

2009 International von Kármán Wings Award California Institute of Technology, U.S.A

2008 Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa) Nanyang Technological University,

Singapore

2007 King Charles II Medal Royal Society, U.K

2007 Honorary Doctorate of Science University of Wolverhampton, U.K

2000 Ramanujan Award Alwars Research Centre, Chennai[

1998 Veer Savarkar Award Government of India

1997 Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration Government of India

1997 Bharat Ratna Government of India

1990 Padma Vibhushan Government of India

1981 Padma bhushan Government of India

Books & Documentaries

Kalam's writings

� Turning Points: A journey through challenges by A. P. J Abdul Kalam is a sequel of wings of Fire,

2012.

� Wings of Fire: An Autobiography by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, 1999.

� India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, 1998.

� Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, 2002.

� The Luminous Sparks by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, 2004.

� Mission India by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, 2005

� Inspiring Thoughts by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, 2007

� Developments in Fluid Mechanics and Space Technology by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Roddam

Narasimha; Indian Academy of Sciences, 1988

Biographies

� Eternal Quest: Life and Times of Dr. Kalam by S. Chandra, 2002.

� President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam by R. K. Pruthi, 2002.

� A. P. J. Abdul Kalam: The Visionary of India by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal, 2002.

� A Little Dream (documentary film) by P. Dhanapal, 2008.

� The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President by P.M. Nair, 2008.

� My Days with Mahatma Abdul Kalam by Fr.A.K. George, 2009.

Hargobind Khorana

Born: January 9, 1922, Raipur

Died: November 9, 2011, Concord

Har Gobind Khorana is an American molecular biologist.

For his work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in

protein synthesis, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the year 1968. This

award was, however, also shared by Robert W. Holley and Marshall

Warren Nirenberg.

The very same year, he received another award ‘Louisa Gross Horwitz

Prize’ along with Nirenberg that was presented to them by the Columbia

University.

He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1966 and subsequently received the National

Medal of Science.

He served as MIT's Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry, Emeritus and was a member of

the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute.

Khorana was born to Hindu parents in Raipur village in West Punjab, British India, currently Pakistan. His

father was the village "patwari" (or taxation official).

He was home schooled by his father until high school. He earned his B.Sc from Punjab University,

Lahore, in 1943, and his M.Sc from Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan in 1945. In 1945, he began

studying at the University of Liverpool. After earning a Ph.D in 1948, he continued

his postdoctoral studies in Zürich (1948–1949). Subsequently, he spent two years at Cambridge

University. In 1952 he went to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and in 1960 moved to

the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1970 Khorana became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology

and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked until retiring in 2007.

Khorana married Esther Elizabeth Sibler, of Swiss origin, in 1952.

They had three children: Julia Elizabeth (born May 4, 1953), Emily Anne (born October 18, 1954; died

1979), and Dave Roy (born July 26, 1958).

Death

Khorana died of natural causes on November 9, 2011 in Concord, Massachusetts, aged 89. A widower,

he was survived by his children Julia and Dave.

Nobel laureate, Medicine, 1968

Verghese Kurien

Born: November 26, 1921, Kozhikode

Died: September 9, 2012, Nadiad

Verghese Kurien was an Indian engineer and renowned social

entrepreneur, best known as the "Father of the White Revolution", for

his 'billion-litre idea' or Operation Flood — the world's biggest

agricultural development programme.

The operation took India from being a milk-deficient nation, to the

largest milk producer in the world, surpassing the USA in 1998, with

about 17 percent of global output in 2010–11, which in 30 years doubled

the milk available to every person.

He founded around 30 institutions of excellence (like AMUL, GCMMF, IRMA, NDDB) which are owned,

managed by farmers and run by professionals.

As the founding chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Kurien was

responsible for the creation and success of the Amul brand of dairy products. A key achievement at

Amul was the invention of milk powder processed from buffalo milk (abundant in India), as opposed to

that made from cow-milk, in the then major milk producing nations.

His achievements with the Amul dairy led Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to appoint him founder-

chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965, to replicate Amul's "Anand model"

nationwide.

He was also known as the "Milkman of India".

Personal life:

Born on 26 November 1921 at Calicut, Madras Presidency, British India (now Kozhikode, Kerala) into

a Syrian Christian family, he would later turn an Atheist. His father was a civil surgeon in Cochin (Kochi,

Kerala). He went on to marry Molly, the daughter of a friend of his father.

He graduated in Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940 and then obtained his Bachelors in

mechanical engineering from the University of Madras. After completing his degree, he joined the Tata

Steel Technical Institute, Jamshedpur from where he graduated in 1946.

He did however train for dairy technology later on, on a government sponsorship to New Zealand, a

bastion of cooperative dairying then, when he had to learn to set up the Amul dairy.

Father of White Revolution & Milkman of India

Career:

Kurien arrived back on 13 May 1949, after his master's degree, and was quickly deputed to the

Government of India's experimental creamery, at Anand in Gujarat's Kheda district by the government

and rather half-heartedly served out his bond period against the scholarship given by them. He had

already made up his mind to quit mid-way, but was persuaded to stay back at Anand by Tribhuvandas

Patel (who would later share the Magsaysay with him) who had brought together Kheda's farmers as a

cooperative union to process and sell their milk, a pioneering concept at the time.

Patel's sincere and earnest efforts inspired Kurien to dedicate himself to the challenging task before

them, so much so, that when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was to visit Anand later, to

inaugurate Amul's plant, he embraced Kurien for his groundbreaking work. Meanwhile, Kurien's buddy

and dairy expert H. M. Dalaya, invented the process of making skim milk powder and condensed milk

from buffalo milk instead of from cow milk.

This was the reason Amul would compete successfully and well against Nestle which only used

cow milk to make them. In India, buffalo milk is the main raw material unlike Europe where cow milk is

abundant.

The Amul pattern of cooperatives became so successful, that in 1965 Prime Minister Lal

Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the program

nationwide citing Kurien's "extraordinary and dynamic leadership" upon naming him chairman.

As the 'Amul dairy experiment' was replicated in Gujarat's districts in the neighbourhood of

Anand, Kurien set all of them up under GCMMF in 1973 to sell the combined produce of the dairies

under a single Amul brand.

Today GCMMF sells Amul products not only in India but also overseas.

He quit the post of GCMMF Chairman in 2006 following disagreement with the GCMMF management.

When the National Dairy Development Board expanded the scope of Operation Flood to cover the

entire country in its Phase 2 program in 1979: Kurien founded the Institute of Rural Management

Anand (IRMA).

Kurien's life story is chronicled in his memoir I Too Had a Dream.

Interestingly Kurien, the person who revolutionized the availability of milk in India did not drink milk

himself.

Film and its use in enlarging movement:

Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal, then an advertising executive whoed Manthan (the churning of the

'milk ocean').

Not able to finance it, Benegal was helped by Kurien who hit upon an idea of getting each of his half a

million farmers to contribute a token two rupees for the making of the movie.

Manthan hit a chord with the audience immediately when it was shown in Gujarat in 1976, which

impressed distributors to release it before audiences, nationwide.

The movie's success gave Kurien another idea. Like shown in the film, a vet, a milk technician and a

fodder specialist who could explain the value of cross-breeding of milch cattle would tour other parts of

the country along with the film's prints, to woo farmers there to create cooperatives of their own.

UNDP would use the movie to start similar cooperatives in Latin America.

Books:

1. I Too Had A Dream, co-authored with Gouri Salvi

2. An Unfinished Dream

Awards and honours:

YEAR NAME OF AWARD AWARDING ORGANISATION

1999 Padma Vibhushan Government of India

1993 International Person of the Year Award

World Dairy Expo

1989 World Food Prize World Food Prize, USA

1986 Wateler Peace Prize Award Carnegie Foundation, The Netherlands

1986 Krushi Ratna Award Government of India

1966 Padma Bhushan Government of India

1965 Padma Shri Government of India

1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation

Birbal Sahni

Born: November 14, 1891, Porbandar

Died: April 10, 1949, Aga Khan Palace

Birbal Sahni was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian

subcontinent, was also a geologist who took an interest in archaeology.

He founded the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow (U.P), India.

His greatest contributions lie in the study of botany of the plants of India as

well as paleobotany

Apart from writing numerous influential papers on these topics he also

served as the President, National Academy of Sciences, India and as an

Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm.

Early Life

The third son of Ishwar Devi and Lala Ruchi Ram Sahani, Birbal Sahni was born in Behra, Saharanpur

District, West Punjab, on 14 November 1891. Among the frequent guests of his parents were Motilal

Nehru, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sarojini Naidu, and Madan Mohan Malaviya.

He was also influenced into science by his grandfather who owned a banking business at Dera Ismail

Khan and conducted amateur research in chemistry. He got his early education in India at Government

College University, Lahore (where his father worked) and Punjab University (1911). He learnt botany

under S. R. Kashyap. He graduated fromEmmanuel College, Cambridge in 1914. He later studied

under Professor A. C. Seward, and was awarded the D.Sc. degree of the University of London in 1919.

In 1920 he married Savitri Suri, daughter of Sunder Das Suri who was an Inspector of Schools in Punjab.

Savitri took an interest in his work and was a constant companion.

Career

Birbal Sahni then came back to his native country India to work as the professor of Botany at the highly

esteemed Banaras Hindu University at the holy city of Varanasi.

Sahni returned to India and served as Professor of Botany at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

and Punjab University for about a year.

He was appointed the first Professor and Head of the Botany Department of the Lucknow

University in 1921. The University of Cambridge recognized his researches by the award of the degree of

Sc. D. in 1929. In 1932 Palaeontologica Indica included his account of the Bennettitalean plant that he

Pioneer of

palaeobotany

named Williamsonia Sewardi, and another description of a new type of petrified wood, Homoxylon,

bearing resemblance to the wood of a living homoxylous angiosperm, but from the Jurassic age.

Sahni maintained close relations with researchers around the globe, being a friend of Chester A. Arnold,

noted American paleobotanist who later served his year in residence from 1958-1959 at the institute.

He was a founder of The Paleobotanical Society which established the Institute of Palaeobotany on 10

September 1946 which initially functioned in the Botany Department of Lucknow University but later

moved to its present premises at 53 University Road, Lucknow in 1949.

On 3 April 1949 the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the new

building of the Institute. A week later, on 10 April 1949, Sahni succumbed to a heart attack.

Honours

Sahni was recognized by several academies and institutions in India and abroad for his research.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1936, the highest British scientific

honor, awarded for the first time to an Indian botanist.

He was elected Vice-President, Palaeobotany section, of the 5th and 6th International Botanical

Congresses of 1930 and 1935, respectively; General President of the Indian Science Congress for 1940;

President, National Academy of Sciences, India, 1937–1939 and 1943-1944. In 1948 he was elected an

Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Another high honor which came to

him was his election as an Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm in

1950, but he died before he could serve.

Contributions & Influences

� In their book Historical perspective of early twentieth century Carboniferous paleobotany in North

America, William Darrah et al have mentioned multiple interactions of scientists with Birbal Shani

regarding fieldwork.

� In his speeches, former President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan has mentioned Birbal Sahni in

several contexts' including science, religion etc.

� In the English Newspaper The Hindu, Dr. Sahni has been called Pioneer of palaeobotany (in India).

� In their paper "New interpretations of the earliest conifers", Rothwell have cited from Revision of

Indian fossil plants: Part III. Monocotyledons by Dr. Sahni.

� In their paper Seed plant phylogeny and the origin of angiosperms: An experimental cladistic

approach, Dayle and Donohogue have included sections from A petrified Williamsonia by Dr. Sahni.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Born: December 22, 1887, Erode

Died: April 26, 1920, Chetput

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician par excellence. He is widely

believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasa

Ramanujan made significant contribution to the analytical theory of

numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite

series.

Ramanujan was said to be a natural genius by the English

mathematician G.H. Hardy, in the same league as mathematicians

like Euler and Gauss.

Early Life

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu.

His father worked in Kumbakonam as a clerk in a cloth merchant's shop. At the of five Ramanujan went

to primary school in Kumbakonam. In 1898 at age 10, he entered the Town High School in Kumbakonam.

At the age of eleven he was lent books on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. Loney by two lodgers

at his home who studied at the Government college. He mastered them by the age of thirteen.

Ramanujan was a bright student, winning academic prizes in high school.

At age of 16 his life took a decisive turn after he obtained a book titled "A Synopsis of Elementary

Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics" by G. S. Carr. The book was simply a compilation of

thousands of mathematical results, most set down with little or no indication of proof. The book

generated Ramanujan's interest in mathematics and he worked through the book's results and beyond.

By 1904 Ramanujan had begun to undertake deep research. He investigated the series (1/n) and

calculated Euler's constant to 15 decimal places. He began to study the Bernoulli numbers, although this

was entirely his own independent discovery. He was given a scholarship to the Government College in

Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. But he neglected his other subjects at the cost of mathematics

and failed in college examination. He dropped out of the college.

Ramanujan lived off the charity of friends, filling notebooks with mathematical discoveries and seeking

patrons to support his work. In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa's

College. His aim was to pass the First Arts examination which would allow him to be admitted to the

University of Madras. Continuing his mathematical work Ramanujan studied continued fractions and

divergent series in 1908. At this stage he became seriously ill again and underwent an operation in April

1909 after which he took him some considerable time to recover.

Indian Mathematician

On 14 July 1909 Ramanujan marry a ten year old girl S Janaki Ammal.

During this period Ramanujan had his first paper published, a 17-page work on Bernoulli numbers that

appeared in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. In 1911 Ramanujan approached the

founder of the Indian Mathematical Society for advice on a job. He got the job of clerk at the Madras

Port Trust with the help of Indian mathematician Ramachandra Rao.

The professor of civil engineering at the Madras Engineering College C L T Griffith was interested in

Ramanujan's abilities and, having been educated at University College London, knew the professor of

mathematics there, namely M J M Hill. He wrote to Hill on 12 November 1912 sending some of

Ramanujan's work and a copy of his 1911 paper on Bernoulli numbers. Hill replied in a fairly encouraging

way but showed that he had failed to understand Ramanujan's results on divergent series. In January

1913 Ramanujan wrote to G H Hardy having seen a copy of his 1910 book Orders of infinity.

Hardy, together with Littlewood, studied the long list of unproved theorems which Ramanujan enclosed

with his letter. Hardy wrote back to Ramanujan and evinced interest in his work.

University of Madras gave Ramanujan a scholarship in May 1913 for two years and, in 1914, Hardy

brought Ramanujan to Trinity College, Cambridge, to begin an extraordinary collaboration. Right from

the start Ramanujan's collaboration with Hardy led to important results. In a joint paper with Hardy,

Ramanujan gave an asymptotic formula for p(n). It had the remarkable property that it appeared to give

the correct value of p(n), and this was later proved by Rademacher.

Ramanujan had problems settling in London. He was an orthodox Brahmin and right from the beginning

he had problems with his diet. The outbreak of World War I made obtaining special items of food harder

and it was not long before Ramanujan had health problems.

On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research. He

had been allowed to enrol in June 1914 despite not having the proper qualifications. Ramanujan's

dissertation was on Highly composite numbers and consisted of seven of his papers published in

England.

Illness & Return to India

Ramanujan fell seriously ill in 1917 and his doctors feared that he would die. He did improve a little by

September but spent most of his time in various nursing homes. On February 18, 1918 Ramanujan was

elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and later he was also elected as a fellow of the

Royal Society of London. By the end of November 1918 Ramanujan's health had greatly improved.

Ramanujan sailed to India on 27 February 1919 arriving on 13 March. However his health was very poor

and, despite medical treatment, he died on April 6, 1920.

In 1918, Hardy and Ramanujan studied the partition function P(n) extensively and gave a non-

convergent asymptotic series that permits exact computation of the number of partitions of an

integer. Hans Rademacher, in 1937, was able to refine their formula to find an exact convergent series

solution to this problem. Ramanujan and Hardy's work in this area gave rise to a powerful new method

for finding asymptotic formulae, called the circle method.

He discovered mock theta functions in the last year of his life. For many years these functions were a

mystery, but they are now known to be the holomorphic parts of harmonic weak Maass forms.

Ramanujan’s Notebook

While still in Madras, Ramanujan recorded the bulk of his results in four notebooks of loose leaf paper.

These results were mostly written up without any derivations.

Mathematician Bruce C. Berndt, in his review of these notebooks and Ramanujan's work, says that

Ramanujan most certainly was able to make the proofs of most of his results, but chose not to.

The first notebook has 351 pages with 16 somewhat organized chapters and some unorganized material.

The second notebook has 256 pages in 21 chapters and 100 unorganised pages, with the third notebook

containing 33 unorganised pages. The results in his notebooks inspired numerous papers by later

mathematicians trying to prove what he had found. Hardy himself created papers exploring material

from Ramanujan's work as did G. N. Watson, B. M. Wilson, and Bruce Berndt. A fourth notebook with 87

unorganised pages, the so-called "lost notebook", was rediscovered in 1976 by George Andrews.

Ramanujan – Hardy Number 1729

The number 1729 is known as the Hardy–Ramanujan number after a famous anecdote of the British

mathematician G. H. Hardy regarding a visit to the hospital to see Ramanujan. In Hardy's words:

“ I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number

1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was

not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest

number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. ”

The two different ways are

1729 = 13 + 12

3 = 9

3 + 10

3.

Generalizations of this idea have created the notion of "taxicab numbers". Coincidentally, 1729 is

also a Carmichael number.

Recognition

Ramanujan's home state of Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December (Ramanujan's birthday) as 'State IT

Day', memorializing both the man and his achievements, as a native of Tamil Nadu.

A stamp picturing Ramanujan was released by the Government of India in 1962 – the 75th anniversary

of Ramanujan's birth – commemorating his achievements in the field of number theory, and a new

design was issued on December 26, 2011, by the India Post.

Since the Centennial year of Ramanujan, every year 22 Dec, is celebrated as Ramanujan Day by

the Government Arts College, Kumbakonam where he had studied and later dropped out.

On the 125th anniversary of his birth, India declared the birthday of Ramanujan, December 22, as

'National Mathematics Day.' The declaration was made by Dr. Manmohan Singh in Chennai on

December 26, 2011. Dr Manmohan Singh also declared that the year 2012 would be celebrated as

the National Mathematics Year.

In popular Culture

� A film, based on the book The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel, is being made by Edward Pressman and Matthew Brown with R. Madhavan playing Ramanujan.

� Another international feature film on Ramanujan's life was announced in 2006 as due to begin shooting in 2007. It was to be shot in Tamil Nadu state and Cambridge and be produced by an Indo-British collaboration and co-directed by Stephen Fry and Dev Benegal. A play, First Class Man by Alter Ego Productions, was based on David Freeman's First Class Man. On 16 October 2011, it was announced that Roger Spottiswoode, best known for his James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, is working on the film version, starring actor Siddharth. Like the book and play it is also titled The First Class Man; the film's scripting has been completed and shooting is being planned from 2012.

� A Disappearing Number is a recent British stage production by the company Complicite that explores the relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan.

� The novel The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt explores in fiction the events following Ramanujan's letter to Hardy.

� On 22 March 1988, the PBS Series Nova aired a documentary about Ramanujan, "The Man Who

Loved Numbers"

� Ramanujan is mentioned in the Hollywood Blockbuster Good Will Hunting starring Matt Damon a film based on an orphan genius living in the rough part of South Boston.

Ganapathi Thanikaimoni

Born: January 1, 1938, Chennai

Died: September 5, 1986, Karachi

Ganapathi Thanikaimoni, a successful botanist of his days, is remembered till

date for his widespread contribution in the field of palynology. His researches

and projects not only helped India to make its presence felt on the world stage

of botany, it also furthered public relations between two countries. Ganapathi

Thanikaimoni gradually established himself in the role of India's ambassador to

other countries to promote the research made in botany in our country. Thani, as he fondly came to be

known as, specialized in the research of pollen morphology and phylogeny of the palm tree. After

completing his preliminary education in Madras, Ganapathi Thanikaimoni visited Pondicherry to earn his

doctorate degree. His research work is still held in high regard. A project that he had started and which

had to be put on hold because of his untimely demise is still being pursued by the French Institute in

Pondicherry.


Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was born on New Year's Day in the year 1938 in Madras. He spent his entire

childhood in the city of Madras and passed his school and college years from the same. Madras, at that

time, was very important geographically, because of the proximity of ports. He earned a Master's of

Science degree in Botany from the University of Madras in the year 1962. Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was

taking lessons under Professor B G L Swamy, a famous plant morphologist during that time in the

University of Madras. It was in the same year that he received the Fyson Prize for his contribution in the

field of natural science. It was after his college years that Ganapathi Thanikaimoni started work on his

research paper that eventually earned him a doctorate degree from the University of Montpellier. In

1970, the University authorities decided to grant him the doctorate degree because of his research in

pollen morphology and the classification of the evolutionary stages of the palm tree.

Career

Armed with a doctorate degree from the University of Montpellier and the Fyson Prize, Ganapathi

Thanikaimoni went ahead to establish himself as a botanist. He joined as a scientist at the French

Institute of Pondicherry, joining the palynology laboratory that was set up inside the institute in the year

1960.

Thani worked in Pondicherry under the guidance of Dr Professor Guinet. His hard work and dedication

were soon identified by the teachers at the institute, who did not waste time to promote Thani to the

post of director of the palynology laboratory. Reports claim that Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was not only

scientifically sound, but also very organized in his work. It was his administrative capabilities coupled

with his huge store of learning that drew the attention of all his seniors and teachers at the French

Institute of Pondicherry.

During his initial years at the French Institute of Pondicherry, Thani worked on the Clusiaceae, Araceae,

Mimosaceae, Menispermaceae and Sonnera species of plants. His researches with the enlisted species

were published in journals that were brought out by the French Institute of Pondicherry from time to

time. Though Ganapathi Thanikaimoni worked on a particular set of species within the plant kingdom

and based his research on the pollen morphology of this species, he did not flinch from working on all

other plants from the large collection in the plant kingdom as well. Thani insisted that all species must

be studied if accurate results are to be achieved for a particular set of plants because behavioral

patterns of different species are interrelated.

Thani never believed in limiting his research work to only the modern flora. Although pollen morphology

as done by him chiefly dealt with the pollen of modern flora, he made it a point to extend his research

to fossil pollen as well. It was on the insistence of Thani that a tertiary pollen study was organized at the

7th IPC held in Brisbane, Australia. In the year 1972, he received worldwide recognition when his

compilation of morphology of angiosperm pollen was published as the 'Index Bibliographique sur la

Morphologic des Pollens d'Angiospermes'. This introduced his studies to a worldwide audience. In the

year 1983, as a representative of the French Institute of Pondicherry, Ganapati Thanikaimoni became

the head of a workshop that was held in Pondicherry to share botany concepts and pollen morphology

ideas with Indian and French palynologists. Thani studied the pollen of plants derived from regions in

Africa and India. He had a collection of about 20,000 slides of tropical palynomorphs, which were used

for further research work.

Role in Society

Dr Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was not only involved in the study of pollen, but also tried his best to

contribute to the wellbeing of the society. Thani tried his best to educate government authorities to

take proper care of coastlines and to rehabilitate arid areas across India. It is well known that mangroves

play a very important role in balancing the eco system; therefore Thani took steps to educate the society

and the government on the necessity of a mangrove. He was also one of the masterminds in the

UNESCO developed 'Asia and Pacific Mangrove Project'. There is hardly any doubt about the fact that

Ganapathi Thanikaimoni's contribution to the field of pollen studies is immense and all his contribution

is recorded in the book 'Palynology Manual' that was printed after his death.

Death

It is sad that Dr Ganapathi Thanikaimoni had to die a sudden and unexpected death. Reports claim that

he was on his way to the United States to attend a lecture organized by UNESCO when disaster struck

him in the form of a plane hijack. The Pan Am Flight that he was in was hijacked midway in Karachi on

September 5, 1986. The Pakistan government had sent commandos on the site to bomb the plane and

the terrorists inside and it was reportedly one of the bullets fired by these commandos on duty caused a

fatal injury to Thani. The doctor was taken unawares by bullets and shrapnel from a grenade when he

was busy helping a child into the covers of safety. Dr Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was supposed to attend

the Second International Conference on Paleo-oceanography that took place in Massachusetts, USA

from the 6th to the 12th of September, 1986. His studies and unfinished research work are still stored at

the French Institute of Pondicherry and further research on his theories is to take place.

Timeline

1938: Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was born on January 1.

1962: Earned a Master of Science degree in Botany from University of Madras.

1962: Won the Fyson Prize.

1970: Earned doctorate degree from University of Montpellier.

1972: Received worldwide recognition for his compilation of morphology of angiosperm pollen.

1983: Convened workshop for Indian and French palynologists at French Institute of Pondicherry.

1986: Died on September 5 in a plane hijack

Harish Chandra

Born: October 11, 1923, Kanpur

Died: October 16, 1983, Princeton

For those who quiver at the thought of calculations and numerical

deductions, unless when counting money, mathematics can be the

equivalent of hell on earth. And for such 'math atheists' a mathematician

like Harish Chandra can very well seem like a mirage. Harish Chandra is one

amongst those few people who often change tracks in their career and yet

reach a glorious destination. Yes, he was a genius who studied theoretical

physics but decided to build a career pursuing higher mathematics as he

felt that he didn't have the "mysterious sixth sense which one needs in

order to succeed in physics". And higher mathematics, as anyone will tell, is that jumble of confusion

where alphabets are used more than numbers, X and Y being particularly favorite. In a career spanning

to three decades, Harish Chandra had worked with some of the best mathematical minds of this age and

whose work in representation theory brought it from the periphery of mathematics to its center stage.

Unarguably, he is the second greatest modern mathematician, after Ramanujan, of India.

Childhood

Harish Chandra Mehrotra was born in Kanpur, then known as Cawnpore in British India, to Chandrakishore Mehrotra, a civil engineer and Satyagati Seth, the daughter of a wealthy lawyer. He spent most of his childhood at his maternal grandfather's house where he received his early schooling at home from a tutor. He also learnt dancing and music. He was brilliant in his studies, but was prone to frequent illness and both these aspect of his childhood continued throughout his life. At the age of nine, Harish Chandra was enrolled in a private school and then completed his intermediate schooling from the Scindia School. He joined the University of Allahabad to study theoretical physics in which he proved to be a brilliant student. According to an interesting anecdote when C.V Raman was an examiner at the University, Harish Chandra solved the only question of the acoustic paper, which was on the theory of vibration of the mridangam, on the spot. He was given 100% marks by a highly impressed C.V Raman. Harish Chandra was influenced to study physics after reading the Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Paul Dirac. In 1941, he completed his B. Sc and received his Masters Degree in 1943. He then moved to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore as a postgraduate research fellow under Homi Bhabha to work on problems in theoretical physics. As a research fellow, Harish Chandra published several research papers along with Bhabha, the first being 'On the Theory of Point Particles' in 1944. Early Work

In 1945, Harish Chandra was selected as a research student under Paul Dirac and so moved to the

University of Cambridge. In Cambridge, he became a lifelong friend of Wolfgang Pauli when during a

lecture by the famous physicist, he pointed out a mistake. It was at Cambridge that Harish Chandra

became more and more interested in Mathematics. In 1947, after obtaining his Ph. D he moved to the

USA, where Dirac was teaching in the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University. At

Princeton, he worked as Dirac's assistant. His early influence in mathematics was triggered by the works

of Hermann Weyl, Emil Artin and Claude Chevalley who were working at Princeton and subsequently,

moved over to mathematics.

As A Mathematician

In 1949, Harish Chandra moved to Harvard and in 1950 he shifted to Colombia University, where he

worked as a faculty member. It was in Colombia University during the period 1950 to 1963 that he

carried out research on 'semisimple lie groups' which were considered to be his best research. It was

also during this period that he studied the 'discrete series representations of semisimple Lie groups' as

his special area. He also worked with Armand Borel with whom he founded the theory of arithmetic

groups and collaborated numerous papers on finite group analogues. Harish Chandra is also known for

enunciating a precursor of the Langlands Philosophy known as 'Philosophy of Cusp Forms'. While still

affiliated to Cambridge, he worked at the Tata Institute in Bombay from 1952 to 1953 and then at the

Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1955 to 1956 and as a Guggenheim Fellow in Paris in

1957 to 1958. In 1961, he awarded the Sloan Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and worked

there till 1963. Thereafter, he went back to the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton till he was

appointed the IBM von Neumann professor in 1968 and served till his death.

Awards and Legacy

♦ Harsh Chandra received many prestigious awards during his lifetime. In 1951, he published

several papers on 'representations of semisimple Lie algebras and groups' for which, in 1954, he

received the AMS Cole prize from the American Mathematical Society.

♦ In 1973, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. The same year, he was awarded with an

honorary degree from Delhi University.

♦ The Indian National Science Academy in 1974 awarded Harish Chandra the Ramanujan Medal

for his work in mathematics.

♦ In 1975, he was made a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and a fellow of the Indian

National Science Academy.

♦ In 1981, he was made a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States and was

also bestowed with an honorary degree from Yale University. A bust of Harish Chandra was

unveiled at the Mehta Institute in his memory.

Personal Life & Death

In 1952, he married Lalitha Kale the daughter of Dr. Kale a botanist when he was serving a stint at the

Tata Institute. He had two daughters Premala and Devaki. In 1983, Harish Chandra was attending a

conference to in honor of Armand Borel's 60th Birthday in Princeton when he had a heart attack and

passed away. He had suffered three heart attacks before. He died before he could attend a similar

conference in his honor and so the scheduled event became a memorial conference.

Timeline

1923: Harish Chandra was born

1932: Enrolled in a private school

1941: Completed his B. Sc

1943: Received his Master's Degree; moved to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore as a

postgraduate research fellow under Homi Bhabha

1944: Published several research papers along with Bhabha, the first being 'On the Theory of Point

Particles'

1945: Was selected as a research student under Paul Dirac and so moved to the University of

Cambridge.

1947: Obtained his Ph. D and moved to USA

1949: Moved to Harvard

1950: shifted to Colombia University

1950-53: Carried out research on 'semisimple lie groups'

1952-53: Worked at the Tata Institute in Bombay from

1954: Received the AMS Cole prize from the American Mathematical Society for his research on

'semisimple lie groups'

1955-56: Worked at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton

1957-58: Worked as a Guggenheim Fellow in Paris

1961: Was awarded the Sloan Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study

1963: Went back to the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton

1968: Was appointed the IBM von Neumann professor

1973: Became a Fellow of the Royal Society; awarded with an honorary degree from Delhi University

1974: Indian National Science Academy awarded him the Ramanujan Medal for his work in mathematics

1975: Was made a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and a fellow of the Indian National Science

Academy.

1981: Was made a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States; was also bestowed

with an honorary degree from Yale University.

Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar

Born: February 21, 1984, Shahpur

Died: January 1, 1955, Newdelhi

A noted scientist of India, Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar was appointed

the first director-general of the prestigious Council of Scientific and

Industrial Research. He also holds the credit of building 12 national

laboratories like Central Food Processing Technological Institute at

Mysore, National Chemical Laboratory at Pune and so on.

Early Life

Bhatnagar was born in Shahpur,Punjab, British India( now in Pakistan), in a Hindu Punjabi

Brahmo family. His father, Parmeshwari Sahai Bhatnagar, died when he was eight months old and he

spent his childhood in the house of his maternal grandfather, an engineer, where he developed a liking

for science and engineering. He used to enjoy building mechanical toys, electronic batteries, string

telephones. From his maternal family he also inherited a gift of poetry, and his Urdu one-act

play Karamati won the first prize in a competition.

After completing his master's in India, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar headed to England for a research

fellowship. Here he got his D. Sc degree from the London University in the year 1921. When he came

back to his native country, Bhatnagar was presented with a proposal of professorship at the renowned

Benaras Hindu University.

In 1911, Shanti published a letter to the editor, in The Leader, Allahabad, on how to make a substitute

for carbon electrodes in a battery using molasses and carbonaceous matter under pressure and heat.

Dr Bhatnagar was knighted by the British Government in the year 1941 as an award for his research in

science, whereas, on 18 March 1943 he was selected as fellow of the Royal Society. Though his area of

interest included emulsions, colloids, and industrial chemistry, but his primary contributions were in the

spheres of magneto-chemistry. He also made a melodious kulgeet i.e. University song (BHU), which is

still sung with great pride before any function in his university.

Work in India

Prime Minister Nehru was a proponent of scientific development, and after India's independence in

1947, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was set up under the chairmanship of Dr.

Bhatnagar. He was named the first Director General of the CSIR. He became known as "the Father of

Research Laboratories" and is largely remembered for having established various chemical laboratories

in India. He established a total twelve national laboratories such as Central Food Processing

Technological Institute, Mysore, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, the National Physical

Laboratory, New Delhi, the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, the Central Fuel

Institute, Dhanbad, just to name a few.

He was the first Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

He was Secretary, Ministry of Education and Educational Adviser to Government. Bhatnagar played an

important role both in the constitution and deliberations of the Scientific Manpower Committee Report

of 1948. ‘It may be pointed out that this was the first-ever systematic assessment of the scientific

manpower needs of the country in all aspects which served as an important policy document for the

government to plan the post-independent S&T infrastructure.’ Bhatnagar was a University Professor for

19 years (1921–40) first at the Banaras Hindu University and then at the Punjab University and he had a

reputation as a very inspiring teacher and it was as a teacher that he himself was most happy.

On returning to India in August 1921 he joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as Professor of

Chemistry. It may be noted that the BHU was founded by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1916.

Bhatnagar stayed for three years in BHU and during this short span of time he was able to create an

active school of physico-chemical research. Bhatnagar wrote the ‘Kulgeet’ (University song) of the

University.

Awards

♦ The British Government conferred on him the Order of the British Empire

♦ In 1941, he was made the Knight Bachelor

♦ In 1943 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

♦ Received the Padma Vibhushan (1954) from the Government of India.

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao

Born: September 9, 1898, Vizianagaram

Died: June 20, 1972, Visakhapatnam

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was one of the greatest physicists of 20th

century India. His work in spectroscopy led to the development of the

Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance in Physics. Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao

is also known for his long association with the Andhra University in which

he served as professor of Physics and subsequently, became the Principal

of all the colleges under the institution. Apart from his role as physicist,

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao has always been known as a nationalist for

his simple tastes in lifestyle and clothing. In spite of being professionally successfully, family was the first

priority for Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao. He always wore khaddar and loved the company of people.

And this is why Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao is known not only as a physicist but also a delightful

companion.

Early Life

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was born on September 9, 1898 in a Hindu Brahmin family residing in

the small town of Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. His father was a post master in various cities across

the state of Andhra Pradesh. He was a very devout Hindu who followed religious rites with the utmost

care. Being a Brahmin, Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was deeply influenced by religion and had to

practice vegetarianism. Young Rao attended the Maharaja High School in Vizianagaram till he completed

his fifth standard studies in the year 1906. His subsequent years of schooling till the completion of his

intermediate examinations in the twelfth standard took place in a number of schools including the

London Mission High School, the Hindu High School, the C B M High School and the A V N College.

The family was settled in Tamil Nadu and Rao was forced to undertake the B A degree in Physics in the

year 1920 in college as a B. Sc degree was unheard of in Madras University during his college days. Rao

completed his masters in Physics in 1923 from Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, in the same

year, when Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was a 25 year old, his mother Ramayamma passed away.

Once Rao earned a D. Sc degree after completing his research paper from Madras University, he was

selected as part of a group of students to be sent abroad to complete their studies by the Andhra

University in the year 1928. The opportunity to travel abroad for completion of his studies opened new

doors in the career of Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao.

Career

In the year 1924, when Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was completing his research to earn the D. Sc

degree from Madras University, he joined hands with research scholar A L Narayan to set up a high

quality spectroscopic laboratory in India. Dr Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao's aim was to build such a

laboratory which would be equipped to conduct the most effective researches in the field of

spectroscopy in the future. However, he and his partner had very low dispersion and low resolving

power of constant deviation, small quartz and medium quartz spectrographs. There were no funds to

purchase the alternative. Therefore, it was Dr Rao who took the initiative to travel to Calcutta. He

arrived at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta and continued his research on

spectra in visible and ultraviolet regions.

In the year 1928, Dr Rao was sponsored to be sent to England for further studies by the Andhra

University. From 1930 to 1932, he conducted a research on atomic spectra at the Imperial College of

Science and Technology in London under the guidance of Professor A Fowler. He was awarded a D. Sc

degree from London University at the end of two years. In the year 1930, Dr Rao also traveled to

European countries Germany and Sweden to explore the possibilities of research in spectroscopy in the

countries. He worked under Professor F Paschen of the Physikalische Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin,

Germany for six months. Rao then visited Upsala, Sweden to study vacuum spectroscopy under the

guidance of Professor Manne Seigbahn.

It is said that his interest in the field of spectroscopy was so high that Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao

built a vacuum spectrograph spending his own money and had it installed in Potsdam, Germany. Dr

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao subsequently returned to India to start research work on the nuclear

quadrupole resonance in the laboratories of the Andhra University. He was appointed the Principal of

the Andhra University colleges in the year 1949, a post that he held till the year 1957. He was also the

special officer managing the establishment of the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupathi in 1954. He

later became the Emeritus Professor of Physics at the Andhra University from 1966 to 1972.

Contributions

Professor Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao's contribution to the world of physics in general and

spectroscopy in particular is immense. He remains one of the most respected physicists in India and

around the world. Some of the notable contributions made by Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao are:

• Development of diatomic and polyatomic molecular spectroscopy laboratory which deals with

high resolution vibrational structure in electronic transitions.

• Crystal spectra

• U V Absorption

• Raman scattering

• Infrared absorption

• Fluorescence and Phosphorescence

• Construction of microwave test benches to further investigations in dielectrics.

• Development of radio frequency spectroscopy.

• Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance

• Electron Spin Resonance

• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

• Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao also established scholarships in the name of his father to aid

talented economically backward classes of the society study Physics. The Kotcherlakota Venkata

Narasinga Rao Research Scholarship allowed a stipend of rs 30 per month for a period of two

years, which could be extended to two more successive years.

• Dr Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was one of the founding members of the A P Akademi of

Sciences in Andhra Pradesh, established in 1963.

Distinctions

Being an imminent name in the history of physics in the country, Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao is

remembered through awards and honors named after him. The Indian National Science Academy

distributes the Memorial Lecture Award in honor of Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao since 1979. The

Professor Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao Memorial Lecture Award is distributed to celebrate

outstanding contribution in the field of spectroscopy in Physics. Well known publications both in India

and abroad had articles on the research work of Dr Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao during the days he

conducted important research in the field of spectroscopy. These publications may still be available in

library archives.

Personal Life

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao married Vaddadi Perramma in a Hindu ceremony on December 6, 1925

and two years later the couple saw the birth of their first child Ramakrishna Rao. Over the 18 years of

their marriage, Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao and his wife had seven more children, four sons and

three daughters. Records claim that Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was a very jovial person by nature

and hardly ever lost his temper. He loved the company of his friends and spent hours laughing and

talking to them. Though his first love was physics and he loved working in his laboratory for hours,

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao never ignored the well being of his family. His greatness as a physicist

goes unquestioned, but Rao never lost an opportunity to praise even the minor efforts of his colleagues

and friends. He also willingly helped many of his juniors with ideas and suggestions in a research work

but refused to take any credit in the form of reference to his name in the published work.

Death

The eminent physicist and Professor Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao breathed his last on June 20, 1972

Timeline

1898: Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was born on September 9.

1920: Earned a B A in Physics degree from Madras University.

1923: Earned masters in Physics degree from Madras University.

1923: His mother Ramayamma passed away.

1924: Joined Madras University as research scholar.

1925: Married Vaddadi Perramma on December 6.

1927: His wife gave birth to their first child Ramakrishna Rao.

1928: Selected by Andhra University for further studies abroad.

1930: Started research in atomic spectra in London.

1930: Visited Germany and Sweden for research and study.

1949: Joined as Principal of Andhra University colleges.

1954: Appointed special officer for establishment of Sri Venkateswara University.

1963: Founded the A P Akademi of Sciences in Andhra Pradesh.

1966: Appointed the Emeritus Professor of Physics of Andhra University.

1972: Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao died on June 20.

1979: The Memorial Lecture Award is instituted in his honor.

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali

Born: November 12, 1896, Mumbai

Died: July 27, 1987, Mumbai

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist.

Known as the "birdman of India", Salim Ali was among the first Indians

to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and his bird books helped

develop ornithology.

He became the key figure behind the Bombay Natural History

Society after 1947 and used his personal influence to garner government

support for the organization, create the Bharatpur bird sanctuary

(Keoladeo National Park) and prevent the destruction of what is now

the Silent Valley National Park. He was awarded India's second highest

civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan in 1976.

Early Life

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, or Salim Ali as he is better known as, was born as the ninth and youngest

child in a Sulaimani Bohra Muslim family. He was born in Mumbai to Moizuddin and Zeenat-un-nissa.

Losing his father at the age of one and mother at three, Salim Ali and other kids were brought up by his

maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, and childless aunt, Hamida Begum. He was also surrounded by

another maternal uncle, Abbas Tyabji, a prominent Indian freedom fighter. He attended primary school

at Zanana Bible Medical Mission Girls High School at Girgaum and was later admitted to St. Xavier's

College at Mumbai.

However, due to his frequent chronic headaches, he was forced to drop out of school every now and

then since he was 13 years old. He was sent to Sind to stay with his uncle with hopes of the dry air

making an improvement in his health. Thus, on returning, he just managed to clear his matriculation

examination from Bombay University in 1913. Since childhood, Salim Ali gained an interest in observing

birds closely and had a hobby of shooting birds with his toy air gun. With the help of W.S. Millard,

secretary of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the bird was identified as Yellow-throated Sparrow,

which further increased his seriousness towards ornithology.

Life in Burma and Germany

After spending a difficult first year in Xavier's College, Mumbai, Salim Ali dropped out of college and

went to Tavoy, Burma to care of his family's Wolfram mining and timber business. The forests

surrounding the area helped him further develop his naturalist and hunting skills. He developed good

relations with J.C. Hopwood and Berthold Ribbentrop who worked with the Forest Service. On returning

to India in 1917, he decided to complete his studies. Hence, he studied commercial law and accountancy

Birdman of India

from Davar's College of Commerce. He used to attend morning classes at Davar's College and go to St.

Xavier's College to attend zoology classes to complete his course in zoology. Apart from his interest in

birds, Salim Ali was also fascinated by motorcycles and hence, owned his first motorcycle, 3.5 HP NSU

while he was in Tavoy.

He later went on to possess Sunbeam, Harley-Davidson (three models), Douglas, Scott, New Hudson,

and Zenith, amongst other models. He went further to get his Sunbeam shipped to Europe on being

invited to the 1950 Ornithological Congress at Uppsala, Sweden. While touring France, he even injured

himself in a minor accident and cobbled several times in Germany. He was rumored to have ridden on

his bike all the way from India, when he finally reached Uppsala. Coming back to his interest in

ornithology, he was rejected a position at the Zoological Survey of India due to lack of a formal

university degree. With this, he began studying further when he was hired as a guide lecturer in the

newly opened natural history section at Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai in 1926 with a salary of Rs.

350 per month.

Being fed up with the monotony of the job, he decided to go on a break and went to Germany in 1928

on a study leave. He worked under Professor Erwin Stresemann at Zoological Museum of Berlin

University. He was also required to examine the specimens collected by J.K. Stanford, a BNHS member.

Stanford was supposed to communicate with Claud Ticehurst at the British Museum who did not like the

idea of involving an Indian in his work. Hence, he kept distance with Stresemann. Salim Ali then moved

to Berlin and associated with popular German ornithologists, such as Bernhard Rensch, Oskar Heinroth,

and Ernst Mayr. Apart from his usual ornithology experience, he also gained knowledge in ringing at the

Heligoland observatory.

Contribution to Ornithology

After studying ornithology in Germany, Salim Ali returned to India in 1930 and started looking for a job.

However, to his surprise, the position of a guide lecturer had been dropped off from universities due to

lack of duns. Left with no option, Salim Ali, along with wife Tehmina, moved to Kihim, a coastal village

near Mumbai. This place gave him another opportunity to observe and study birds very closely,

including their mating system. He then spent a few months in Kotagiri on being invited by K.M. Anantan,

a retied army officer who served in Mesopotamia during World War I. He also met Mrs. Kinloch and her

son-in-law R.C. Morris, who lived in the Biligirirangan Hills.

Gradually, on traveling places, Salim Ali got an opportunity to conduct systematic bird surveys in the

princely states of Hyderabad, Cochin, Travancore, Gwalior, Indore, and Bhopal. He was financially

supported by Hugh Whistler who had previously conducted surveys in various parts of India. Although

Whistler initially resented Salim Ali for finding faults and inaccuracies in the early literature, he later re-

examined his specimens and accepted his mistakes. With this, began a close friendly relationship

between Ali and Whistler. He introduced Ali to Richard Meinertzhagen and the two went on an

expedition to Afghanistan. Initially, Meinertzhagen was also critical of Ali's views but later, the two

became close friends.

Salim Ali was more attracted towards studying birds in the field rather than getting into the details of

bird systematics and taxonomy. However, he did show some interest in bird photography with the help

of his friend Loke Wan Tho, a wealthy businessman from Singapore. Ali and Loke were introduced by

JTM Gibson, a member at BNHS and Lieutenant Commander of Royal Indian Navy, who had also taught

English to Loke in Switzerland. Hence, Loke provided financial support to both Ali and BNHS. Ali talked

about the history and importance of bird study in India in Sunder Lal Hora memorial lecture in 1971 and

again in Azad memorial lecture in 1978.

Literary Career

Salim Ali was not only passionate about studying birds in general; he also showed equal interest in

capturing his views on them in words. With the help of his wife Tehmina, a learned scholar from

England, Ali improved his English prose. Thus, began Ali's writing career, particularly journal articles for

Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. One of his most popular articles was "Stopping by the

woods on a Sunday morning" in 1930 which was reprinted again in Indian Express on this birthday in

1984. He penned several books as well, the most prominent of them being "The Book of Indian Birds" in

1941, which was inspired by Whistler's "Popular Handbook of Birds". It was later translated into several

languages and saw more than 12 editions. However, his masterpiece was the 10 volume "Handbook of

the Birds of India & Pakistan", written along with Dillon Ripley and was often known as "The Handbook".

The first edition began in 1964 and was completed in 1974. The second edition came from contributions

by J.S. Serrao of BNHS, Bruce Beehler, Michel Desfayes, and Pamela Rasmussen. This was completed

after Ali's death. Besides the national and international bird books, Ali also authored several regional

field guides, like "The Birds of Kerala" (first edition was titled "The Birds of Travancore and cochin" in

1953), "The Birds of Sikkim", "The Birds of Kutch" (later renamed as "The Birds of Gujarat"), "Indian Hill

Birds", "Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern Himalayas". He penned his autobiography "The Fall of a

Sparrow" in 1985 where he included his vision for BNHS and the importance of conservation related

activities. One of his last students, Tara Gandhi, published a two-volume compilation of his shorter

letters and writings in 2007.

Personal Life

On his return from Burma, Salim Ali was married off to his distant relative, Tehmina, in December 1918

in Bombay. She accompanied him to all his expeditions and surveys. But his life came to a halt when she

suddenly died following a minor surgery in 1939. Ali then started living with his sister Kamoo and

brother-in-law. After battling with prostate cancer for a very long duration, Salim Ali died on July 27,

1987 in Mumbai at the age of 90.

Honors & Memorials

Salim Ali was honored and credited with several honorary doctorates and awards during his lifetime,

though this journey began late. Starting with "Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal" in 1953 by the Asiatic

Society of Bengal, he went on to receive numerous accolades. It was based on the appreciation he

received from Sunder Lal Hora. Thus, in 1970, he was conferred upon with the Sunder Lal Hora

Memorial Medal of the Indian National Science Academy. He was bestowed with honorary doctorate

degrees from Aligarh Muslim University in 1958, Delhi University in 1973, and Andhra University in 1978.

On receiving the Gold Medal from the British Ornithologists' Union in 1967, Salim Ali became the first

non-British citizen to be bequeathed with such an honor. He received the John C. Philips Memorial

Medal of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in the same year.

In 1973, he received the Pavlovsky Centenary Memorial Medal from the USSR Academy of Medical

Science and was made the Commander of the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard

of Netherlands. He was honored with Padma Bhushan Award in 1958 and Padma Vibhushan Award in

1976. The Government of India established the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History

(SACON) in Coimbatore in 1990. Further, Salim Ali School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences has

been established by Pondicherry University. The Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary in Goa and Thattakad Bird

Sanctuary near Vembanad, Kerala have been set up in his honor. The place where BNHS was located in

Bombay was renamed as "Dr Salim Ali Chowk".

Timeline

1896: Born on November 12 in Mumbai

1913: Completed matriculation from Bombay University

1914: Admitted to St. Xavier's College and went to Burma

1917: Returned to India

1918: Married distant cousin, Tehmina in December

1926: Employed as guide lecturer in Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay

1928: Left the job and went to Germany

1930: Came back to India

1939: Wife Tehmina died

1941: Wrote first book "The Book of Indian Birds"

1953: Awarded with Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal by Asiatic Society of Bengal

1958: Received doctorate degree from Aligarh Muslim University

1958: Honored with Padma Bhushan Award

1970: Bestowed with Sunder Lal Hora Memorial Medal from INSA

1973: Received honorary doctorate from Delhi University

1976: Conferred upon with Padma Vibhushan Award

1978: Received honorary doctorate from Andhra University

1985: Penned autobiography "The Fall of a Sparrow"

1987: Died on July 27 in Mumbai from prostate cancer, aged 90

1990: Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History established at Coimbatore

Yellapragada Subba Rao

Born: January 12, 1895, Bhimavaram

Died: August 9, 1948

"You've probably never heard of Dr. Yellapragada Subba Rao, yet because

he lived you may be well and alive today; because he lived you may live

longer". A famous adage quoted by American author, Doron K. Antrim,

Yellapragada Subbarao was one of those rare people who made several

significant contributions, yet was not honored with a Nobel Prize or even

its equivalents. With a large number of discoveries made over fifty years

of his life, this magnificent and legendary scientist transformed science

and changed the lives of the general public, only to be forgotten to date.

Probably it was his distinguishing feature of keeping away from publicity that his excellence in the field

of investigation was a secret from the world. However, with his discoveries and inventions of various

antibiotics to save people from deadly diseases, this legend came into limelight, thereby allowing

thousands of people to enjoy their lives day after day and year after year.

Early Life

Yellapragada Subbarao was born in a poor Telugu 6000 Niyogi Brahmin family in Bhimavaram district in

Old Madras Presidency, now in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. He was born as the fourth child

amongst seven children to Y. Jagganatham and Y. Venkamma. Though his father worked as a revenue

inspector, the family suffered from many hardships of poverty due to the loss of several of his close

relatives at a young age. As such, his schooling at Rajahmundry went through a traumatic phase, leading

to his completion of matriculation in the third attempt from Hindu High School in Madras. He attained

his intermediate education from Presidency College and took admission in Madras Medical College, his

education being financed by his friends and Kasturi Suryanarayana Murthy. He later went on to marry

Murthy's daughter.

During the freedom movement, Subbarao was so influenced by Mahatma Gandhi that he gave up using

British goods and started wearing khadi surgical dress. This displeased his Anglican partial racist

professor, M.C. Bradfield who qualified him for a lesser LMS degree instead of a full MBBS degree,

although he fared well in all written examinations. He tried to get through Madras Medical service but

failed. Hence, he started working as an anatomy lecturer in Dr. Lakshmipathi's Ayurvedic College at

Madras. After gaining much interest in Ayurveda, he diverted his interest towards conducting his

research in this field. But he was soon on track after he met an American doctor who was touring India

for Rockefeller Scholarship. With financial support from his father-in-law Murthy and promise of support

from Satyalinga Naicker Charities and Malladi charities, he sailed to Boston in US on October 26, 1922.

Life in America

Subbarao took admission in Harvard School of Tropical Medicine and on completing the diploma; he

took up the job of a junior faculty member at Harvard. Living in poverty, he managed to work two or

three jobs in shifts. This gained him appreciation from professors and won many scholarships. For the

first time, Subbarao gained public attention with the discovery of the estimation of phosphorus in body

fluids and tissues, along with Cyrus Fiske. This discovery came to be known as Fiske-Subbarao method,

though it was technically named Rapid Calorimetric Method. Next came the accidental discovery of

physiology in the body based on Adenosine Triphosphate and Phosphocreatine (ATP), which are the

sources of energy in human body. With this, Subbarao's name was listed in the biochemistry textbooks

in 1930s for the first time. In the same year, he obtained his PhD degree. He worked at Harvard till 1940

and later joined Lederle Laboratories, a division of American Cyanamid, as the Director of Research,

after he was denied the post of a regular faculty at Harvard.

Contributions to Medicine

At Lederle, Subbarao discovered many more antibiotics for a wide range of cures, other than the already discovered penicillin and streptomycin. His research led him to the discovery of polymyxin which is still used in cattle-feed. This led to laying the foundation for the isolation of vitamin B9, the antipernicious anemia factor, based on the work conducted by Lucy Wills in 1945. He applied different inputs given by Dr. Sidney Farber to develop an anti-cancer drug Methotrexate, one of the first cancer chemotherapy agents, which is still used worldwide. He was also credited with the discovery of drug Hetrazen, a cure for filariasis at Lederle. Today, this drug is the most widely used medicine for treating filariasis, including World Health Organization. Under his directorship, Benjamin Duggar gave birth to his discovery of the world's first tetracycline antibiotic, Aureomycin in the same year. This resulted as one of the largest distributed scientific experiments till date with American soldiers being asked to collect soil samples during World War II and deposit them at Lederle Laboratories for anti-bacterial agents from natural soil fungi. Another medicine that he discovered was Isonicotinic acid Hydrazide, an effective cure for tuberculosis. Recognition

With so many discoveries and developments to his credit, Subbarao never marketed his work and

hence, was always left behind in terms of work recognition and appreciation. He always sat in the

audience and had to be pushed to the stage by a colleague or a collaborator to take a bow as each of his

researches was revealed to the public. Further, he was seen giving interviews to the press or visiting

nations on lecture tours. When his colleague George Hitchings won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or

Medicine, along with Gertrude Elion, in 1988, he stated that some of the works initiated by Subbarao

had to be rediscovered for the simple reason that his partner Fiske did not allow his contributions earn

name and fame, probably out of jealousy. American Cyanamid honored Subbarao by naming a new

fungus under his name "Subbaromyces splendens".

Personal Life

On being persuaded by his family, Subbarao was married to his distant cousin Seshagiri, daughter of

Kasturi Suryanarayana Murthy, on May 10, 1919. She belonged to Anaparthi vllage in East Godavari

district of Andhra Pradesh. After the couple went to America, his wife gave birth to a son in a couple

months. However, the son died at nine months due to the dreadful disease "Sappi".

Death

Yellapragada Subbarao spent most of his career life in America without a green card. Thus, he remained

an alien in America, although he performed several important medical researches during World War II.

But he had always hoped of shedding the stigma of being an alien amidst people with whom he spent

over 25 years. With this, he filed the "Declaration of Intention" to get the ruling of the Immigration and

Naturalization Service that he has been legally admitted to United States. Despite getting the American

citizenship, Subbarao was an Indian at heart and died as an Indian. On his death on August 9, 1948 in

USA due to a massive heart attack, numerous obituaries appeared in Science, New York Times, New York

Herald-Tribune, and several other newspapers and journals across the world in honor of this

distinguished scientist. He was bestowed upon with "one of the most eminent medical minds of the

Century" by Herald-Tribune.

Timeline

1895: Born on January 12 in Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh

1919: Married Seshagiri on May 10

1922: Went to America and took admission in Harvard School of Tropical Medicine

1930: Discovered the role of ATP and obtained PhD degree

1940: Joined Lederle Laboratories at Director of Research

1945: Discovered world's first tetracycline antibiotic, Aureomycin and method to synthesize folic acid

1948: Died on August 9 in America, aged 53

Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda

Born: May 4, 1942, Titlagarh

Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda is a famous Indian and a renowned

inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker who currently serve as an advisor to

the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh.

His work revolves around Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations. He

is respected for being a technological intellect who is responsible for India's

latest revolution in communications and the IT field. He plays a pivotal role in

creating IT infra-structure thereby enhancing services to the common man.

Sam Pitroda has extended his services to many areas of IT.

He was appointed the Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission during the year 2005-2008,

which is a high level advisory board to the Prime Minister of India. The Board works for improving

knowledge related institutions as well as infrastructure in the country. Mr. Pitroda holds around 100 key

technology patents, has been involved in several start-ups, and has given lectures extensively around

the world.

He is a proven entrepreneur as well who had founded C-SAM, Inc. with its headquarters in Chicago.

With his unparalleled technological and administration skills he redefined the role of technology in a

developing country like India and also managed to deliver better services to the under privileged people

of the country.

Early Life

Sam Pitroda was born into a Gujarati family on 4th May, 1942 in Titlagarh, Orissa. His parents, who

migrated from Gujarat to Orissa were staunch followers of Mahatma Gandhi, and deeply influenced by

his philosophies. They sent Sam Pitroda and his brother to Gujarat to learn more about Gandhian

philosophy. Sam Patroda did his schooling in Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat and finished a Master's

degree in Physics and Electronics from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara. He then went to the

United States of America to pursue a Masters in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of

Technology, Chicago. He was religiously involved in technology research work during the 1960s and

1970s, stressing on telecommunication.

Career

Sam Pitroda founded a digital switching company called Wescom Switching in 1974 and that was one of

the first in that category. He invented many revolutionary systems and electrical accessories and has

many patents too his credit.

His invention, the 580 DSS switch became a hit across the world in 1978. However, his company

Wescom was later acquired by Rockwell International and Pitroda became its President.

He developed a new computer theme card game called Compucards in 1983, which functioned by

making use of binary codes. He is a good orator and has been invited to many international events.

In 1984, the erstwhile Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi invited Mr. Petrodato the country.

Thus, he started the Center for Development of Telematics C-DOT in India, which is an autonomous

telecom R&D organization. He surrendered his US citizenship and acquired an Indian citizenship to work

in the government and thus took the post of advisor to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and contributed much to shape

foreign and domestic telecommunications policies. Sam Pitroda headed six major technology missions in

Rajiv Gandhi's term and also founded India's Telecom Commission and served as its first Chairman.

Though he returned to Chicago in 1990s, Pitroda returned to India upon receiving a call from Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004 and thus became the head of the National Knowledge Commission of

India. Sam Pitroda became the head of an expert committee of the railways in July 2009. He was asked

to take up the position of advisor to the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh on Public Information

Infrastructure and Innovations in 2009 and was also given the rank of Cabinet Minister. He played an

important role in the formation of the National Innovation Council, aimed for the development of micro,

small and medium enterprises. This was a notable achievement of Sam Pitroda.

Contributions

Sam Pitroda has against his name many notable achievements in the field of telecommunication as well

as the technological sector of India. He established the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health

Tradition (FRLHT) near Bangalore in India in 1993. He played a pivotal role in changing the face of Indian

telecommunication and the information technology sector. As Chairman of the National Knowledge

Commission, he guided the body and submitted around 300 recommendations over 27 focus areas. He

has been appointed as an advisor to the UN as well.

Legacy

Introduction of microprocessors in the telephone took Sam Pitroda name to the peaks of fame. He

invented the Electronic Diary in the year 1975 and it is an example of hand-held computing. He has 100

patents to his credit and thus has become the leading name in telecommunications and IT. His latest

invention covers a major spectrum of transactions, both financial and non-financial, and works by using

the cell-phone to advantage.

Awards and Accolades

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2011

D.Sc. from Sambalpur University, 2010.

Rajiv Gandhi "Global Indian" award, 2009.

Padma BhushanPuraskar, 2009

Skoch Challenger Lifetime Achievement Award,2009

D.Sc. from Andhra University, 2008

Dataquest IT Lifetime Achievement Award, 2002

Timeline

1947: Born at Titlagarh, Orissa.

1974: Founded Wescom Switching.

1978: Invented 580 DSS switches.

1983: Developed games called Compucards.

1984: Returned to India on receiving an invitation from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

2004: Returned to India on receiving a call from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

2005: Appointed as Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission.

2009: Appointed as advisor to Indian Prime Minister.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Born: 1952, Chidambaram

Venkatraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan (born 1952) is an Indian-born

American and British structural biologist, who shared the 2009 Nobel

Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath, "for studies

of the structure and function of the ribosome". He currently works at

the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

Early Life

Venkataraman Ramakrishnan was born to C.V. Ramakrishnan and

Rajalakshmi in a town called Chidambaram belonging to the Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu. Both his

parents were scientists and lecturers in Biochemistry at the Maharaj Sayajirao University in Baroda,

Gujarat.

He did his schooling from Convent of Jesus and Mary in Baroda. After his preliminary education, he

continued his pre-university at the Maharaja Sayajirao University. From here, he obtained an

undergraduate degree in Physics in 1971. He also received the National Science Talent Scholarship.

Later, Venkataraman migrated to America to continue his further studies. In 1976, he earned his Ph.D. in

Physics from Ohio University. He changed his field into biology at the University of California, San Diego.

Here, he conducted research along with Dr. Mauricio Montal.

During this time, Venkataraman got married to Vera Rosenberry, an author of children's' books. The

couple has two children - a step daughter, Tanya Kapka who is a doctor in Oregon and a son, Raman

Ramakrishnan, a cellist who plays with Daedalus Quartet.

Career

Venkataraman Ramakrishnan began his career as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale

University, where he worked on ribosomes. After completing this research, he applied to nearly 50

universities in the U.S. for a faculty position. But he was unsuccessful. As a result of this, Venkataraman

continued to work on ribosomes from 1983 to 1995 in Brookhaven National Laboratory.

In 1995, he got an offer from University of Utah to work as a professor of Biochemistry. He worked here

for almost four years and then moved to England where he started working in Medical Research Council

Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Here, he began a detailed research on ribosomes.

In 1999, along with his fellow mates, he published a 5.5 angstrom resolution structure of 30s subunit of

ribosome. In the subsequent year, Venkataraman submitted a complete structure of 30s subunit of

ribosome and it created a sensation in structural biology. Following this, he conducted several studies on

these cell organelles and its mechanism. Recently, he determined the complete structure of ribosomes

along with the tRNA and mRNa.

Awards and Accolades

Venkataraman earned a fellowship from the Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal Society. He is also

an honorary member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2007, he was awarded with the Louis-

Jeantet Prize for his contribution to Medicine.

In 2008, he was presented with Heatley Medal of British Biochemistry Society. In 2009, Venkataraman

Ramakrishnan, along with two other scientists were awarded with the Nobel Prize for their major

breakthrough made in the area of ribosomes.

For his contribution to Science, he was conferred with India's second highest civilian award, the Padma

Vibhushan in 2010.

Timeline

1952: Venkataraman Ramakrishnan was born in a small district of Tamil Nadu.

1971: He obtained an undergraduate degree in Physics.

1976: Received a Ph.D. from Ohio University.

1983-1995: Continued his studies on ribosomes in Brookhaven National Laboratory.

1995: Got an offer to work as a professor of Biochemistry in the University of Utah.

1999: Published a 5.5 angstrom structure resolution structure of 3s subunit of a ribosome.

2007: Awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for his work in Medicine.

2008: Given the Heatley Medal of British Biochemistry Society.

2009: Received Nobel Prize for his work on ribosomes.

2010: Recipient of the Padma Vibhushan for his contributions to Science.

Raja Ramanna

Born: January 28, 1925, Tumkur

Died: September 23, 2004, Mumbai

Handpicked by the founder of India's nuclear program, Dr. Homi Bhabha,

Dr. Raja Ramanna was a celebrated physicist and nuclear scientist that

India had ever produced. A multifaceted personality, Dr. Raja Ramanna

played the roles of a technologist, nuclear physicist, administrator, leader,

musician, Sanskrit literature scholar, and philosophy researcher.

To complete the endless list of honors that this nobleman was gifted with,

he was a complete human being. Following the steps of his ideals Dr.

Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, Ramanna managed to grab a major position in shaping India's

energy and security programs. He is regarded as one of the most successful creators of science and

technology in India with the tremendous success of India's peaceful explosion experiment.

Early Life

Raja Ramanna was born to B. Ramanna and Rukminiamma in the busy industrial town of Tumkur in

Karnataka. His father was highly reputed and served as a judge in the judicial service of Mysore state.

His mother was highly intelligent and loved to read. She often read Shakespeare and Charles Dickens,

though her favorite was Sir Walter Scot. Apart from gaining immense influence and inspiration from his

parents, Ramanna was greatly touched by his mother's sister Rajamma, who was widowed at an early

age but with his grandfather's support, she managed to move ahead and became the headmistress of a

Government Middle School earning fifty rupees a month. Ramanna had his early education in Mysore,

but when the family shifted to Bangalore, he was admitted to Bishop Cotton Boys' School. On

completion of matriculation, he went to St. Joseph's School for his intermediate studies. He joined the

Madras Christian College in Tambaram for B. Sc (Hons) degree in physics and graduated in 1945. He later

traveled to England to attain his doctoral degree in nuclear physics from King's College, London. In 1948,

Ramanna successfully obtained his PhD degree.

TIFR Career

Ramanna was extremely fond and highly influenced by Homi Jehangir Bhabha and was fortunate to

meet him in 1944. He was introduced by an examiner at Trinity College of Music, Dr. Alfred Mistowski,

who stayed back in India at the outbreak of World War II. Though Ramanna was still a science student,

he was sure that this was not his first and only meeting with Homi Bhabha. On his tour to London, Homi

Bhabha offered Ramanna a job at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the cradle of India's

atomic energy program. Thus, on his completion of his PhD degree, Ramanna joined TIFR on December

1, 1949. Due to the relocation and renovation of the institute from Cumbala Hills in Mumbai to Yacht

Club, Ramanna was offered two adjacent rooms on the fourth floor in Yacht Club by Homi Bhabha,

seeing his interest in music. While the first room was for Ramanna, the second one was for his piano.

Further, the ground floor became the nuclear laboratory of physics from where he started his project on

nuclear fission and scattering. Here, he made several contributions in different areas of neutron,

nuclear, and reactor physics.

BARC Career

Ramanna organized physics and rector physics programs at Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC),

Trombay. In 1956, when India's first nuclear reactor, Apsara, was commissioned by Homi Bhabha,

Ramanna was one of the youngest reactor physicists in the team. However, the major advancement

came when BARC Training School was established in 1957 to develop the skilled manpower required for

facing the challenging problems in nuclear science and technology under the leadership of Ramanna. It

was under his directorship that India carried out the first nuclear test in Pokhran in 1974, nicknamed as

Operation Smiling Buddha. He held the position of the Director of BARC from 1972-78 and 1981-83.

Later Life

Raja Ramanna was associated with a number of science academies and learning bodies across India. He

helped in setting up the Centre for Advanced Technology at Indore in the early 1980s, which was

dedicated towards the development of advanced accelerators, lasers, and other related technologies.

Further, he even lent his support in the establishment of Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VEC) in

Kolkata. He later ended up becoming the founder-Director of National Institute of Advanced Studies

(NIAS), an institution set up by JRD Tata in Bangalore. Ramanna served his later years in supporting

science institutions throughout the nation as President of Indian National Science Academy, Scientific

Advisor Committee to Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, President of 30th

General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vice President of Indian Academy of

Sciences, President of Indian National Science Academy, and President of General Conference of Atomic

Energy Agency at Vienna. He was honored with numerous accolades during his entire career tenure.

Minister of State

In 1990, Ramanna was made Union minister of State for defence in 1990 by V.P. Singh administration.

In 1997, encouraged by the politicians, Ramanna ran for the parliamentary elections and became a

Member of Parliament through the upper house, the Rajya Sabha. In 2000, Ramanna was also the first

director of National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

Death

Raja Ramanna passed away on September 24, 2004 in Mumbai after a cardiac arrest. Till date, he is

highly honored and respected in India and Pakistan, and often known as the "Father of the Indian

Nuclear Program".

Honors

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, 1963

Padma Shri Award, 1968

Padma Bhushan Award, 1973

Padma Vibhushan Award, 1975

Meghnad Saha Medal of the Indian National Science Academy, 1984

Om Prakash Bhasin Award, 1985

R.D. Birla Memorial Award, 1986

Asutosh Mookerji Gold Medal, 1996

D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by several universities

Posts Held

• Chairman, Governing Council, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

• Council of Management, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore

• Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, 1972-78

• President, Indian National Science Academy, 1977-78

• Vice-President, Indian Academy of Sciences, 1977-79

• Scientific Adviser to the Minister of Defence, 1978-81

• Director-General of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) , 1978-81

• Secretary for Defence Research, Government of India

• Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, 1983-87

• President, General Conference of Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1986

• Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy

• Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 1972-78 and 1981-83

• Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISC campus, Bangalore, 1987-89 and 1990-97

Timeline

1925: Raja Ramanna was born in Tumkur, Karnataka

1944: Met Homi Bhabha

1945: Obtained B. Sc (Hons) degree in physics from Madras Christian College, Tambaram

1948: Received Ph. D from King's College, London

1949: Joined TIFR on December 1st

1956: India's first nuclear reactor, Apsara, was commissioned, which Ramanna was a part of

1968: Honored with Padma Shri Award

1972-78: Served as Director of BARC

1973: Bestowed with Padma Bhushan Award

1974: Carried out India's first nuclear test at Pokhran

1975: Conferred upon with Padma Vibhushan Award

1981-83: Director of BARC

1996: Presented with Asutosh Mookerji Gold Medal

2004: Died on 24th September aged 79.

G N Ramachandran

Born: October 8, 1922, Ernakulam

Died: April 7, 2001, Chennai

Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran, popularly referred to

as G. N. Ramachandran surely must be included in the list of one of the

best scientists that 20th century India had produced.

The best known work of G. N. Ramachandran till date is the

Ramachandran plot, which the scientist had conceived along with

Viswanathan Sasisekharan, to understand the structure of peptides. G.

N. Ramachandran was the first scientist to suggest a triple-helical

model of collagen structure. G. N. Ramachandran also made important

contributions in the field of biology in the length of his career as a scientist.


G. N. Ramachandran was born on October 8, 1922 in the small town of Ernakulam in the south Indian

state of Kerala in India. His forefathers were natives of the Gopalasamudram village situated in the

Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. In the year 1942, Ramachandran came to Bangalore to seek admission

in the Indian Institute of Science. He became a student of the electrical engineering department of the

institution, but later switched over to the physics department, realizing that he was more interested in

physics than engineering. He completed his master’s degree in Physics in the year 1942 and

subsequently enrolled as a thesis student at IISc under the guidance of Nobel Prize winning physicist Sir

C V Raman.

Ramachandran opted to specialize in crystal physics and crystal optics in his thesis paper and obtained

his doctorate degree from Bangalore in the year 1947. Ramachandran migrated to England after the

completion of his DSc from Bangalore and spent two years from 1947 to 1949 at the Cavendish

Laboratory in Cambridge. He chose the subject of X-Ray diffuse scattering and its use to determine the

elastic constant as his research subject in Cambridge under professor William Alfred Wooster, one of the

best crystallographers of the 20th century world. Having made his own focusing mirror for an X-Ray

microscope during his study years in Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, further studies in the field

of X-Ray was a natural choice of research for Ramachandran.

Scientific Research

After completing his PhD in two years, Ramachandran returned to India and joined his alma mater the

Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in the year 1949 as the assistant professor of Physics. His subject

of interest as teacher remained crystal physics. In the year 1952, Ramachandran joined the Madras

University as the head of its Physics department. Here, he shifted from crystal physics to biological

macromolecules within a few months of joining. In the year 1954, Ramachandran completed his

research work with Gopinath Kartha and made known through a published article the triple helical

structure of collagen. His next project was to observe the different polypeptide conformations for

assessing the structure of peptides.

Ramachandran continued with this research work till the year 1962. The following year, he published his

reports in 1963 in the Journal of Molecular Biology, a study which is famously referred to as the

Ramachandran Plot today. Thereafter, this ace scientist spent many a years after publishing the

Ramachandran Plot in examining the conformation of peptides. Therefore, it may be rightly concluded

that G N Ramachandran’s research contributed to the development of molecular biophysics, correlating

the concepts of X-Ray crystallography, peptide synthesis, physico-chemical experimentation, NMR and

additional optical studies. G N Ramachandran set up a molecular biophysics unit in the Center of

Advanced Study in Biophysics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1970.

The following year, Ramachandran quit the Madras University to join IISc in Bangalore yet again. The

chief reason for his resignation was the drop in the standards of Madras University as an educational

institution. The succession of N. D. Sundaravadvelu in place of A. L. Mudaliar as vice chancellor of

Madras University had resulted in the deterioration of the institute’s standards. From 1971,

Ramachandran was involved in the research of convolution-backprojection algorithms in the field of X-

Ray tomography, along with fellow scientist A. V. Lakshminarayana. The algorithms suggested by

Ramachandran and Lakshminarayana were successful in more numerically correct images and also saved

time on computer processing for image reconstruction. The research was published in a paper the same

year.

Awards and Recognition

G. N. Ramachandran was a loved and respected scientist during his tenure both in IISc, Bangalore and

Madras University. Some awards which he received for his scientific contributions are:

• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for contribution in the field of Physics in India in 1961.

• Fellowship of the Royal Society of London.

• Ewald Prize from the International Union of Crystallography for his outstanding contribution to

crystallography in the year 1999 (It is given only once in 3 years)

Later Life

G. N. Ramachandran spent a sad and despondent personal life during his last years. The death of his

wife Rajalakshmi in the year 1998 left him very lonely. His health gradually deteriorated. A few years

before his death in 2001, G. N. Ramachandran suffered a massive stroke, after which he never fully

recovered, contracting Parkinson’s disease the same year. G. N. Ramachandran died on July 4, 2001 at

his residence in Bangalore. He was 79 years of age at the time of death.

Timeline

1922: G N Ramachandran was born on October 8.

1942: Became a student of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

1942: Completed his master’s degree in Physics from IISc.

1947: Completed the DSc degree, his thesis paper under Sir C V Raman.

1947: Went to Cambridge for PhD.

1949: Returned from Cambridge to join as assistant professor of Physics in IISc, Bangalore.

1952: Joined Madras University as head of Physics department.

1954: Proposed and published triple helical structure of collagen.

1963: The Ramachandran Plot was published.

1970: Set up the molecular biophysics unit at the IISc, Bangalore.

1971: Quit Madras University to join IISc, Bangalore again.

1971: Study on convolution-backprojection algorithms in X-Ray tomography was published.

1998: His wife Rajalakshmi passed away.

2001: Ramachandran breathed his last on July 4.

Born: June 29, 1893, Kolkata

Died: June 28, 1972, Kolkata Economic census, population census, agricultural surveys and various

other large scale and in depth samples and surveys that have been

admired the world over for their scope and accuracy owes its popularity

and worldwide acceptance to the grit, determination and genius of one

man, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.

His knack and passion for graphs and numbers made him a leading light

in the field of statistics. In India, his contribution to this field has been

immense. From giving birth to the

the newly independent nation of India on its first stride

Mahalanobis that brought the mapping of this diverse nation, which helped its leaders to formulate

policies and schemes for the benefit of the people and propel the story of India on its growth trajectory.

Indeed only a cursory glance at the formation era of this nation will show how the data collected

through his organizations using his techniques has influenced the decision makers of India. And his

works are still relevant and widely used in present times.

be confined so has the works of Mahalanobis been admired, used and influenced the policies of various

other nations.

Childhood

PC Mahalanobis was born into a family of social reformers and intellectuals.

Mahalanobis, was a professor of Presidency College and was much respected as an educationist.

Mahalanobis spent his early childhood in Cornwallis Street at the house of his grandfather, Gurucharan

Mahalanobis who was an active

Mahalanobis was in the thick of social and political activity.

Early Life

Mahalanobis received his schooling from the Brahmo Boys School, from which he graduated in 1908. He

then completed his B. Sc from the Presidency College after which he joined Cambridge, England. Other

than pursing his honors in physics he also took an avid interest in punting on the river and cross

walking. It was also at Cambridge that Mahalanobis met the famous mat

Ramanujan. In 1915, he completed his

at the Cavendish Laboratory with C. T. R. Wilson. It was during this time that he took a short break and

went to India, where he was introduced to the Principal of Presidency College and was invited to take

classes in physics. Upon returning to England, he was introduced to the journal

interested him so much that he purchased the complete set and took them to In

P C Mahalanobis

Economic census, population census, agricultural surveys and various

scale and in depth samples and surveys that have been

admired the world over for their scope and accuracy owes its popularity

and worldwide acceptance to the grit, determination and genius of one

man, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.

r graphs and numbers made him a leading light

in the field of statistics. In India, his contribution to this field has been

immense. From giving birth to the Indian Statistical Institute to guiding

the newly independent nation of India on its first stride towards a glorious era, it is the contribution of





works are still relevant and widely used in present times. And since brilliance, like a glowing light, cannot


PC Mahalanobis was born into a family of social reformers and intellectuals. His father, Prabodh Chandra



Mahalanobis who was an active member of the Brahmo Samaj. As such, since childhood, young

Mahalanobis was in the thick of social and political activity.


Sc from the Presidency College after which he joined Cambridge, England. Other

than pursing his honors in physics he also took an avid interest in punting on the river and cross

walking. It was also at Cambridge that Mahalanobis met the famous mathematician Srinivasa

Ramanujan. In 1915, he completed his 'Tripos’ in physics. Mahalanobis also worked for a short duration


introduced to the Principal of Presidency College and was invited to take

classes in physics. Upon returning to England, he was introduced to the journal Biometrika

interested him so much that he purchased the complete set and took them to India. On his way back to

towards a glorious era, it is the contribution of





And since brilliance, like a glowing light, cannot


His father, Prabodh Chandra



member of the Brahmo Samaj. As such, since childhood, young


Sc from the Presidency College after which he joined Cambridge, England. Other

than pursing his honors in physics he also took an avid interest in punting on the river and cross-country

hematician Srinivasa

in physics. Mahalanobis also worked for a short duration


introduced to the Principal of Presidency College and was invited to take

Biometrika. The journal

dia. On his way back to

India, he discovered the utility of statistics to problems in meteorology, anthropology and began

working on the same. Statistics later became his lifelong love and passion and he pursued statistical

work in India mentored by Acharya Brajendranath Seal.

Work In Statistics

Mahalanobis is remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure which is independent of

measurement scale introduced by him. Mahalanobis’s work in statistics started by analyzing university

exam results, anthropometric measurements on Anglo-Indians of Calcutta and also, meteorological

problems. He also contributed significantly in developing schemes to prevent floods but his most

important contributions came with the large scale sample surveys. He is recognized as the first

statistician to introduce pilot surveys and advocating the usability of sampling methods. Early surveys

were conducted from 1937 to 1944 and included topics such as consumer expenditure, tea-drinking

habits, public opinion, crop acreage and plant disease. Additionally, Mahalanobis also introduced a a

method for estimating crop yields which involved statisticians sampling in the fields by cutting crops in a

circle of diameter 4 feet. However, difference in opinion with P. V. Sukhatme and V. G. Panse, who

began to work on crop surveys with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Indian

Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, upon the usage of the existing administrative framework,

caused bitterness.

Indian Statistical Institute

At Presidency College, Mahalanobis formed a group of academics interested in statistics. This group met

at his room in the college. At a significant meeting of the group, held on December 17, 1931, the Indian

Statistical Institute (ISI) was born, and was formally registered on April 28, 1932. Mahalanobis served as

its secretary and director. Initially headquartered in the Physics Department of the Presidency College,

it gradually grew. Contribution from S. S. Bose, J. M. Sengupta, R. C. Bose, S. N. Roy, K. R. Nair, R. R.

Bahadur, G. Kallianpur, D. B. Lahiri and C. R. Rao helped ISI to make significant progress. Assistance from

Pitamber Pant, who was a secretary to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, further propelled the

success. Founded along the lines of Karl Pearson's Biometrika, the Institute started a training section in

1938. ISI was conferred upon with a deemed university status and was declared as an institute of

national importance in 1959.

Later Life

After the independence of India, Mahalabonis established the Central Statistical Unit, and under his

guidance and supervision it later became the Central Statistical Organization (CSO). This organization

was set up to facilitate the coordination among different ministries engaged in statistical activities and

also to provide statistical inputs. He also chaired the National Income Committee which recommended

the formation of the National Sample Survey to fill up the data gaps in socio-economic progress. This

organization came into being in 1950 and in 1970 it was established as the National Sample Survey

Organization (NSSO). Later in life, Mahalanobis was appointed as the member of the planning

commission and greatly influenced the development of the five-year plans, starting from the second. His

Mahalanobis model, a variant of Wassily Leontief's Input-output model, worked towards the rapid

industrialization of India. Apart from this, Mahalanobis was also deeply inspired by culture and thus,

served as a secretary to Rabindranath Tagore. This solved dual purpose as his cultural pursuits also were

satisfied. Mahalanbis also served a stint at the Viswa-Bharati University. Till his death, he was also the

Honorary Statistical Advisor to the Cabinet of the Government of India. It was in recognition of his

contributions to science and national service that Mahalanobis was conferred upon with India’s highest

civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. The Government of India declared 29th June, the day he was born,

as National Statistical Day.

Awards & Honors

Weldon Medal from Oxford University (1944)

Fellow of the Royal Society, London (1945)

President of Indian Science Congress (1950)

Fellow of the Econometric Society, U.S.A. (1951)

Fellow of the Pakistan Statistical Association (1952)

Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, U.K. (1954)

Sir Deviprasad Sarvadhikari Gold Medal (1957)

Foreign member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1958)

Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (1959)

Fellow of the American Statistical Association (1961)

Durgaprasad Khaitan Gold Medal (1961)

Padma Vibhushan (1968)

Srinivasa Ramanujam Gold Medal (1968)

Personal Life

Mahalanobis married Nirmalkumari, daughter of Herambhachandra Maitra, a leading educationist and

member of the Brahmo Samaj, on February 27, 1923.

Death

Mahalanobis passed away on 28th June, 1972 just a day short of his seventy-ninth birthday.

Timeline

1893: Mahalanobis was born to Prabodh Chandra Mahalanobis and Nirodbasini.

1908: Completed his schooling from Brahmo Boys School.

1912: Graduated in Physics from Presidency College.

1913: Mahalanobis left for England to pursue higher education from Cambridge.

1915: Returned to India and joined Presidency College.

1922: Started working as a meteorologist and published his first scientific statistical research paper.

1923: Mahalanobis married Nirmalkumari.

1931: Established the Indian Statistical institute.

1944: Received the Weldon medal from Oxford.

1945: Was elected the Fellow of Royal Society of London.

1947: Was appointed Chairman of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Statistical Sampling.

1948: He retired as principal of Presidency College.

1949: Mahalanobis was appointed the Honorary Statistical Advisor by the Government of India

1950: Was elected as the president of the Indian Science Congress.

1951: Established the Central Statistical Institute.

1951: Became a Fellow of Econometric Society of America.

1952: Became a fellow of Pakistan Statistical Association.

1953: Was inducted as a member of the Planning Commission.

1954: Was elected as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of England.

1959: Became a Foreign Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

1961: Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

1968: Conferred upon with the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.

1972: Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis breathed his last.

Prafulla Chandra Ray

Born: August 2, 1861, Khulna

Died: June 16, 1944, Kolkata

Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray was eminent Bengali Chemist and the father of

Chemistry in Modern India.

The Royal Society of Chemistry honoured his life and work with the first

ever Chemical Landmark Plaque outside Europe.

He was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India's

first pharmaceutical company.

He is the author of A History of Hindu Chemistry from the earliest Times to

the Middle of Sixteenth Century (1902).

Early Life

Ray was born in Raruli-Katipara, a village in the Khulna District of present day Bangladesh. His father

Harish Chandra Ray was a land proprietor. Up to the age of nine, Prafulla Chandra studied in a school in

his village. In 1870 his family migrated to Calcutta and Ray and his elder brother were admitted to Hare

School. In 1874, while Ray was in the fourth standard, he suffered from a severe attack of dysentery,

which hampered his health throughout his life. After recovering from his illness Ray returned to Calcutta

and took admission in Albert School.

In 1879 he passed the Entrance Examination and took admission into the Metropolitan Institution

(later Vidyasagar College) which was established by Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.

While studying for his BA examination, he applied for and was awarded in 1882 one of the two Gilchrist

Prize Scholarships after an all-India competitive examination.

Career

Prafulla Chandra returned to India in the first week of August of 1888 and subsequently joined

Presidency College, Calcutta as temporary Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1889. In 1896, he

published a paper on preparation of a new stable chemical compound: Mercurous nitrite.

Prafulla Chandra retired from the Presidency College in 1916, and joined the Calcutta University College

of Science (now known as Rajabazar Science College) as its first Palit Professor of Chemistry, a chair

named after Tarak Nath Palit.

In 1936, at the age of 75, he retired from active service and became Professor Emeritus.

Father of

Chemistry in

Modern India

Literary works

He contributed articles in Bengali to many monthly magazines, particularly on scientific topics. He

published the first volume of his autobiography Life and Experience of a Bengali Chemist in 1932, and

dedicated it to the youth of India. The second volume of this work was issued in 1935.

In 1902, he published the first volume of A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the

Middle of Sixteenth Century. The second volume was published in 1908.

Recognition

He earned his D.Sc at Edinburgh University in 1887. He received an honorary D.Sc. degree from Durham

University in 1912, and another from Dacca University (now Dhaka University) in 1936. He was made

a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1911.

He was honorary fellow of the Chemical Society and Deutsche Akademie, Munich. He was president of

the 1920 session of the Indian Science Congress. The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) honored his the

life and work with the first ever Chemical Landmark Plaque outside Europe.

Personal Life

He remained a bachelor throughout his life who took active participation in politics. His family, in

particular, his father Harish Chandra Ray, was strongly associated with Brahmo Samaj. Prafulla Chandra

developed direct connections with the Samaj as he grew up; he used to attend Sunday evening sermons

of Keshub Chandra Sen and was deeply influenced by Sen's Sulabha Samachar.

C R Rao

Born: September 10, 1920 (age 92), Hoovina Hadagalli

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao is an Indian

American mathematician and statistician. He is currently professor

emeritus at Penn State University and Research Professor at the University

at Buffalo.

Rao has been honored by numerous colloquia, honorary degrees,

and festschrifts and was awarded the US National Medal of Science in

2002.

Early Life

C R Rao was born in Hadagali, Karnataka and received an M.Sc in Mathematics from Andhra University

and M.A. in statistics from Calcutta University in 1943.

He was among the first few people in the world to hold a Master's degree in Statistics.

Career

He then went to Kolkata for an interview for a job. He did not get the job, but by chance he visited the

Indian Statistical Institute, and then located in a couple of rooms in the Physics Department of the

Presidency College, Kolkata.

He applied for a one-year training course at the Institute and was admitted to the Training Section of the

Institute from 1 January 1941. In July 1941 he joined the M.A Statistics program of the Calcutta

University. By the time he passed the M.A. exam in 1943, winning the gold medal of the University, he

had already published some research papers! In 1943 he joined ISI as a technical apprentice, doing

research, teaching in the Training Section of the Institute and at Calcutta University and assisting

Professor Mahalanobis in editing Sankhya the Indian Journal of Statistics.

In 1946 he was deputed to the Cambridge University on a project. While working full time on this, he

also worked in the genetic laboratory of R.A. Fisher, the father of modern statistics and completed his

Ph.D. under Fisher. By this time Rao had already completed some of the work which carries his name:

Cramer-Rao inequality, Rao-Blackwell theorem, Rao’s score test and Rao’s orthogonal arrays. He

returned to ISI in 1948 and in 1949 was made a Professor at the very young age of 29. He headed and

developed the Research and Training Section of the ISI, and went on to become Director of the ISI. He

became the associate editor of the Sankhya in 1964 and became the editor in 1972. He left ISI in 1978

and joined the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1988 he moved to the Pennsylvannia State University holding the Eberly Family Chair in Statistics and

the Directorship of the Centre for Multivariate Analysis till 2001.

Awards

� Guy Medal in Gold (2011) of the Royal Statistical Society

� India Science Award 2010 (the highest award in a scientific field presented by government of India)

� International Mahalanobis Prize (2003) of the International Statistical Institute

� Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (2003) of the Indian National Science Academy

� President George W. Bush, on June 12, 2002, honored him with the National Medal of Science, the

highest award in U.S. in the scientific field, as a "prophet of new age" with the citation, "for his

pioneering contributions to the foundations of statistical theory and multivariate statistical

methodology and their applications, enriching the physical, biological, mathematical, economic and

engineering sciences."

� Padma Vibhushan (2001) by the Government of India

� Mahalanobis Centenary Gold Medal (1993?) of the Indian Science Congress

� Wilks Memorial Award (1989) of the American Statistical Association

� Megnadh Saha Medal (1969) of the Indian National Science Academy

� Guy Medal in Silver (1965) of the Royal Statistical Society

� S. S. Bhatnagar Award (1963) of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

� JC Bose Gold Medal of the Bose Institute

� Gold Medal of the University of Calcutta

� He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Calcutta in 2003. Also

honorary doctorates from a number of universities and institutes around the world.

M K Vainu Bappa

Born: August 10, 1927

Died: August 19, 1982

Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu was an Indian astronomer and president of

the International Astronomical Union. Bappu helped establish several

astronomical institutions in India——including the Vainu Bappu

Observatory named after him—and also contributed to the

establishment of the modern Indian Institute of Astrophysics. In 1957, he

discovered the Wilson-Bappu effect jointly

with Americanastronomer Olin Chaddock Wilson.

He is regarded as the father of modern Indian astronomy.

Early Life

Vainu Bappu was born on August 10, 1927, in Chennai, as the only child of Manali Kukuzhi and Sunanna

Bappu. His family originally hails from Thalassery in Kerala. His father was an astronomer at the

Nizamiah Observatory in Andhra Pradesh. He attended theHarvard Graduate School of Astronomy for

his PhD after obtaining postgraduate degree from the Madras University. Bappu, along with two of his

colleagues, discovered the 'Bappu-Bok-Newkirk' comet. He was awarded the Donhoe Comet-Medal by

the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1949.

In a paper published in 1957, American astronomer Olin Chaddock Wilson and Bappu had described

what would later be known as the Wilson-Bappu effect. The effect as described by L.V. Kuhi is: 'The

width of the Ca II emission in normal, non variable, G, K, and M stars is correlated with the visual

absolute magnitude in the sense that the brighter the star the wider the emission. The paper opened up

the field of stellar chromospheres for research.

Return to India

On his return to India, Bappu was appointed to head a team of astronomers to build an observatory

at Nainital. His efforts of building an indigenous large optical telescope and a research observatory led

to the founding of an optical observatory of Kavalur, inaugurated in 1986 by Rajiv Gandhi, who named

the observatory, and its large telescope after Bappu. The Vainu Bappu Observatory is one of the main

observatories of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, also initiated in its modern avatar by Bappu in

1971. Later, a number of discoveries were made from the Vainu Bappu Observatory

Father of modern

Indian astronomy

Career Overview

Post Institution

Honorary Foreign Fellow Belgium Academy of Sciences Honorary Member American Astronomical Society Vice-President International Astronomical Union (1967–73) President International Astronomical Union (1979)

Marie Curie

Born: November 7, 1867, Warsaw

Died: July 4, 1934, Sancellemoz

The Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie invented the term

"radioactivity" and discovered two elements, radium and polonium.

Born Maria Skodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, Marie

Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman

to win the award in two different fields (physics and chemistry).

Curie's efforts, with her husband, Pierre Curie, led to the discovery of polonium and radium and, after

Pierre's death, the development of X-rays.

She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris (La Sorbonne), and in 1995 became the

first woman to be entombed on her own merits in Paris' Panthéon.

She shared her 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and with physicist Henri

Becquerel. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Early Life

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw in modern-day Poland on Nov. 7, 1867. Her parents were both

teachers, and she was the youngest of five children. As a child Curie took after her father, Ladislas, a

math and physics instructor. She had a bright and curious mind and excelled at school. But tragedy

struck early, and when she was only 11, Curie lost her mother, Bronsitwa, to tuberculosis.

A top student in her secondary school, Curie could not attend the men-only University of Warsaw. She

instead continued her education in Warsaw's "floating university," a set of underground, informal

classes held in secret. Both Curie and her sister Bronya dreamed of going abroad to earn an official

degree, but they lacked the financial resources to pay for more schooling. Undeterred, Curie worked out

a deal with her sister. She would work to support Bronya while she was in school and Bronya would

return the favor after she completed her studies.

For roughly five years, Curie worked as a tutor and a governess. She used her spare time to study,

reading about physics, chemistry and math. In 1891, Curie finally made her way to Paris where she

enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris. She threw herself into her studies, but this dedication had a personal

cost. With little money, Curie survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health sometimes suffered

because of her poor diet.

Curie completed her master's degree in physics in 1893 and earned another degree in mathematics the

following year. Around this time, she received a commission to do a study on different types of steel and

their magnetic properties. Curie needed a lab to work in, and a colleague introduced her to French

physicist Pierre Curie. A romance developed between the brilliant pair, and they became a scientific

dynamic duo.

Discoveries

Marie and Pierre Curie were dedicated scientists and completely devoted to one another. At first, they

worked on separate projects. She was fascinated with the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist

who discovered that uranium casts off rays, weaker rays than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Roentgen.

Curie took Becquerel's work a few steps further, conducting her own experiments on uranium rays. She

discovered that the rays remained constant, no matter the condition or form of the uranium. The rays,

she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure. This revolutionary idea created the field of

atomic physics and Curie herself coined the word radioactivity to describe the phenomena. Marie and

Pierre had a daughter, Irene, in 1897, but their work didn't slow down.

Pierre put aside his own work to help Marie with her exploration of radioactivity. Working with the

mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element

polonium, after Marie's native country of Poland. They also detected the presence of another

radioactive material in the pitchblende, and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they

had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical element.

Science Celebrity

Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in

physics. She won the prestigious honor along with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, for

their work on radioactivity. With their Nobel Prize win, the Curies developed an international reputation

for their scientific efforts, and they used their prize money to continue their research. They welcomed a

second child, daughter Eve, the following year.

In 1906, Marie suffered a tremendous loss. Her husband Pierre was killed in Paris after he accidentally

stepped in front of a horse-drawn wagon. Despite her tremendous grief, she took over his teaching post

at the Sorbonne, becoming the institution's first female professor.

Curie received another great honor in 1911, winning her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. She

was selected for her discovery of radium and polonium, and became the first scientist to win two Nobel

Prizes. While she received the prize alone, she shared the honor jointly with her late husband in her

acceptance lecture.

Around this time, Curie joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Max Planck, to

attend the first Solvay Congress in Physics.

They gathered to discuss the many groundbreaking discoveries in their field. Curie experienced the

downside of fame in 1911, when her relationship with her husband's former student, Paul Langevin,

became public. Curie was derided in the press for breaking up Langevin's marriage. The press' negativity

towards Curie stemmed at least in part from rising xenophobia in France.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to helping the cause. She

championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned the

nickname "Little Curies". After the war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled

to the United States twice— in 1921 and in 1929— to raise funds to buy radium and to establish a

radium research institute in Warsaw, and two years later her book La Radiologie et la guerre was

published.

Final days & Legacy

All of her years of working with radioactive materials took a toll on Curie's health. She was known to

carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. In 1934, Curie went to the Sancellemoz

Sanatorium in Passy, France, to try to rest and regain her strength. She died there on July 4, 1934, of a

plastic anemia, which can be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation.

In her last year she worked on a book Radioactivity, which was eventually published posthumously, in

1935.

Marie Curie made many breakthroughs in her lifetime. She is the most famous female scientist of all

time, and has received numerous posthumous honors. In 1995, her and her husband's remains were

interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the final resting place of many France's greatest minds. Curie became

the first and only woman to be laid to rest there.

Curie also passed down her love of science to the next generation. Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie

followed in her mother's footsteps, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Joliot-Curie shared

the honor with her husband Frédéric Joliot for their work on their synthesis of new radioactive

elements.

Today several educational and research institutions and medical centers bear the Curie name, including

the Institute Curie and the Pierre and Marie Curie University, both in Paris.

I believe that Science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also

a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales.

– Marie Curie

Awards & Honors

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only

woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. Awards that she received

include:

� Nobel Prize in Physics (1903)

� Davy Medal (1903, with Pierre)

� Matteucci Medal (1904; with Pierre)

� Elliott Cresson Medal (1909)

� Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)

� Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society (1921)

In 1995, she became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon,

Paris. The curie (symbol Ci), a unit of radioactivity, is named in honour of her.

The element with atomic number 96 was named curium.

In 2007 a metro station in Paris was renamed to honour both of the Curies. Polish nuclear

research reactor Maria is named after her.

The 7000 Curie asteroid is also named after her.

Books Dedicated to her

♦ Madame Curie (1938), written by her daughter, Ève.

♦ In 1987 Françoise Giroud wrote a biography, Marie Curie: A Life.

♦ In 2005, Barbara Goldsmith wrote Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie.

♦ In 2011, another book appeared, Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout,

by Lauren Redniss.

♦ Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon starred in the 1943 U.S. Oscar-nominated film, Madame

Curie, based on her life.

♦ More recently, in 1997, a French film about Pierre and Marie Curie was released, Les Palmes de

M. Schutz. It was adapted from a play of the same name. In the film, Marie Curie was played

by Isabelle Huppert.

"I believe that Science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not a

mere technician; he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that

impress him as though they were fairy tales."

– Marie Curie

Irene Joliot-Curie

She was a French physicist who along with her husband Joliot-Curie, a well-known

French physicist, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their synthesis

of new radioactive elements.

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson was a New Zealand-born

British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics.

He was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 "for his investigations into the

disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances".

The chemical element rutherfordium (element 104) was named after him in 1997.

Neils Bohr

Born: October 7, 1885, Copenhagen

Died: November 18, 1962, Copenhagen

Born on October 7, 1885, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Niels Bohr went on

to become an accomplished physicist who came up with a revolutionary

theory on atomic structures and radiation emission.

He won the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics for his ideas and years later,

after working on the Manhattan Project in the United States, called for

responsible and peaceful applications of atomic energy across the world.

Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912, and one of their sons, Aage

Bohr, was also a physicist and in 1975 also received the Nobel Prize.

Early Life

Niels Bohr was born on October 7, 1885, in Copenhagen, Denmark, to mother Ellen Adler, who was part

of a successful Jewish banking clan, and father Christian Bohr, a celebrated physiology academic. The

young Bohr eventually attended Copenhagen University, where he received his master's and doctorate

in physics by 1911. During the fall of the same year, Bohr traveled to Cambridge, England, where he was

able to follow the Cavendish Laboratory work of scientist J.J. Thomson.

In 1912, Bohr wed Margrethe Nørlund. The couple would have six children; four survived to adulthood

and one, Aage, would become a well-known physics scientist as well.

Bohr’s own research led him to theorize in a series of articles that atoms give off electromagnetic

radiation as a result of electrons jumping to different orbit levels, departing from a previously held

model espoused by Ernest Rutherford. Though Bohr's discovery would eventually be tweaked by other

scientists, his ideas formed the basis of future atomic research.

After teaching at Manchester’s Victoria University, Bohr settled again at Copenhagen University in 1916

with a professorship position. Then, in 1920, he founded the university’s Institute of Theoretical Physics,

which he would run indefinitely.

Wins Nobel Prize

Bohr received the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on atomic structures, and he would continue

to come up with revolutionary theories. He worked with Werner Heisenberg and other scientists on a

new quantum mechanics principle connected to Bohr's concept of complementarity, which was initially

presented at an Italian conference in 1927. The concept asserted that physical properties on an atomic

level would be viewed differently depending on experimental parameters, hence explaining why light

could be seen as both a particle and wave. Bohr would also come to apply this idea philosophically as

well, with the belief that evolving concepts of physics deeply affected human perspectives. Another

physicist by the name of Albert Einstein didn’t fully see eye to eye with all of Bohr's assertions, and their

talks became renowned in scientific communities.

Bohr went on to work with the group of scientists who were at the forefront of research on nuclear

fission during the late 1930s, to which he contributed the liquid droplet theory. Outside of his

pioneering ideas, Bohr was known for his wit and warmth, and his humanitarian ethics would inform his

later work.

Fleeing Europe

With Adolf Hitler's rise in power, Bohr was able to offer German Jewish physicists refuge at his institute

in Copenhagen, which in turn led to travel to the United States for many. Once Denmark became

occupied by Nazi forces, the Bohr family escaped to Sweden, with Bohr and Aage eventually making

their way to the U.S. as well. Bohr then worked with the Manhattan Project in Nevada, where the first

atom bomb was being created. Because he had concerns about how the bomb could be used, he called

for future international arms control and active communication about the weapon between nations—an

idea met with resistance by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Bohr worked on the Manhattan Project at the top-secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, where

he was known by the name of Nicholas Baker for security reasons.

Atoms for Peace

After the end of the war, Bohr returned to Europe and continued to call for peaceful applications of

atomic energy. In his "Open Letter to the United Nations," dated June 9, 1950, Bohr envisioned an "open

world" mode of existence between countries that abandoned isolationism for true cultural exchange.

In 1954, he helped to establish CERN, a Europe-based particle physics research facility, and put together

the Atoms for Peace Conference of 1955. In 1957, Bohr received the Atoms for Peace Award for his

trailblazing theories and efforts to use atomic energy responsibly.

Bohr was a prolific writer with more than 100 publications to his name. After having a stroke, he died on

November 18, 1962, in Copenhagen. Bohr’s son, Aage, shared with two others the 1975 Nobel Prize in

Physics for his research on motion in atomic nuclei.

Legacy

� He was one of the founding fathers of CERN in 1954.

� Received the first ever Atoms for Peace Award in 1957.

� In 1965, three years after Bohr's death, the

Copenhagen changed its name to the

� The Bohr model's semicentennial was commemorated in Denmark on 21 November 1963 with

a postage stamp depicting Bohr, the

hydrogen energy levels:

� Bohrium (a chemical element, atomic number 107) is named in honour of Bohr.

� Hafnium, another chemical element, whose properties were pr

after Hafnia, Copenhagen's Latin name.

� Asteroid 3948 Bohr is named after him.

� The Centennial of Bohr's birth was commemorated in Denmark on 3 October 1985 with a postage

stamp depicting Bohr with his wife Margrethe.

� In 1997 the Danish National Bank

Bohr smoking a pipe.

� The Bohr model's centennial will be commemorated when Denmark hosts the

Olympiad in 2013.

QUOTES

"Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to

change our thinking in order to find it."

"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a

"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to t

In 1965, three years after Bohr's death, the Institute of Physics at the

changed its name to the Niels Bohr Institute.

Bohr model's semicentennial was commemorated in Denmark on 21 November 1963 with

Bohr, the hydrogen atom and the formula for the difference of any two

.

(a chemical element, atomic number 107) is named in honour of Bohr.

Hafnium, another chemical element, whose properties were predicted by Bohr, was named by him

Copenhagen's Latin name.

is named after him.

The Centennial of Bohr's birth was commemorated in Denmark on 3 October 1985 with a postage

stamp depicting Bohr with his wife Margrethe.

Danish National Bank started circulating the 500-krone banknote with the portrait of

The Bohr model's centennial will be commemorated when Denmark hosts the International Physics

difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to

change our thinking in order to find it."


very narrow field."

"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to t

at the University of

Bohr model's semicentennial was commemorated in Denmark on 21 November 1963 with

for the difference of any two

edicted by Bohr, was named by him

The Centennial of Bohr's birth was commemorated in Denmark on 3 October 1985 with a postage

with the portrait of

International Physics

difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to


"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think."

– Niels Bohr

Isaac Newton

Born: December 25, 1642, Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth

Died: March 20, 1727, Kensington

English physicist and mathematician, who was the culminating, figure of the

scientific revolution of the 17th century. With discoveries in optics, motion,

and mathematics he developed the principles of modern physics. He was the

original discoverer of the infinitesimal calculus. Newton's Philosophiae

Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( Mathematical Principles of Natural

Philosophy), 1687, was one of the most important single works in the history

of modern science.

Early Life

On December 25, 1642, Isaac Newton was born in the hamlet of Woolsthorpe, England, the only son of

a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac Newton. Young Isaac never knew his father, who died three

months before he was born. A premature baby born tiny and weak, Isaac was not expected to survive.

When he was three, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried a well-do-do minister, Barnabas

Smith, and went to live with him, leaving young Isaac with his maternal grandmother. The experience

left an indelible imprint on Isaac which manifested itself later in life as an acute sense of insecurity. He

anxiously obsessed over his published work and defended its merits with irrational behavior.

At age twelve, Isaac Newton was reunited with his mother after her second husband died. She brought

along her three small children from her second marriage. Isaac had been enrolled at the King's School,

Grantham, England, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating

world of chemistry. His mother pulled him out of school, for her plan was to make him a farmer and

have him tend the farm. Isaac failed miserably for he found farming monotonous. He soon was returned

to King's School to finish his basic education. Perhaps sensing his innate intellectual abilities, his uncle, a

graduate of Trinity College at Cambridge persuaded Isaac's mother to have him enter the university.

Isaac enrolled in 1661 in a program similar to a work study where he waited on tables and took care of

wealthier students' rooms.

When Isaac Newton arrived at Cambridge, the scientific revolution was already in full force. The

heliocentric view of the universe—theorized by astronomers Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler

and later refined by Galileo Galilea—was well known in most European academic circles. Philosopher

Rene Descartes had begun to formulate a new conception of nature as an intricate, impersonal, and

inert machine. Yet, as with most universities in Europe, Cambridge was steeped in Aristotelian

philosophy and view of nature resting on a geocentric view of the universe and dealing with nature in

qualitative rather than quantitative terms.

During his first three years at Cambridge, Isaac Newton was being taught the standard curriculum but

fascinated with the more advanced science. All his spare time was spent reading from the modern

philosophers. The result was a less-than-stellar performance, but one that is understandable given his

dual course of study.

It was during this time that Newton kept a second set of notes entitled "Quaestiones Queedam

Philosphicea" ("Certain Philosophical Questions"), begun sometime in 1664. The "Queaestiones" reveal

that Newton had discovered the new conception of nature that provided the framework for the

scientific revolution.

Though Isaac Newton graduated with no honors or distinctions, his efforts won him the title of scholar

and four years of financial support for future education. Unfortunately, in 1665, the Great Plague that

was ravaging Europe had come to Cambridge and the university closed. Newton returned home to

pursue his private study. It was during this 18-month hiatus that he conceived the method of

infinitesimal calculus, set foundations for his theory of light and color, and gained significant insight into

the laws of planetary motion, insights that eventually led to the publication of his Principia in 1687.

Legend has it that at this time Newton experienced his famous inspiration of gravity with the falling

apple.

With the threat of plague subsided in 1667, Isaac Newton returned to Cambridge and was elected a

minor fellow at Trinity College, still not considered a standout scholar. However, in the ensuing years,

his fortune improved. Newton received his Master of Arts degree in 1669, before he was twenty-seven.

During this time, he came across Nicholas Mercator's published book on methods for dealing with

infinite series. Newton quickly wrote a treatise, De Analysi, expounding his own wider ranging results.

He shared this with his friend and mentor Isaac Barrow but didn’t put his name as author. In June, 1669,

Barrow shared the unaccredited manuscript with British mathematician John Collins. In August, 1669,

Barrow indentified its author to Collins as "Mr. Newton… a very young… but of an extraordinary genius

and proficiency in these things." Newton's work was brought to the attention of the mathematics

community for the first time. Shortly afterwards, Barrow resigned his Lucasian Professorship at

Cambridge and Newton assumed the Chair.

Professional Life

As professor, Isaac Newton was exempted from tutoring but required to deliver an annual course of

lectures. He chose to deliver his work on optics as his initial topic. Part of his study in optics was aided

with the use of a reflecting telescope that Newton designed and constructed in 1668, his first major

public scientific achievement. This invention helped prove his theory of light and color. In 1671, the

Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope and their interest encouraged him to

publish his notes On Colour in 1672, which he later revised to Book One of Optics.

However, not everyone at the Royal Academy was enthusiastic about Isaac Newton's discoveries in

optics. Among some of the dissenters was Robert Hooke, one of the original members of the Royal

Academy and a scientist who was accomplished in a number of areas including mechanics and optics.

In his paper, Newton theorized that white light was a composite of all the colors of the spectrum and

that light was composed of particles. Hooke believed that light was composed of waves. Hooke quickly

condemned Newton’s paper in condescending terms and attacked his methodology and conclusions.

Hooke was not the only one to question Newton's work on optics. The great Danish scientist, Huygens

and a number of French Jesuits also raised objections. But because of Hooke’s association with the Royal

Society and his own work in optics, his criticism stung Newton the worst. He was unable to handle the

critique and went into a rage, a reaction to criticism that was to continue throughout his life. He denied

Hooke's charge that the theories had any shortcomings and argued the importance of his discoveries to

all of science. In the ensuing months, exchange between the two men grew more acrimonious and soon

Newton threatened to quit the Society altogether. He remained only when several other members

assured him that the Fellows held him in high esteem. However, the rivalry with Hooke continued for

several years afterward. Then, in 1678, Newton suffered a complete nervous breakdown and the

correspondence abruptly ended. The death of his mother the following year completed his isolation and

for six years he withdrew from intellectual exchange except when others initiated correspondence,

which he always kept short.

During his hiatus from public life, Isaac Newton returned to his study of gravitation and its effects on the

orbits of planets. Ironically, the impetus that put Newton on the right direction in this study came from

Robert Hooke. In a 1679 letter of general correspondence to Royal Society members for contributions,

Hooke wrote to Newton and brought up the question of planetary motion suggesting that a formula

involving the inverse squares might explain the attraction between planets and the shape of their orbits.

Subsequent exchanges transpired before Newton quickly broke off the correspondence once again. But

Hooke's idea was soon incorporated into Newton's work on planetary motion and from his notes it

appears he had quickly drawn his own conclusions by 1680, though he kept his discoveries to himself.

1n early 1684, in a conversation with fellow Royal Society members Christopher Wren and Edmund

Halley, Hooke made is case on the proof for planetary motion. Both Wren and Halley thought he was on

to something, but pointed out that a mathematical demonstration was needed. In August, 1684, Halley

traveled to Cambridge to visit with Newton, who was coming out of his seclusion. Halley idly asked him

what shape the orbit of a planet would take if its attraction to the sun followed the inverse square of the

distance between them (Hooke’s theory). Newton knew the answer due to his concentrated work for

the past six years and replied "an ellipse." Newton claimed to have solved the problem some eighteen

years ago during his hiatus from Cambridge and the plague, but he was unable to find his notes.

Halley persuaded him to work out the problem mathematically and offered to pay all costs so that the

ideas might be published.

Publishing Principia

In 1687, after eighteen months of intense and effectively nonstop work, Newton published

Philosophiae, Natrualis, Principia Mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy).

Said to be the most single influential book on physics and possibly all of science, it is most often known

as Principia and contains nearly all the essential concepts of physics, except energy. The work offers an

exact quantitative description of bodies in motion in three basic laws:

♦ a stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it;

♦ force is equal to mass times acceleration and a change in motion is proportional to the force applied;

♦ For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

These three laws not only helped explain elliptical planetary orbits but nearly every other motion in the

universe: how the planets are kept in orbit by the pull of the sun’s gravity; how the moon revolves

around earth and the moons of Jupiter revolve around it; how comets revolve in elliptical orbits around

the sun. The laws also allowed Newton to calculate the mass of each planet, calculate the flattening of

the Earth at the polls and the bulge at the equator, and how gravitational pull of the sun and moon

create the Earth’s tides. In Newton's account, the force he called gravity, kept the universe balanced,

made it work, and brought heaven and earth together in one great equation.

Upon the publication of the first edition of Principia, Robert Hooke immediately accused Newton of

plagiarism, claiming he had discovered the theory of inverse squares. The charge was unfounded, as

most scientists knew, for Hooke had only theorized on the idea and had never brought it to any level of

proof. However, Newton was furious and strongly defended his discoveries. He withdrew all references

to Hooke in his notes and threatened to withdraw from publishing the subsequent edition of Principia

altogether. Halley had invested much of himself in Newton’s work and tried to make peace between the

two men. While Newton begrudgingly agreed to insert a joint acknowledgement of Hooke’s work

(shared with Wren and Halley) in his discussion of the law of inverse squares, it did nothing to placate

Hooke. As the years went on, Hooke's life began to unravel. His beloved niece and companion died the

year Principia was published. As Newton's reputation and fame grew, Hooke's declined and he grew

even more bitter and loathsome toward his rival. To the bitter end, Hooke took every opportunity he

could to offend Newton. Knowing that is rival would soon be elected president of the Society, Hooke

refused to retire until his death in 1703.

International prominence

The Principia immediately raised Isaac Newton to international prominence and he became more

involved in public affairs. Consciously or unconsciously he was ready for a new direction in life. He no

longer found contentment in his position at Cambridge and he was becoming more involved in other

issues.

He helped lead the resistance to King James II’s attempts to reinstitute Catholic teaching at Cambridge

and in 1689, he was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament. While in London, Newton acquainted

himself with a broader group of intellectuals and became acquainted with political philosopher John

Locke. Though many of the scientists on the continent continued to teach the mechanical world

according to Aristotle, a young generation of British scientists became captivated with Newton’s new

view of the physical world and recognized him as their leader. One of these admirers was Nicholas Fatio

de Duillier, a Swiss-born mathematician who Newton befriended while in London.

However, within a few years Newton fell into another nervous breakdown in 1693. The cause is open to

speculation: overwork, his disappointment over not being appointed to a higher position by England's

new monarchs William and Mary, the subsequent loss of his friendship with Duillier, or perhaps chronic

mercury poisoning after decades of alchemical research. It's difficult to know the exact cause, but

evidence suggests that letters written by Newton to several of his London acquaintances and friends,

including Duillier, seemed deranged and paranoiac and accused them of betrayal and conspiracy. Oddly

enough, Newton recovered quickly, wrote letters of apology to friends, and was back to work within a

few months. He emerged with all his intellectual facilities intact, but seemed to have lost interest in

scientific problems and now favored pursuing prophecy and scripture and the study of alchemy. While

some might see this as work beneath the man who had revolutionized science, it might be more

attributed to Newton responding to the issues of the time in turbulent 17th century Britain. Many

intellectuals were grappling with the meaning of many different subjects, not least of which was

religion, politics, and the very purpose of life. Modern science was still so new, no one knew for sure

how it measured up against older philosophies.

In 1696, Isaac Newton was able to attain the governmental position he had long sought, Warden of the

Mint. He permanently moved to London and lived with his niece, Catherine Barton. She was the mistress

of Lord Halifax, a high-ranking government official who was instrumental in having Newton promoted to

Master of the Mint in 1699, a position he would hold until his death. Not to be considered a mere

honorary position, Newton approached the job with earnest, reforming the currency and severely

punishing counterfeiters. As Master of the Mint, Newton moved the British currency, the Pound Sterling,

from the silver to the gold standard.

In 1703, Newton was elected president of the Royal Society upon Robert Hooke’s death. In 1705, he

was knighted by Queen Anne.

At this point in his life, Isaac Newton's career in science and discovery had given way to a career of

political power and influence. Newton never seemed to understand the notion of science as a

cooperative venture and his own ambition and fierce defense of his own discoveries continued to lead

him from one conflict after another with other scientists.

By most accounts, Newton's tenure at the Society was tyrannical and autocratic. He was able to control

the lives and careers of younger scientists with absolute power. In 1705, in a controversy that had been

brewing for several years, German mathematician Gottfried Liebniz publically accused Newton of

plagiarizing his research, claiming he had discovered infinitesimal calculus several years before the

publication of Principia. In 1712 the Royal Society appointed a committee to investigate the matter. Of

course, with Newton as president, he was able to appoint the committee members and oversee its

investigation. Not surprisingly, the committee concluded Newton’s priority over the discovery.

That same year, in another of Isaac Newton's more flagrant episodes of tyranny, he published without

permission the notes of astronomer John Flamsteed. It seems the astronomer had collected a massive

body of data from his years at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. Newton had requested a

large volume of Flamsteed's notes for his revisions to Principia. Annoyed when Flamsteed wouldn’t

provide him more information as quickly as he wanted it, Newton used his influence as president of the

Royal Society to be named the chairman of the body of “visitors” responsible for the Royal Observatory.

Then he tried to force the immediate publication of Flamsteed's catalogue of the stars, all of Flamsteed’s

notes, edited and unedited. To add insult to injury, Newton arranged for Flamsteed's mortal enemy

Edmund Halley, to prepare the notes for press. Flamsteed was finally able to get a court order to have

Newton cease his plans for publication and return the notes back to him, one of the few times Newton

was bested by one of his rivals.

Final Years

Towards the end of this life, Isaac lived at Cranbury Park, near Winchester with his niece, Catherine

Conduitt, and her husband. He was one of the most famous men in Europe. His scientific discoveries

were unchallenged. He also had become wealthy, investing his sizeable income wisely and bestowing

sizeable gifts to charity. He never married nor made many friends. In his later years a combination of

pride, insecurity, and side-trips on peculiar scientific inquiries led even some of his few friends to worry

about his mental stability. By the time he reached eighty years of age, he was experiencing digestion

problems and had to drastically change his diet and mobility. On March 19, 1727 he experienced severe

pain in his abdomen and blacked out, never to regain consciousness. He died the next day at age eighty-

five. His fame grew even more after his death as many of his contemporaries proclaimed him the

greatest genius that ever lived. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but his discoveries had an impact on

Western thought that can be compared with figures like Plato, Aristotle, and Galileo. Although his

discoveries were among many made during the Scientific Revolution, his universal principles of gravity

found no parallels in science at the time. Of course, Newton was proven wrong on some of his key

assumptions. In the 20th century, Albert Einstein would overturn Newton's concept of the universe,

stating that space, distance, and motion were not absolute but relative and that the universe was more

fantastic than Newton ever conceived. Newton himself may not have been surprised. In his later life,

when asked for an assessment of his achievements, he replied, "I do not know what I may appear to the

world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself

now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth

lay all undiscovered before me."

Writings

� Method of Fluxions (1671)

� Of Natures Obvious Laws & Processes in Vegetation (unpublished, c. 1671–75)

� De motu corporum in gyrum (1684)

� Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)

� Opticks (1704)

� Reports as Master of the Mint (1701–25)

� Arithmetica Universalis (1707)

� The System of the World, Optical Lectures, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, (Amended) and De

mundi systemate (published posthumously in 1728)

� Observations on Daniel and The Apocalypse of St. John (1733)

� An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1754)

Charles Darwin

Born: February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury

Died: April 19, 1882, Down House

Naturalist Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England, on February

12, 1809. In 1831, he embarked on a five-year survey voyage around the

world on the HMS Beagle. His studies of specimens around the globe led

him to formulate his theory of evolution and his views on the process of

natural selection. In 1859, he published On the Origin of the Species. He

died on April 19, 1882, in London.

Early Life

Naturalist Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in the tiny merchant town of

Shrewsbury, England. He was the second youngest of six children. Darwin came from a long line of

scientists. His father, Dr. R.W. Darwin, was as a medical doctor, and his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin,

was a renowned botanist. Darwin’s mother, Susanna, died when he was only 8 years old. Darwin was a

child of wealth and privilege who loved to explore nature.

In October 1825, at age 16, Darwin enrolled at Edinburgh University along with his brother Erasmus.

Two years later, Charles Darwin became a student at Christ’s College in Cambridge. His father hoped he

would follow in his footsteps and become a medical doctor, but the sight of blood made Darwin queasy.

His father suggested he study to become a parson instead, but Darwin was far more inclined to study

natural history.

Voyage on the HMS Beagle

While Darwin was at Christ’s College, botany professor John Stevens Henslow became his mentor. After

Darwin graduated Christ’s College with a bachelor of arts degree in 1838, Henslow recommended him

for a naturalist’s position aboard the HMS Beagle. The ship, commanded by Captain Robert FitzRoy, was

to take a five-year survey trip around the world. The voyage would prove the opportunity of a lifetime

for the budding young naturalist.

On December 27, 1831, the HMS Beagle launched its voyage around the world with Darwin in tow. Over

the course of the trip, Darwin collected a variety of natural specimens, including birds, plants and fossils.

Through hands-on research and experimentation, he had the unique opportunity to closely observe

principles of botany, geology and zoology. The Pacific Islands and Galapagos Archipelago were of

particular interest to Darwin, as was South America.

Upon his return to England in 1836, Darwin began to write up his findings in the Journal of Researches,

published as part of Captain FitzRoy’s larger narrative and later edited into the Zoology of the Voyage of

the Beagle. The trip had a monumental affect on Darwin’s view of natural history. He began to develop a

revolutionary theory about the origin of living beings that was contrary to the popular view of other

naturalists at the time.

Theory of Evolution

Darwin’s exposure to specimens all over the globe raised important questions. Other naturalists

believed that all species either came into being at the start of the world, or were created over the

course of natural history. In either case, the species were believed to remain much the same throughout

time. Darwin, however, noticed similarities among species all over the globe, along with variations based

on specific locations, leading him to believe that they had gradually evolved from common ancestors. He

came to believe that species survived through a process called “natural selection,” where species that

successfully adapted to meet the changing requirements of their natural habitat thrived, while those

that failed to evolve and reproduce died off.

In 1858, after years of further scientific investigation, Darwin publically introduced his revolutionary

theory of evolution in a letter read at a meeting of the Linnean Society. On November 24, 1859, he

published a detailed explanation of his theory in his best-known work, On the Origin of the Species by

Means of Natural Selection.

Death and Legacy

Following a lifetime of devout research, Charles Darwin died at his family home, Down House, in

London, on April 19, 1882, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. During the next century, DNA studies

revealed evidence of his theory of evolution, although controversy surrounding its conflict with

Creationism—the religious view that all of nature was born of God—still abounds today.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

– Charles Darwin

Louis Pasteur

Born: December 27, 1822, Dole

Died: September 28, 1895, Marnes-la-Coquette

Born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, France, Dr. Louis Pasteur discovered

that microbes were responsible for souring alcohol and came up with the

process of pasteurization, where bacteria is destroyed by heating

beverages and then allowing them to cool. His work in germ theory also

led him and his team to create vaccinations for anthrax and rabies.

Early Life

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur was born on December

27, 1822 in Dole, located in the Jura region of France. He grew up in the town of Arbois and his father,

Jean-Joseph Pasteur, was a tanner and a sergeant major decorated with the Legion of Honour during the

Napoleonic Wars. An average student, Pasteur was skilled at drawing and painting. He earned his

Bachelor of Arts degree (1840), Bachelor of Science degree (1842) and a doctorate (1847) at the École

Normale in Paris.

Pasteur then spent several years researching and teaching at Dijon Lycée. In 1848, he became a

professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where he met Marie Laurent, the daughter of the

university's rector. They wed on May 29, 1849, and had five children, though only two survived

childhood.

Commercial Success

In 1854, Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry and dean of the science faculty at the University

of Lille. Here, he worked on finding solutions to the problems with the manufacture of alcoholic drinks.

Working with the germ theory, which Pasteur did not invent, but further developed through

experiments and eventually convinced most of Europe of its truth, he demonstrated that organisms such

as bacteria were responsible for souring wine, beer and even milk. He then invented a process where

bacteria could be removed by boiling and then cooling liquid. He completed the first test on April 20,

1862. Today the process is known as pasteurization.

In 1865, Pasteur helped save the silk industry. He proved that microbes were attacking healthy silkworm

eggs, causing the disease, and that the disease would be eliminated if the microbes were eliminated.

Pasteur's first vaccine discovery was in 1879, with a disease called chicken cholera. After accidentally

exposing chickens to the attenuated form of a culture, he demonstrated that they became resistant to

the actual virus. Pasteur went on to extend his germ theory to develop causes and vaccinations for

diseases such as anthrax, cholera, TB and smallpox.

In 1873, Pasteur was elected as an associate member of the Académie de Médecine. In 1882, the year of

his acceptance into the Académie Franaise, he decided to focus his efforts on the problem of rabies. On

July 6, 1885, Pasteur vaccinated Joseph Meister, a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog.

The success of Pasteur's vaccine brought him immediate fame. This began an international fundraising

campaign to build the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which was inaugurated on November 14, 1888.

Personal Life

Pasteur had been partially paralyzed since 1868, due to a severe brain stroke, but he was able to

continue his research. He celebrated his 70th birthday at the Sorbonne, which was attended by several

prominent scientists, including British surgeon Joseph Lister. At that time, his paralysis worsened, and he

died on September 28, 1895. Pasteur's remains were transferred to a Neo-Byzantine crypt at the Pasteur

Institute in 1896.

"Chance only favors the prepared mind."

– Louis Pasteur

"The universe is asymmetric and I am persuaded that life, as it is known to us,

is a direct result of the asymmetry of the universe or of its indirect

consequences."

– Louis Pasteur

Galileo Galilei

Born: February 15, 1564, Pisa

Died: January 8, 1642, Arcetri

Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist who supported Copernicanism, the

idea that Earth orbits the sun. Galileo defended his views in Dialogue

Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. For doing so, he was tried by the

Roman Inquisition, was found "suspect of heresy" and spent the rest of his

life under house arrest. His findings changed our world view for all time.

Profile

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa in the Duchy of Florence, Italy. He was the first of

six children born to Vincenzo Galilei, a well-known musician and music theorist, and Giulia Ammannati.

In 1574, the family moved to Florence, where Galileo started his formal education at the Camaldolese

monastery in Vallombrosa.

In 1583, Galileo entered the University of Pisa to study medicine. Armed with high intelligence and

talent, he soon became fascinated with many subjects, particularly mathematics and physics. While at

Pisa, Galileo was exposed to the Aristotelian view of the world, then the leading scientific authority and

the only one sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church. At first, Galileo supported this view, like any

other intellectual of his time, and was on track to be a university professor. However, due to financial

difficulties, Galileo left the university in 1585 before earning his degree.

Galileo continued to study mathematics, supporting himself with minor teaching positions. During this

time he began his two-decade study on objects in motion and published The Little Balance, describing

the hydrostatic principles of weighing small quantities, which brought him some fame. This gained him a

teaching post at the University of Pisa, in 1589. There Galileo conducted his fabled experiments with

falling objects and produced his manuscript Du Motu (On Motion), a departure from Aristotelian views

about motion and falling objects. Galileo developed an arrogance about his work, and his strident

criticisms of Aristotle left him isolated among his colleagues. In 1592, his contract with the University of

Pisa was not renewed.

Galileo quickly found a new position at the University of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics and

astronomy. The appointment was fortunate, for his father had died in 1591, leaving Galileo entrusted

with the care of his younger brother Michelagnolo. During his 18-year tenure at Padua, he gave

entertaining lectures and attracted large crowds of followers, further increasing his fame and his sense

of mission.

In 1600, Galileo met Marina Gamba, a Venetian woman, who bore him three children out of wedlock:

daughters Virginia and Livia, and son Vincenzo. He never married Marina, possibly due to financial

worries and possibly fearing his illegitimate children would threaten his social standing. He worried the

two girls would never marry well, and when they were older, had them enter a convent. His son’s birth

was eventually legitimized and he became a successful musician.

In 1604, Galileo published The Operations of the Geometrical and Military Compass, revealing his skills

with experiments and practical technological applications.

He also constructed a hydrostatic balance for measuring small objects. These developments brought him

additional income and more recognition. That same year, Galileo refined his theories on motion and

falling objects, and developed the universal law of acceleration, which all objects in the universe obeyed.

Galileo began to express openly his support of the Copernican theory that the earth and planets

revolved around the sun. This challenged the doctrine of Aristotle and the established order set by the

Catholic Church.

In July 1609, Galileo learned about a simple telescope built by Dutch eyeglass makers, and he soon

developed one of his own. In August, he demonstrated it to some Venetian merchants, who saw its

value for spotting ships and gave Galileo salary to manufacture several of them. However, Galileo’s

ambition pushed him to go further, and in the fall of 1609 he made the fateful decision to turn his

telescope toward the heavens. In March 1610, he published a small booklet,The Starry Messenger,

revealing his discoveries that the moon was not flat and smooth, but a sphere with mountains and

craters. He found Venus had phases like the moon, proving it rotated around the sun. He also discovered

Jupiter had revolving moons, which didn’t revolve around the earth.

Soon Galileo began mounting a body of evidence that supported Copernican theory and contradicted

Aristotle and Church doctrine. In 1612, he published his Discourse on Bodies in Water, refuting the

Aristotelian explanation of why objects float in water, saying that it wasn’t because of their flat shape,

but instead the weight of the object in relation to the water it displaced. In 1613, he published his

observations of sunspots, which further refuted Aristotelian doctrine that the sun was perfect. That

same year, Galileo wrote a letter to a student to explain how Copernican theory did not contradict

Biblical passages, stating that scripture was written from an earthly perspective and implied that science

provided a different, more accurate perspective. The letter was made public and Church Inquisition

consultants pronounced Copernican theory heretical. In 1616, Galileo was ordered not to “hold, teach,

or defend in any manner” the Copernican theory regarding the motion of the earth. Galileo obeyed the

order for seven years, partly to make life easier and partly because he was a devoted Catholic.

In 1623, a friend of Galileo, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, was selected as Pope Urban VIII. He allowed

Galileo to pursue his work on astronomy and even encouraged him to publish it, on condition it be

objective and not advocate Copernican theory. In 1632, Galileo published the Dialogue Concerning the

Two Chief World Systems, a discussion among three people: one who supports Copernicus' heliocentric

theory of the universe, one who argues against it, and one who is impartial. Though Galileo

claimed Dialogues was neutral, it was clearly not. The advocate of Aristotelian belief comes across as the

simpleton, getting caught in his own arguments.

Church reaction against the book was swift, and Galileo was summoned to Rome. The Inquisition

proceedings lasted from September 1632 to July 1633. During most of this time, Galileo was treated

with respect and never imprisoned. However, in a final attempt to break him, Galileo was threatened

with torture, and he finally admitted he had supported Copernican theory, but privately held that his

statements were correct. He was convicted of heresy and spent his remaining years under house arrest.

Though ordered not to have any visitors nor have any of his works printed outside of Italy, he ignored

both. In 1634, a French translation of his study of forces and their effects on matter was published, and

a year later, copies of the Dialogue were published in Holland. While under house arrest, Galileo

wrote Two New Sciences, a summary of his life’s work on the science of motion and strength of

materials. It was printed in Holland in 1638. By this time, he had become blind and in ill health. Galileo

died on January 8, 1642, after suffering from a fever and heart palpitations.

But in time, the Church couldn’t deny the truth in science. In 1758, it lifted the ban on most works

supporting Copernican theory, and by 1835 dropped its opposition to heliocentrism altogether. In the

20th century several popes acknowledged the great work of Galileo and in 1992 Pope John Paul

II expressed regret about how the Galileo affair was handled. Galileo’s contribution to our

understanding of the universe was significant not only in his discoveries, but in the methods he

developed and the use of mathematics to prove them. He played a major role in the scientific revolution

and deserves the moniker of “The Father of Modern Science.”

Asteroid 697 Galilea is named in his honour.

And yet it moves.

– Galileo

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to

discover them.

– Galileo

The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.

– Galileo

Blaise Pascal

Born: June 19, 1623, Clermont-Ferrand

Died: August 19, 1662, Paris

Mathematician Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623, in Clermont-

Ferrand, France. In 1642, he invented the Pascaline, an early calculator.

Also in the 1640s, he validated Torricelli's theory concerning the cause

of barometrical variations. In the 1650s, Pascal laid the foundation of

probability theory and published the theological works Pénsees and

Provinciales. Pascal died in Paris on August 19, 1662.

Early Life

Inventor, mathematician, physicist and theological writer Blaise Pascal, born on June 19, 1623 in

Clermont-Ferrand, France, was the third child and only son to Etienne and Antoinette Pascal. His

mother, Antoinette, passed away when he was just a toddler. He was exceptionally close to his two

older sisters, Gilberte and Jacqueline. His father, Etienne, was a tax collector and a talented

mathematician.

Etienne moved the family to Paris in 1631. There, he decided to educate Blaise—a child prodigy—

himself so he could design his own unorthodox curriculum and make sure that Blaise didn't work too

hard. Ironically, Etienne entirely omitted mathematics from Blaise’s early curriculum. Etienne was

concerned that Blaise would become so fascinated with geometry that he wouldn’t be unable to focus

on classical subjects. The beginning of Blaise’s education in Paris was geared toward languages,

especially Latin and Greek. Even so, Etienne's plan backfired: The fact that mathematics was a forbidden

topic made the subject even more interesting to the inquisitive boy, who at the age of 12 began

exploring geometry on his own. He even made up his own terminology, not having learned the official

terms. The prodigy quickly managed to work out that the sum of a triangle's angles are equal to two

right angles.

Etienne was impressed. In answer to Blaise's unswerving fascination, his father permitted him to read

Euclid. Etienne also at last allowed Blaise to accompany him to meetings at the mathematics academy in

Paris. It was there, at age 16, that Blaise presented a number of his early theorems, including his

"mystical hexagon." Blaise could not have asked for a better audience; in attendance were some of the

premier mathematical thinkers of the time, including Marin Mersenne, Pierre Gassendi and Clyde

Mydorge, to name a few.

In 1640, the Pascal family drew up stakes once again. They moved to Rouen, France, where Blaise's

father had been appointed to collect taxes. Within just a year of moving, Blaise published his first

written work, Essay on Conic Sections. The essay constituted an important leap forward in projective

geometry, which involved transferring a 3-D object onto a 2-D field.

In 1646, Etienne was seriously injured in an accident that rendered him housebound. The accident

created a shift in the whole family's religious beliefs. The Pascals had never fully embraced the local

Jesuits' ideas. After Etienne's accident, a visit from a group of Jansenists led the family to convert to that

belief system. During the year that Etienne convalesced, two Jansenist brothers watched over Blaise. As

a result of their influence, Blaise became devoutly religious.

Inventions and Discoveries

A true trailblazer and a child prodigy to boot, Blaise Pascal started his prolific stream of groundbreaking

inventions and discoveries when he was still just a teen.

In 1642, at age 18, inspired by the idea of making his father's job of calculating taxes easier, Pascal

invented an early calculator, dubbed the Pascaline. (German polymath William Schickard had developed

and manufactured an earlier version of the digital calculator in 1624.) The Pascaline was a numerical

wheel calculator with eight movable dials, each representing a numerical digit, such as ones, tens and

hundreds. It was capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Pascal's invention was not without its glitches: There was a discrepancy between the calculator's design

and the structure of the French currency of the time. The machines went into production in 1642, but

Pascal continued to work on improving his calculator until 1645. (Fifty prototypes had been produced by

1652, but the Pascaline was never a big seller. It went out of production less than a year later.)

In 1648, eight years after his first essay was published, Pascal starting writing more of his theorems on

conic sections in The Generation of Conic Sections, but he pushed the work aside until 1654.

At the end of the 1640s, Pascal temporarily focused his experiments on the physical sciences. Following

in Evangelista Torricelli’s footsteps, Pascal experimented with how atmospheric pressure could be

estimated in terms of weight. By taking readings of the barometric pressure at various altitudes, Pascal

validated Torricelli's theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations.

In the 1650s, Pascal set about trying to create a perpetual motion machine, the purpose of which was to

produce more energy than it used. In the process, he stumbled upon an accidental invention. In 1655,

Pascal's roulette machine was born. Aptly, he derived its name from the French word for "little wheel"

Overlapping his work on the roulette machine was Pascal's correspondence with mathematical theorist

Pierre de Fermat, beginning in 1654. Through their letters discussing dice problems, and through

Pascal's own experiments, Pascal discovered that there is a fixed likelihood of any certain outcome when

it comes to the roll of the dice. This discovery was the basis of the mathematical theory of probability,

the eye-opening realization that events and their outcomes did not occur randomly.

Although the specific dates are uncertain, Pascal also reportedly invented a rather primitive form of the

wristwatch. It was an informal invention to say the least: The mathematician was known to strap his

pocket watch to his wrist with a piece of string, presumably for the sake of convenience while tinkering

with his other inventions.

Death

Pascal struggled with insomnia and a painful digestive disorder called dyspepsia from the time he was a

teen.

Regarding his physical health, he was described as "a man of slight build with a loud voice and

somewhat overbearing manner. … [H]e lived most of his adult life in great pain. He had always been in

delicate health, suffering even in his youth from migraine." Over the years, Pascal’s constant work took a

toll on his already fragile health.

Pascal died of a malignant stomach tumor at his sister Gilbrete's house in Paris on August 19, 1662. By

then, the tumor had metastasized in his brain. He was 39 years old at the time of his death. His complex

personality has been described as "precocious, stubbornly persevering, a perfectionist, pugnacious to

the point of bullying ruthlessness yet seeking to be meek and humble."

Legacy

Pascal's inventions and discoveries have been instrumental to developments in the fields of geometry,

physics and computer science. His exploration of binomial coefficients influenced Sir Isaac Newton,

leading him to uncover his "general binomial theorem for fractional and negative powers."

In the 1970s, the Pascal (Pa) unit was named after Blaise Pascal, in honor of his contributions to the

understanding of atmospheric pressure and how it could be estimated in terms of weight. The Pascal is a

unit of pressure that constitutes the force of single newton acting on a square-meter surface. It is

measured using the meter-kilogram-second system, which relies on an extended version of the metric

system to calculate pressure.

In 1972, computer scientist Nicklaus Wirth invented a computer language and insisted on naming it

after Pascal. This was Wirth's way of memorializing Pascal's invention of the Pascaline, one of the

earliest forms of the modern computer. Pascal is also credited with building the foundation of

probability theory.

Eugenia Charles

Dame Mary Eugenia Charles was Prime

Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995.

She was Dominica's first, and to date only, female prime minister,

as well as the nation's longest-serving prime minister.

She was the second female prime minister in the Caribbean after

Lucinda da Costa of theNetherlands Antilles, and the first woman

elected in her own right as head of government in the Americas.

She was the world's third longest-serving female Prime Minister, behind Indira

Gandhi of India and Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, and the world's longest

continuously serving female Prime Minister ever.

Neil Armstrong

Born: August 5, 1930, Wapakoneta

Died: August 25, 2012, Cincinnati

Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and the first person to walk

on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot,

and university professor.

Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of

Freedom by President Richard Nixon

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space

Medal of Honor in 1978; he and his former crewmates received

the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

Early years:

Neil Armstrong was born on 5th August, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA.

His full name is Neil Alden Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong was interested in aviation from a young age. At 15 he worked in various jobs in order to pay for his flying lessons.

At 16 he got his student pilot's licence before he was legally old enough to drive a carand before he graduated from Blume High School in Wapakoneta in 1947.

Immediately after high school, Neil Armstrong received a scholarship from the U.S. Navy. He enrolled at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and began his studies of aeronautical engineering, but in 1949 the Navy called him to active duty.

In 1950 he was sent to Korea and served as a naval pilot during the Korean War. He flew 78 combat

missions from USS Essex in a Grumman F9F-2 Panther. He received three medals: the Air Medal and two Gold Stars for his military service during the Korean War.

After the war, he left the Navy and returned to Purdue in 1952 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical engineering in 1955.

NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics):

In 1955 Neil Armstrong joined NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics - now known as

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) as a research pilot at the NACA Lewis Research

Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Later that year he transferred to the NACA High Speed Flight Station (now

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center) at Edwards Air Force Base in California where he worked as a test

First person to walk on the Moon

pilot for many experimental high speed aircraft including the X-15. From 1960 to 1962 he was a pilot

involved in the X-20 Dyna-Soar orbital glider program.

Becoming an Astronaut:

In 1962 Armstrong decided to become an astronaut and applied for NASA selection and training. In

September 1962 he became America's first nonmilitary astronaut.

His first flight assignment as an astronaut was as a backup, alternate, pilot for Gordon Cooper of the

Gemini 5 mission in 1965.

Gemini 8

In 1966, Neil Armstrong was assigned as command pilot for the Gemini 8. Gemini 8 mission was

launched on March 16, 1966 and achieved the first docking of two orbiting spacecraft. His first space

flight was nearly a disaster. He was in the first US emergency in space with his partner David Scott when

their spacecraft spun wildly out of control. They returned to Earth safely. It was launched using Titan II

Launch Vehicle.

Gemini 11

He was the backup command pilot for the Gemini 11 mission in 1966 and the commander of the backup crew for the Apollo 8 lunar orbital mission in 1968 using Apollo Spacecraft.

Apollo 11 Mission

In January 1969 Armstrong was selected as commander for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission.

The Apollo 11 crew were: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida by a Saturn V rocket. Four days later it went into orbit around the Moon. The lunar module “Eagle” separated from the Command Module with Armstrong and Aldrin aboard and descended to the surface of the Moon. Michael Collins remained in the Command Module in orbit.

During the moon landing, Armstrong took manual control of the Lunar Module Eagle and piloted it away from a rocky area and made a safe landing on the moon. His first words from the Moon were:

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”.

Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. His first words after stepping on the moon were,

“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”.

Armstrong and Aldrin spent nearly two and a half hours walking on the moon. The astronauts set up various scientific instruments on the surface.

Armstrong and Aldrin then returned to the Eagle and launched themselves to meet up again with Collins, who had been orbiting in the Columbia spacecraft.

The Apollo 11 crew returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969.

Before long, the three Apollo 11 astronauts were given a warm welcome home. Crowds lined the streets of New York City to cheer on the famous heroes who were honored in a ticker-tape parade.

Launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a Command Module with a cabin for the three astronauts which was the only part which landed back on Earth; a Service Module which supported the Command Module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen and water; and a Lunar Module for landing on the Moon.

Position Astronaut

Commander Neil A Armstrong

Command Module Pilot Michael Collins

Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” E Aldrin Jr

Career after NASA:

Apollo 11 was Armstrong's final space mission.

From 1969 to 1971, Neil Armstrong held the position of Deputy Association Administrator for

Aeronautics, NASA Headquarters Office of Advanced Research and Technology.

Neil Armstrong resigned from NASA in 1971 and became a professor of aerospace engineering at the

University of Cincinnati, where he was involved in both teaching and research until 1979.

Armstrong remained at the university for eight years. Staying active in his field, he served as the

chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation, Inc., from 1982 to 1992.

In 1986, he was appointed as vice chairman of the presidential commission that investigated the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster.

From 1989 until he retired in 2002, he served as chairman of AIL Technologies (Deer Park, New York), an electronics and avionics manufacturer.

In 1999 he was honored at a ceremony at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where he received the Langley Medal in honor of the thirtieth

anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.

Armstrong also makes occasional public appearances at the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum in his hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Business activities:

After Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971, he acted as a spokesman for several businesses. The first

company to successfully approach him was Chrysler, for whom he appeared in advertising starting in

January 1979.

He later acted as a spokesman for other companies, including General Time Corporation and

the Bankers Association of America.

Voice actor:

In 2010 he voiced the character of Dr. Jack Morrow in Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space

Odyssey, a 2010 animated educational sci-fi adventure film initiated by JPL/NASA through a

grant from Jet Propulsion Lab.

Mr. Armstrong is generally referred to a "reluctant" American Hero.

John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, recalled Armstrong’s legendary humility. “He didn’t feel that he should be out huckstering himself,” the former Ohio senator told CNN.“ He was a humble person, and that’s the way he remained after his lunar flight, as well as before.”

Since the early 1980s, Armstrong has been the subject of a hoax saying that he converted to Islam after hearing the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, while walking on the moon.

The Indonesian singer Suhaemi wrote a song called “Gema Suara Adzan di Bulan” ("The Resonant Sound of the Call to Prayer on the Moon") which described Armstrong's conversion.

A tribute was held in Armstrong's honor on September 13 at Washington National Cathedral, whose Space Window depicts the Apollo 11 mission and holds a sliver of moon rock amid its stained-glass panels.

In attendance were Armstrong's Apollo 11 crewmates, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin; Eugene A.

Cernan, the Apollo 17 mission commander and last man to walk on the moon; and former Senator and astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.

Diana Krall sang the song “Fly Me to the Moon”.

“Fly Me to the Moon” is a popular standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It was originally titled "In Other Words", and was introduced by Felicia Sanders in cabarets.

Death & legacy:

Despite being one of the most famous astronauts in history, Armstrong largely shied away from the

public eye. He gave a rare interview to the news program 60 Minutes in 2006. He described the moon to

interviewer Ed Bradley, saying "It's a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to

you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on earth. It's an interesting place to

be. I recommend it."

That same year, his authorized biography came out. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong was

written by James R. Hansen in 2005, who conducted interviews with Armstrong, his family, and his

friends and associates.

Armstrong underwent a heart bypass operation in August 2012. A few weeks later, on August 25, 2012,

Neil Armstrong died of "complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures" at the age of 82. He is

survived by his second wife Carol in Indian Hill, Ohio, and his two sons from his first marriage. He and his

first wife divorced in 1994.

His Apollo 11 colleague Buzz Aldrin said that "I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the

passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew. My friend Neil took the small step but

giant leap that changed the world and will forever be remembered as a landmark moment in human

history," according to CBS News.

Awards:

� Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon

� President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978

� He and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

� The Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the Sylvanus Thayer Award, the Collier Trophy from the National Aeronautics Association.

� Armstrong and his Apollo 11 crewmates were the 1999 recipients of the Langley Gold

Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.

� In 1971, Armstrong was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point for his service to the country.

Honours:

� In 1969, folk songwriter and singer John Stewart recorded “Armstrong”, a tribute to Armstrong

and his first steps on the moon.

� Purdue University announced in October 2004 that its new engineering building would be

named Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering in his honor

� The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum is located in his hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio,

although it has no official ties to Armstrong and the airport in New Knoxville where he took his

first flying lessons is named for him.

� The lunar crater Armstrong, 31 mi (50 km) from the Apollo 11 landing site, and asteroid 6469

Armstrong are named in his honor.

� In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Armstrong was ranked as the #1 most popular space hero.

� In September 2012, the U.S. Navy announced that the first Armstrong-class Auxiliary General

Oceanographic Research (AGOR) ship will be named "R/V Neil Armstrong". The ship (T-

AGOR 27, currently under construction) will be a modern oceanographic research platform

capable of supporting a wide range of oceanographic research activities conducted by academic

groups.

VALENTINA TERESHKOVA

Born: March 6, 1937 (age 75), Bolshoye Maslennikovo

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet Cosmonaut and the first woman in space to pilot Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963.

Early Life:

Valentina Vladimirovna "Valya" Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937, in

the Volga River village of Maslennikovo.

Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a tractor driver. Her mother Elena

Fyodorovna Tereshkova was a worker at the Krasny Perekop cotton mill. She

single-handedly raised Valentina, her brother Vladimir, and her sister Ludmilla

in economically trying conditions. Valentina helped her mother at home and was not able to begin

school until she was ten.

Tereshkova later moved to her grandmother's home in nearby Yaroslavl, where she worked as an

apprentice at a tire factory in 1954.

In 1955 she joined her mother and sister as a loom operator at the cotton mill. Meanwhile, she took

correspondence courses (courses taught through the mail) and graduated from the Light Industry

Technical School. An ardent communist (believer that there should be no private property), she joined

the mill's Komsomol (Young Communist League) and soon advanced to the Communist Party.

Joins Space Program:

In 1959 Tereshkova joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club and became a skilled amateur (nonprofessional)

parachutist. Inspired by the flight of Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), the first man in space, she volunteered

for the Soviet space program.

Although she had no experience as a pilot, her achievement of 126 parachute jumps gained her a

position as a cosmonaut (Russian astronaut) in 1961. At the time the Russian space program was

looking for people with parachuting experience, because cosmonauts had to parachute from their

capsules after they came back into Earth's atmosphere.

Five candidates were chosen for a onetime woman-in-space flight. Tereshkova received a military rank

in the Russian air force. She trained for eighteen months before becoming chief pilot of the Vostok

VI. All candidates underwent a rigorous (difficult) course of training, which included tests to determine

the effects of being alone for long periods, tests with machines made to create extreme gravity

conditions, tests made to duplicate the zero gravity weightless conditions in space and parachute jumps.

First woman in Space to Pilot Vostok 6

Admiring fellow cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was quoted as saying, "It was hard for her to master rocket

techniques, study spaceship designs and equipment, but she tackled the job stubbornly and devoted

much of her own time to study, poring over books and notes in the evening."

Into Space:

At 12:30 P.M. on June 16, 1963, Junior Lieutenant Tereshkova became the first woman to be launched

into space by boarding VOSTOK 6.

Using her radio call sign (nickname) Chaika (Seagull), she reported,

"I see the horizon. A light blue, a beautiful band. This is the Earth. How beautiful it is!

All goes well."

Vostok VI made forty-eight orbits (1,200,000 miles) in 70 hours, 50 minutes (the flight lasted 2.95

days.), coming within 3.1 miles of the previously launched Vostok V, which was piloted by cosmonaut

Valery Bykovsky. By comparison, the four American astronauts who had been in space before this flight

had a combined total of thirty-six orbits.

Tereshkova's flight confirmed Soviet test results that women had the same resistance as men to the

physical and psychological stresses of space. In fact, tests showed that women could actually tolerate G-

forces (gravitational forces) better than men.

Upon her return Tereshkova and Bykovsky were hailed in Moscow's Red Square, a large plaza in Moscow

used for official celebrations.

On June 22 at the Kremlin she was named a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Presidium Chairman Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) decorated her with the Order of Lenin and the Gold

Star Medal.

A symbol of the liberated Soviet woman, Tereshkova toured the world as a goodwill ambassador,

promoting the equality of the sexes in the Soviet Union. She received a standing ovation at the United

Nations. With Gagarin, she traveled to Cuba in October as a guest of the Cuban Women's Federation

and then went to the International Aeronautical Federation Conference in Mexico.

Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched two days after Vostok 5 which carried Valery

Bykovsky into a similar orbit for five days, landing three hours after Tereshkova.

Even though there were plans for further flights by women, it took 19 years until the second

woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew into space.

Later Career:

On November 3, 1963, Tereshkova married Soviet cosmonaut Colonel Andrian Nikolayev, who had

orbited the earth sixty-four times in 1962 in the Vostok III. Their daughter, Yelena Adrianovna

Nikolayeva, was born on June 8, 1964. Doctors, who were fearful of her parents' space exposure,

carefully studied the girl, but no ill effects were found.

Tereshkova summarized her views on women and science in an article titled "Women in Space", which

she wrote in 1970 for the American journal Impact of Science on Society.

Valentina Tereshkova still serves as a model not only for the women of her native country, but for

women throughout the world who wish to strive for new goals.

Valentina Tereshkova became the first and still remains to be the only female general officer in both

Soviet and Russian armed forces.

Tereshkova's life and spaceflight were first examined (in the west) in the 1975 book:

It Is I, Sea Gull; Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space by Mitchel R. Sharpe

And then again in greater detail of her life and spaceflight in the 2007 book Into That Silent

Sea by Colin Burgess and Francis French.

On 5 April 2008, she became a torchbearer of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in Saint

Petersburg, Russia.

She received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation in 2007.

Honours & Awards:

Russian

� Order of Merit for the Fatherland

� Order of Honour (10 June 2003) - for outstanding contribution to the development and

strengthening of international scientific, cultural and social ties

� Order of Friendship (April 12, 2011) - for outstanding contribution to the development of national

manned space flight and long-term fruitful public activity

� Russian Federation State Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of humanitarian action in

2008 (4 June 2009)

Soviet

� Honoured Master of Sports (19 June 1963)

� Hero of the Soviet Union (22 June 1963)

� Order of Lenin (22 June 1963; 6 May 1981) - for making progress on the development and

strengthening of ties with the progressive community and peace-loving forces of foreign countries

� Order of the October Revolution (1 December 1971)

� Order of the Red Banner of Labor (5 March 1987) - for social activities

� Order of the Friendship of Peoples

� Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union

Other awards - Warsaw Pact

� "Gold Star" Hero of Socialist Labour (Czechoslovakia) (August 1963)

� "Gold Star" Hero of Socialist Labour (Bulgaria) (Bulgaria, 9 September 1963)

� Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 9 September 1963)

� Order of Karl Marx (October 1963, East Germany)

� Medal of Becker (October 1963, East Germany)

� Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (October 1963, Poland)

� Order of the National Flag with diamonds (Hungary, April 1965)

� Order "For Achievements in Science" (Romania, 17 November 1973)

� Medal "For Strengthening Brotherhood in Arms" (Bulgaria, 1976)

� Order of Klement Gottwald (Czechoslovakia)

Other awards

� Order of the Star of Nepal, 1st class (November 1963)

� Order of the Star of the Republic of Indonesia, 2nd class (November 1963)

� Order of the Volta (Ghana, January 1964)

� "Gold Soyombo" Hero of Labour (Mongolia)

� Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia, May 1965)

� Order of the Enlightenment (Afghanistan, August 1969)

� Order of Planets (Jordan, December 1969)

� Order of the Nile (Egypt, January 1971)

� "Gold Star" Hero of Labour (Vietnam) (October 1971)

� Order of Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile, March 1972)

� Order of the Yugoslav Flag with sash (November 1972)

� Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun (Peru, 1974)

� Order of the Bay of Pigs (Cuba, 1974)

� Order of Anne Betancourt (Cuba, 1974)

� Order of the Duke of Branimir, with sash (Croatia, 17 February 2003)

Scientific, social and religious organizations

� Gold Medal, Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR

� Gold Medal of the British Society for interplanetary communications "For achievements in space

exploration" (February 1964)

� Gold Medal of the "Cosmos" (FAI)

� Award Galambera Astronautics

� Gold Medal of Peace Joliot-Curie (France, 1964)

� Order "Wind Rose" International Committee of the National Aeronautics and Space Missions

� "Golden mimosa" of the Italian Union of Women (1963)

� Sign of the Komsomol "For active in the League" (1963)

� Gold Medal Exhibition of Economic Achievements (28 June 1963)

� Honour of DOSAAF (1 July 1963)

� Order of St. Euphrosyne, Grand Duchess of Moscow, 2nd class (2008)

She was made a member of the World Peace Council in 1966, a member of the Yaroslavl Soviet in 1967,

a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1966–1970 and 1970–1974, and was elected to

the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1974. She was also the Soviet representative to the UN

Conference for the International Women's Year in Mexico City in 1975.

Yuri Gagarin

Born: March 9, 1934, Klushino

Died: March 27, 1968, Kirzhach

Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and the first

man to orbit the Earth making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1

spacecraft.

Early Life:

Yuri A. Gagarin was born in a village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in

Smolensk Oblast), Russia, on March 9, 1934.

Yuri was the third of four children and spent his childhood on a collective farm where his father, Alexey

Ivanovich Gagarin, worked as a carpenter and bricklayer and his mother, Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina,

worked as a milkmaid.

In 1941, Yuri Gagarin was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Life was difficult

during the war and the Gagarins were kicked out of their home. The Nazis also sent Yuri's two sisters to

Germany to work as forced laborers.

Carrier in the Soviet Air Force:

In his youth, Gagarin became interested in space and planets. After studying for one year at a vocational

technical school in Lyubertsy, Gagarin was selected for further training at a technical high school

in Saratov.

In 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at

the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after

gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15.

He became a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force on 5 November 1957; on 6 November 1959 he received

the rank of Senior Lieutenant.

Carrier in the Soviet Space Program:

Out of this large pool of applicants, just 20 were chosen in 1960 to be the Soviet Union's first

cosmonauts; Gagarin was one of the 20.

Out of the twenty selected, the eventual choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman

Titov due to their performance during training sessions as well as their physical characteristics but

among the two Gagarin was chosen.

First Human in Space

Launch of Vostok 1

On 12 April 1961, aboard the Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history on April 12, 1961

when he became both the first person in the world to enter space and the first person to orbit the

Earth. His call sign was Kedr (Cedar)

Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted

108 minutes. At the highest point, Gagarin was about 327 kilometers above Earth.

As was planned, Cosmonaut Gagarin ejected after reentry into Earth's atmosphere and landed by

parachute.

Following the flight, Gagarin told the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that during reentry he had

whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows".

This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy

Dolmatovsky.

After Vostok 1

In 1962, he began serving as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. He became Lieutenant

Colonel of the Soviet Air Force on 12 June 1962 and on 6 November 1963 he received the rank

of Colonel of the Soviet Air Force.

Gagarin was backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov in the Soyuz 1 flight, which was launched

despite Gagarin's protests that additional safety precautions were necessary. When Komarov's flight

ended in a fatal crash, Gagarin was permanently banned from training for and participating in further

spaceflights.

Death (at 34)

After his successful first flight into space, Gagarin never again was sent into space. Instead, he helped

train future cosmonauts. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin was test-piloting a MiG-15 fighter jet when the

plane plummeted to the ground, killing Gagarin instantly.

Tributes

There were two commemorative coins issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th

anniversaries of his flight: 1 ruble coin (1981, copper-nickel) and 3 ruble coin (1991, silver). In 2001, to

commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was

issued in Russia: 2 ruble coin (copper-nickel), 3 ruble coin (silver), 10 ruble coin (brass-copper, nickel),

and 100 ruble coin (silver). In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000 ruble coin (gold) and 3 ruble coin (silver) to

mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.

In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.

50th

Anniversary (2011)

A film entitled First Orbit was shot from the International Space Station, combining the original flight

audio with footage of the route taken by Gagarin. The Russian, American, and Italian Expedition 27 crew

aboard the ISS sent a special video message to wish the people of the world a "Happy Yuri's Night",

wearing shirts with an image of Gagarin.

Honours & Awards:

� Hero of the Soviet Union (14 April 1961)

� Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (27 June 1961)

� Hero of Socialist Labour (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, 29 April 1961)

� Hero of Socialist Labour, (People's Republic of Bulgaria, 24 May 1961)

� Hero of Labour, (Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 28 April 1962)

� President of the Soviet-Cuban friendship

� Honorary Member of the Society, "the Finland-Soviet Union"

� Honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1966)

� Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1961, title obtained as a reward for a space flight)

� Military Pilot 1st Class (1961, awarded the qualification of space flight)

� Honorary suvorovets (Moscow Suvorov Military School, 1962)

� Order of Lenin (USSR, 14 April 1961)

� Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 24 May 1961)

� Order of the Star, 2nd Class (Indonesia, 10 June 1961)

� Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (Poland, 20 June 1961)

� The first Commander of the Order "Playa Giron" (Cuba, 18 July 1961)

� "For achievements in aeronautics" (Brazil, 2 August 1961)

� Order of the Flag of the Hungarian Republic, 1st class with diamonds (Hungary, 21 August 1961)

� Order of Karl Marx (German Democratic Republic, 22 October 1963)

� Order of Klement Gottwald (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic)

� Order of the Nile (Egypt, 31 January 1962)

� Order of the African Star (Liberia, 6 February 1962)

� Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil, 3 August 1961)

� Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (USSR, 1958)

� Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" (USSR, 9 May 1965)

� Medal "For Impeccable Service", 3rd class (Soviet Union, March 1966)

� Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (USSR, January 1968) [32]

� Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal "for outstanding work in the field of interplanetary

communications" (USSR)

� Gold Medal of the Austrian Government, 1962

� Gold medal and diploma "Man in Space," the Italian Association of Space

� Gold Medal "For outstanding difference" and the Royal Aero Club Diploma, Sweden

� Gold Medal of the British Society for interplanetary travel, 1961

� Medal of Columbus (Italy)

� Gold Medal of Saint-Denis (France)

� Gold Medal Award "for courage" of the Fund Matstsotti (Italy), 2007

Abraham Lincoln

Born: February 12, 1809, Hodgenville

Died: April 15, 1865, Petersen House

Abraham Lincoln is one of America’s greatest heroes because of his

unique appeal. His is a remarkable story of the rise from humble

beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land; then, a sudden

and tragic death at a time when his country needed him most to

complete the great task remaining before the nation. His

distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as

savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves creates a legacy

that endures. His eloquence of democracy, and his insistence that

the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government

that all nations strive to achieve.

Childhood

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks

Lincoln. Thomas was a strong and determined pioneer who found a moderate level of prosperity and

was well respected in the community. The couple had two other children: Abraham’s older sister Sarah

and younger brother Thomas, who died in infancy. Due to a land dispute, the Lincolns were forced to

move from Kentucky to Perry County, Indiana in 1817, where the family “squatted” on public land to

scrap out a living in a crude shelter, hunting game and farming a small plot. Thomas was eventually able

to buy the land.

When young Abraham was 9 years old his mother died of tremetol (milk sickness) at age 34 and the

event was devastating on him. The 9-year-old Abraham grew more alienated from his father and quietly

resented the hard work placed on him at an early age. A few months after Nancy’s death, Thomas

married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow with three children of her own. She was a strong and

affectionate woman with whom Abraham quickly bonded.

Though both his parents were most likely illiterate, Sarah encouraged Abraham to read. It was while

growing into manhood that he received his formal education—an estimated total of 18 months—a few

days or weeks at a time. Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors

recalled how Abraham would walk for miles to borrow a book. He undoubtedly read the family Bible and

probably other popular books at that time such as Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrims Progress and Aesop’s

Fables.

16th President of the

United States

Law Career

In March, 1830, the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved

the family again to Coles County, 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln struck out on this own, making a living in

manual labor. At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln was rawboned and lanky, but muscular and physically

strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his

skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing. Young Lincoln

eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois where over a period of years he

worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was here that Lincoln,

working with the public, acquired social skills and honed story-telling talent that made him popular with

the locals. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native

Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this

time, save for “a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,” but was able to make several

important political connections.

After the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois

state legislature in 1834 as a member of the Whig Party. He supported the Whig politics of government-

sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs.

This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral

wrong, but as an impediment to economic development. It was around this time he decided to become

a lawyer, teaching himself the law by reading Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. After

being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois and began to practice in the John T.

Stuart law firm.

It was soon after this that he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge.

Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem and Anne died

at age 22. Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians

disagree on the extent of Lincoln’s relationship with Rutledge and his level of sorrow at her death may

be more the makings of legend.

In 1844, Abraham Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Though the two had

different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship. Lincoln

made a good living in his early years as a lawyer, but found that Springfield alone didn’t offer enough

work, so to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the

various county seats in Illinois.

Entering Politics

Abraham Lincoln served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847-'49. His foray into

national politics seems to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from the state of

Illinois, showing party loyalty, but finding few political allies. He used his term in office to speak out

against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of

the war made him unpopular back home and he decided not to run for second term, but instead

returned Springfield to practice law.

By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for

various companies. Abraham Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company

attorney. Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well—banks, insurance

companies and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also did some criminal trials. In one case, a witness claimed

that he could identify Lincoln’s client who was accused of murder, because of the intense light from a

full moon. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the night in question had been too dark for

the witness to see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.

About a year after the death of Anne Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other

for a few months and marriage was considered. But in time Lincoln called off the match. In 1840, Lincoln

became engaged to Mary Todd, a high spirited, well educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky

family. In the beginning, many of the couple’s friends and family couldn’t understand Mary’s attraction,

and at times Lincoln questioned it himself.

However, in 1841, the engagement was suddenly broken off, most likely at Lincoln’s initiative. They met

later, at a social function and eventually married on November 4, 1842. The couple had four children, of

which only one, Robert, survived to adulthood.

Elected President

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, and

allowed individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The law

provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois. And it gave rise to the Republican Party. This

awakened Abraham Lincoln’ political zeal once again and his views on slavery moved more toward moral

indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.

In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial decision Scott v. Sanford, declaring African

Americans were not citizens and had no inherent rights. Though Abraham Lincoln felt African Americans

were not equal to whites, he believed the America’s founders intended that all men were created with

certain inalienable rights. Lincoln decided to challenge sitting U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat.

In his nomination acceptance speech, he criticized Douglas, the Supreme Court, and President Buchanan

for promoting slavery and declared “a house divided cannot stand.” The 1858 Senate campaign featured

seven debates held in different cities all over Illinois. The two candidates didn’t disappoint the public,

giving stirring debates on issues ranging from states’ rights to western expansion, but the central issue in

all the debates was slavery. Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often times with partisan

editing and interpretation. In the end, the state legislature elected Douglas, but the exposure vaulted

Lincoln into national politics.

In 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for the presidency. On

May 18th at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln surpassed better known

candidates such as William Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Lincoln’s nomination was

due in part to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and

the protective tariff. In the general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival, Stephan Douglas, this time

besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of the Northern Democrats and John

Bell of the Constitution Party. Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote, but carried 180

of 303 Electoral votes.

Abraham Lincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including William

Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin Stanton. Formed out the adage “Hold your friends

close and your enemies closer”, Lincoln’s Cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in

office… and he would need them. Before his inauguration in March, 1861, seven Southern states had

seceded from the Union and by April the U.S. military installation Fort Sumter, was under siege in

Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the

fort signaling the start of America’s costliest and most deadly conflict.

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other present before him. He distributed

$2,000,000 from the Treasury for war materiel without an appropriation from Congress; he called for

75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of

habeas corpus, arresting and imprisoning suspected Confederate sympathizers without a warrant.

Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, with its preceding

decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced

disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his Cabinet, his party, and a

majority of the American people.

The Union Army’s first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it especially difficult to keep morale up

and support strong for a reunification the nation. With the hopeful, but by no means conclusive Union

victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, Abraham felt confident enough to reshape the cause of the

war from “union” to abolishing slavery. Gradually, the war effort improved for the North, though more

by attrition then by brilliant military victories. But by 1864, the Confederacy had hunkered down to a

guerilla war and Lincoln was convinced he’d be a one-term president. His nemesis, George B. McClellan,

the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest

wasn’t even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 243 Electoral votes. On

March 28, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Virginia, surrendered his forces to

Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the war for all intents and purposes was over.

Assassination

Reconstruction began during the war as early as 1863 in areas firmly under Union military control.

Abraham Lincoln favored a policy of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution. But he was

confronted by a radical group of Republicans in the Senate and House that wanted complete allegiance

and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political battle had a chance to firmly develop,

Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John

Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was taken from the theater to a Petersen

House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning. His body lay in

state at the Capitol before a funeral train took him back to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.

"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward."

– Abraham Lincoln

"Nearly all men can handle adversity, if you want to test a man's character,

give him power."

– Abraham Lincoln

Leo Tolstoy

Born: September 9, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana

Died: November 20, 1910, Lev Tolstoy

On September 9, 1828, Leo Tolstoy was born in Tula Province, Russia.

In the 1860s, he wrote his first great novel, War and Peace. In 1873,

Tolstoy set to work on the second of his best known novels, Anna

Karenina.

He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of

his most successful later works was The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy

died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia.

Early Life

On September 9, 1828, writer Leo Tolstoy was born at his family's estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula

Province of Russia. He was the youngest of four boys. In 1830, when Tolstoy's mother, née Princess

Volkonskaya, died, his father's cousin took over caring for the children. When their father, Count Nikolay

Tolstoy, died just seven years later, their aunt was appointed their legal guardian. When the aunt passed

away, Tolstoy and his siblings moved in with a second aunt, in Kazan, Russia. Although Tolstoy

experienced a lot of loss at an early age, he would later idealize his childhood memories in his writing.

Tolstoy received his primary education at home, at the hands of French and German tutors. In 1843, he

enrolled in an Oriental languages program at the University of Kazan. There, Tolstoy failed to excel as a

student. His low grades forced him to transfer to an easier law program. Prone to partying in excess,

Tolstoy ultimately left the University of Kazan in 1847, without a degree. He returned to his parents'

estate, where he made a go at becoming a farmer. He attempted to lead the serfs, or farmhands, in

their work, but he was too often absent on social visits to Tula and Moscow. His stab at becoming the

perfect farmer soon proved to be a failure. He did, however, succeed in pouring his energies into

keeping a journal—the beginning of a lifelong habit that would inspire much of his fiction.

As Tolstoy was flailing on the farm, his older brother, Nikolay, came to visit while on military leave.

Nikolay convinced Tolstoy to join the Army as a junker, south in the Caucasus Mountains, where Nikolay

himself was stationed. Following his stint as a junker, Tolstoy transferred to Sevastopol in Ukraine in

November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War through August 1855.

Early Publications

While Tolstoy was working as a junker for the Army, he had free time to kill. During quiet periods he

worked on an autobiographical story called Childhood. In it, he wrote of his fondest childhood

The Man who Influenced Gandhiji

memories. In 1852, Tolstoy submitted the sketch to The Contemporary, the most popular journal of the

time. The story was eagerly accepted and became Tolstoy's very first published work.

After completing Childhood, Tolstoy started writing about his day-to-day life at the Army outpost in the

Caucasus. However, he did not complete the work, entitled The Cossacks, until 1862, after he had

already left the Army.

Amazingly, Tolstoy still managed to continue writing while at battle during the Crimean War. During that

time, he composed Boyhood (1854), a sequel to Childhood, the second book in what was to become

Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. In the midst of the Crimean War, Tolstoy also expressed his views on

the striking contradictions of war through a three-part series, Sevastopol Tales. In the second Sevastopol

Tales book, Tolstoy experimented with a relatively new writing technique: Part of the story is presented

in the form of a soldier's stream of consciousness.

Once the Crimean War ended and Tolstoy left the Army, he returned to Russia. Back home, the

burgeoning author found himself in high demand on the St. Petersburg literary scene. Stubborn and

arrogant, Tolstoy refused to ally himself with any particular intellectual school of thought. Declaring

himself an anarchist, he made off to Paris in 1857. Once there, he gambled away all of his money and

was forced to return home to Russia. He also managed to publish Youth, the third part of his

autobiographical trilogy, in 1857.

Back in Russia in 1862, Tolstoy produced the first of a 12 issue-installment of the journal Yasnaya

Polyana, marrying a doctor's daughter named Sofya Andreyevna Bers that same year.

Major Novels

Residing at Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent the better part of the 1860s toiling

over his first great novel,War and Peace. A portion of the novel was first published in the Russian

Messenger in 1865, under the title "The Year 1805." By 1868, he had released three more chapters. A

year later, the novel was complete. Both critics and the public were buzzing about the novel's historical

accounts of the Napoleonic Wars, combined with its thoughtful development of realistic yet fictional

characters. The novel also uniquely incorporated three long essays satirizing the laws of history. Among

the ideas that Tolstoy extols in War and Peace is the belief that the quality and meaning of one's life is

mainly derived from his day-to-day activities.

Following the success of War and Peace, in 1873, Tolstoy set to work on the second of his best known

novels, Anna Karenina. Anna Karenina was partially based on current events while Russia was at war

with Turkey. Like War and Peace, it fictionalized some biographical events from Tolstoy's life, as was

particularly evident in the romance of the characters Kitty and Levin, whose relationship is said to

resemble Tolstoy's courtship with his own wife.

The first sentence of Anna Karenina is among the most famous lines of the book: "All happy families

resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Anna Karenina was published in

installments from 1873 to 1877, to critical and public acclaim. The royalties that Tolstoy earned from the

novel contributed to his rapidly growing wealth.

Religious Conversion

Despite the success of Anna Karenina, following the novel's completion, Tolstoy suffered a spiritual crisis

and grew depressed. Struggling to uncover the meaning of life, Tolstoy first went to the Russian

Orthodox Church, but did not find the answers he sought there. He came to believe that Christian

churches were corrupt and, in lieu of organized religion, developed his own beliefs. He decided to

express those beliefs by founding a new publication called The Mediator in 1883.

As a consequence of espousing his unconventional—and therefore controversial—spiritual beliefs,

Tolstoy was ousted by the Russian Orthodox Church. He was even watched by the secret police. When

Tolstoy's new beliefs prompted his desire to give away his money, his wife strongly objected. The

disagreement put a strain on the couple's marriage, until Tolstoy begrudgingly agreed to a compromise:

He conceded to granting his wife the copyrights—and presumably the royalties—to all of his writing

predating 1881.

Later Fiction

In addition to his religious tracts, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s.

Among his later works' genres were moral tales and realistic fiction. One of his most successful later

works was the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, written in 1886. In Ivan Ilyich, the main character

struggles to come to grips with his impending death. The title character, Ivan Ilyich, comes to the jarring

realization that he has wasted his life on trivial matters, but the realization comes too late.

In 1898, Tolstoy wrote Father Sergius, a work of fiction in which he seems to criticize the beliefs that he

developed following his spiritual conversion. The following year, he wrote his third lengthy

novel, Resurrection. While the work received some praise, it hardly matched the success and acclaim of

his previous novels. Tolstoy's other late works include essays on art, a satirical play called The Living

Corpse that he wrote in 1890, and a novella called Hadji-Murad (written in 1904), which was discovered

and published after his death.

Elder Years

Over the last 30 years of his life, Tolstoy established himself as a moral and religious leader. His ideas

about nonviolent resistance to evil influenced the likes of social leader Mahatma Gandhi.

Also during his later years, Tolstoy reaped the rewards of international acclaim. Yet he still struggled to

reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the tensions they created in his home life. His wife not only disagreed

with his teachings, she disapproved of his disciples, who regularly visited Tolstoy at the family estate.

Their troubled marriage took on an air of notoriety in the press. Anxious to escape his wife's growing

resentment, in October 1910, Tolstoy and his daughter, Aleksandra, embarked on a pilgrimage.

Aleksandra, Tolstoy's youngest daughter, was to serve as her elderly father's doctor during the trip.

Valuing their privacy, they traveled incognito, hoping to dodge the press, to no avail.

Death and Legacy

Unfortunately, the pilgrimage proved too arduous for the aging novelist. In November 1910, the

stationmaster of a train depot in Astapovo, Russia opened his home to Tolstoy, allowing the ailing writer

to rest. Tolstoy died there shortly after, on November 20, 1910. He was buried at the family estate,

Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula Province, where Tolstoy had lost so many loved ones yet had managed to build

such fond and lasting memories of his childhood. Tolstoy was survived by his wife and their brood of 10

children. (The couple had spawned 13 children in all, but only 10 had survived past infancy.)

To this day, Tolstoy's novels are considered among the finest achievements of literary work. War and

Peace is, in fact, frequently cited as the greatest novel ever written. In contemporary academia, Tolstoy

is still widely acknowledged as having possessed a gift for describing characters' unconscious motives.

He is also championed for his finesse in underscoring the role of people's everyday actions in defining

their character and purpose.

Thomas Alva Edison

Born: February 11, 1847, Milan

Died: October 18, 1931, West Orange

Born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison is the

quintessential American inventor. Before he died, he gave us the

phonograph, the transmitter for the telephone speaker, an improved

light bulb, and key elements of motion-picture apparatus, as well as

other bright inventions.

He also created the world's first industrial research laboratory. Edison

died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey.

Younger Years

Born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Alva Edison was the last of the seven children of

Samuel and Nancy Edison. Thomas's father was an exiled political activist from Canada. His mother, an

accomplished school teacher, was a major influence in Thomas’ early life. An early bout with scarlet

fever left him with hearing difficulties in both ears, a malady that would eventually leave him nearly deaf

as an adult.

In 1854, the family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where Edison attended public school for a total of

12 weeks. A hyperactive child, prone to distraction, he was deemed “difficult” by his teacher. His mother

quickly pulled him from school and taught him at home. At age 11, he showed a voracious appetite for

knowledge, reading books on a wide range of subjects. In this wide-open curriculum Edison developed a

process for self-education and learning independently that would serve him throughout his life.

Early Career

At age 12, Edison set out to put much of that education to work. He convinced his parents to let him sell

newspapers to passengers along the Grand Trunk Railroad line. Exploiting his access to the news

bulletins tele typed to the station office each day, Thomas began publishing his own small newspaper,

called the Grand Trunk Herald. The up-to-date articles were a hit with passengers. This was the first of

what would become a long string of entrepreneurial ventures where he saw a need and capitalized on

opportunity.

Edison also used his access to the railroad to conduct chemical experiments in a small laboratory he set

up in a train baggage car. During one of his experiments, a chemical fire started and the car caught fire.

The conductor rushed in and struck Thomas on the side of the head, probably furthering some of his

hearing loss. He was kicked off the train and forced to sell his newspapers at various stations along the

The man who gave us Light Bulb

route.

While he worked for the railroad, a near-tragic event turned fortuitous for the young man. After Edison

saved a three-year-old from being run over by an errant train, the child’s grateful father rewarded him

by teaching him to operate a telegraph. By age 15, he had learned enough to be employed as a

telegraph operator. For the next five years, Edison traveled throughout the Midwest as an itinerant

telegrapher, subbing for those who had gone to the Civil War. In his spare time, he read widely, studied

and experimented with telegraph technology, and became familiar with electrical science.

In 1866, at age 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, working for The Associated Press. The night

shift allowed him to spend most of his time reading and experimenting. He developed an unrestrictive

style of thinking and inquiry, proving things to himself through objective examination and

experimentation. Initially, Edison excelled at his telegraph job because early Morse code was inscribed

on a piece of paper, so Edison’s partial deafness was no handicap. However, as the technology

advanced, receivers were increasingly equipped with a sounding key, enabling telegraphers to “read”

message by the sound of the clicks.

This left Edison disadvantaged, with fewer and fewer opportunities for employment.

In 1868, Edison returned home to find his beloved mother was falling into mental illness and his father

was out of work. The family was almost destitute. Edison realized he needed to take control of his

future. Upon the suggestion of a friend, he ventured to Boston, landing a job for the Western Union

Company. At the time, Boston was America’s center for science and culture, and Edison reveled in it. In

his spare time, he designed and patented an electronic voting recorder for quickly tallying votes in the

legislature. However, Massachusetts lawmakers were not interested. As they explained, most legislators

didn’t want votes tallied quickly. They wanted time to change the minds of fellow legislators.

Becoming an Inventor

In 1869, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention, an improved stock ticker, the

Universal Stock Printer, which synchronized several stock tickers’ transactions. The Gold and Stock

Telegraph Company was so impressed, they paid him $40,000 for the rights. Edison was only 22 years

old. With this success, he quit his work as a telegrapher to devote himself full-time to inventing.

In 1870, Thomas Edison set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New

Jersey, and employed several machinists. As an independent entrepreneur, Edison formed numerous

partnerships and developed his products for the highest bidder. Often that was Western Union

Telegraph Company, the industry leader, but just as often, it was one of Western Union’s rivals. In one

such instance, Edison devised for Western Union the quadruplex telegraph, capable of transmitting two

signals in two different directions on the same wire, but railroad tycoon Jay Gouldsnatched the

invention from Western Union, paying Edison more than $100,000 in cash, bonds and stock, and

generating years of litigation.

With his ever-increasing financial success, in 1871 Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, who was an

employee at one of his businesses. During their 13-year marriage, they had three children, Marion,

Thomas and William, who became an inventor. Mary died of a suspected brain tumor at the age of 29 in

1884.

By the early 1870s, Thomas Edison had acquired a reputation as a first-rate inventor. In 1876, he moved

his expanding operations to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and built an independent industrial research

facility incorporating machine shops and laboratories. That same year, Western Union encouraged him

to develop a communication device to compete with Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. He never did.

However, in December of 1877, Edison developed a method for recording sound: the phonograph.

Though not commercially viable for another decade, the invention brought him worldwide fame.

Edison Illuminating Company

The 1880s were a busy time for Thomas Edison. After being granted a patent for the light bulb in January

1880, Edison set out to develop a company that would deliver the electricity to power and light the

cities of the world. That same year, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company—the first investor-

owned electric utility—which later became the General Electric Corporation. In 1881, he left Menlo Park

to establish facilities in several cities where electrical systems were being installed. In 1882, the Pearl

Street generating station provided 110 volts of electrical power to 59 customers in lower Manhattan. In

1884 Edison’s wife, Mary, died, and in 1886 he married Mina Miller, 19 years his junior. In 1887, Edison

built an industrial research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, which served as the primary

research laboratory for the Edison lighting companies.

He spent most of his time there, supervising the development of lighting technology and power systems.

He also perfected the phonograph, and developed the motion picture camera and the alkaline storage

battery.

Industrialist and Business Manager

During the next few decades, Edison found his role as inventor transitioning to one as industrialist and

business manager. The laboratory in West Orange was too large and complex for any one man to

completely manage, and Edison found he was not as successful in his new role as he was in his former

one. Edison also found that much of the future development and perfection of his inventions was being

conducted by university-trained mathematicians and scientists. He worked best in intimate,

unstructured environments with a handful of assistants and was outspoken about his disdain for

academia and corporate operations.

On a couple of occasions, Edison was able to turn failure into success. During the 1890s he built a

magnetic iron-ore processing plant in northern New Jersey that proved to be a commercial failure. Later,

he was able to salvage the process into a better method for producing cement. As the automobile

industry began to grow, Edison worked on developing a suitable storage battery that could power an

electric car. Eventually, the gasoline-powered engine prevailed, but in 1912 Edison designed a battery

for the self-starter on the Model T for friend and admirer Henry Ford. The system was used extensively

in the auto industry for decades.

During World War I, the U.S. government asked Thomas Edison to head the Naval Consulting Board,

which examined inventions submitted for military use. Edison worked on several projects, including

submarine detectors and gun-location techniques. However, due to his moral indignation toward

violence, he specified that he would work only on defensive weapons, later noting, “I am proud of the

fact that I never invented weapons to kill.”

By the end of the 1920s Thomas Edison was in his 80s and he slowed down somewhat, but not before

he applied for the last of his 1,093 U.S. patents, for an apparatus for holding objects during the

electroplating process. Edison and his second wife, Mina, spent part of their time at their winter retreat

in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with automobile tycoon Henry Ford flourished and he

continued to work on several projects, ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for

natural rubber.

Final Years

Thomas Edison died of complications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, in his home, “Glenmont,” in West

Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 years old. Many communities and corporations throughout the world

dimmed their lights or briefly turned off their electrical power to commemorate his passing. Edison’s

career was the quintessential rags-to-riches success story that made him a folk hero in America. An

uninhibited egoist, he could be a tyrant to employees and ruthless to competitors. Though he was a

publicity seeker, he didn’t socialize well and often neglected his family. By the time he died he was one

of the most well-known and respected Americans in the world.

He had been at the forefront of America’s first technological revolution and set the stage for the modern

electric world.

Edison, considered one of America's leading businessmen, is credited today for helping to build

America's economy during the nation's vulnerable early years.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and

looks like work."

– Thomas Edison

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits."

– Thomas Edison

Alexander Graham Bell

Born: March 3, 1847, Edinburgh

Died: August 2, 1922, Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh,

Scotland. His education was largely received through numerous

experiments in sound and the furthering of his father’s work on

Visible Speech for the deaf. Bell worked with Thomas Watson on the

design and patent of the first practical telephone. In all, Bell held 18

patents in his name alone and 12 that he shared with collaborators.

He died in 1922.

Early Life

Alexander Graham Bell was born Alexander Bell on March 3, 1847, in

Edinburgh, Scotland. (He was given the middle name "Graham" when he was 10 years old.) The second

son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds Bell, he was named for his paternal grandfather,

Alexander Bell. For most of his life, the younger Alexander was known as "Aleck" to family and friends.

He had two brothers, Melville James Bell (1845–70) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–67), both of whom

died from tuberculosis.

During his youth, Alexander Graham Bell experienced significant influences that would carry into his

adult life. One was his hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, known as the "Athens of the North," for its

rich culture of arts and science. Another was his grandfather, Alexander Bell, a well-known professor

and teacher of elocution. Alexander's mother also had a profound influence on him, being a proficient

pianist despite her deafness. This taught Alexander to look past people's disadvantages and find

solutions to help them.

Alexander Graham Bell was homeschooled by his mother, who instilled in him an infinite curiosity about

the world around him. He received one year of formal education in a private school and two years at

Edinburgh's Royal High School. Though a mediocre student, he displayed an uncommon ability to solve

problems. At age 12, while playing with a friend in a grain mill, he noted the slow process of husking the

wheat grain. He went home and built a device with rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes that

dehusked the wheat. It was his first invention.

Early Attempts to Follow His Passion

Alexander's father, Melville, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a leading authority on

elocution and speech correction. Young Alexander was groomed early to carry on in the family business,

but he was ambitious and headstrong, which conflicted with his father's overbearing manner. Then, in

The Man who gave us Telephone

1862, Alexander's grandfather became ill. Seeking to be out of his father's control, Alexander

volunteered to care for the elder Bell. The experience profoundly changed him. His grandfather

encouraged his interests, and the two developed a close relationship. The experience left him with an

appreciation for learning and intellectual pursuits, and transitioned him to manhood.

At 16, Alexander Graham Bell accepted a position at Weston House Academy in Elgin, Scotland, where

he taught elocution and music to students, many older than he. At the end of the term, Alexander

returned home and joined his father, promoting Melville Bell's technique of Visible Speech, which

taught the deaf to align specific phonetic symbols with a particular position of the speech organs (lips,

tongue, and palate).

Between 1865 and 1870, there was much change in the Bell household. In 1865, Melville Bell moved the

family to London, and Alexander returned to Weston House Academy to teach. In 1867, Alexander's

younger brother, Edward, died of tuberculosis. The following year, Alexander rejoined the family and

once again became his father's apprentice.

He soon assumed full charge of his father's London operations while Melville lectured in America. During

this time, Alexander's own health weakened, and in 1870, Alexander's older brother, Melville, Jr., also

died of complications from tuberculosis.

On his earlier trip to America, Alexander's father discovered its healthier environment, and after the

death of Melville, Jr., decided to move the family there. At first, Alexander resisted the move, for he was

beginning to establish himself in London. But realizing his own health was in jeopardy, he relented, and

in July 1870, the family settled in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. There, Alexander's health improved, and

he set up a workshop to continue his study of the human voice.

Passion for Shaping the Future

In 1871, Melville Bell, Sr. was invited to teach at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. Because the position

conflicted with his lecture tour, he recommended Alexander in his place. The younger Bell quickly

accepted. Combining his father's system of Visible Speech and some of his own methods, he achieved

remarkable success. Though the school had no funds to hire Bell for another semester, he had fallen in

love with the rich intellectual atmosphere of Boston. In 1872, he set out on his own, tutoring deaf

children in Boston. His association with two students, George Sanders and Mabel Hubbard, would set

him on a new course.

After one of his tutoring sessions with Mabel, Bell shared with her father, Gardiner, his ideas of how

several telegraph transmissions might be sent on the same wire if they were transmitted on different

harmonic frequencies. Hubbard's interest was piqued. He had been trying to find a way to improve

telegraph transmissions, which at the time could carry only one message at a time. Hubbard convinced

Thomas Sanders, the father of Bell's other student, George, to help financially back the idea.

Between 1873 and 1874, Alexander Graham Bell spent long days and nights trying to perfect the

harmonic telegraph. But his attention became sidetracked with another idea: transmitting the human

voice over wires. The diversion frustrated Gardiner Hubbard. He knew another inventor, Elisha Gray,

was working on a multiple-signal telegraph. To help Bell refocus his efforts, Hubbard hired Thomas

Watson, a skilled electrician. Watson understood how to develop the tools and instruments Bell needed

to continue the project. But Watson soon took interest in Bell's idea of voice transmission. Like many

inventors before and since, the two men formed a great partnership, with Bell as the ideas man and

Watson having the expertise to bring Bell's ideas to reality.

Through 1874 and 1875, Bell and Watson labored on both the harmonic telegraph and a voice

transmitting device. Hubbard insisted that the harmonic telegraph take precedence, but when he

discovered that the two men had conceptualized the mechanism for voice transmission, he filed a

patent. The idea was protected, for the time being, but the device still had to be developed.

On March 10, 1876, Bell and Watson were experimenting in their laboratory. Legend has it that Bell

knocked over a container of transmitting fluid and shouted, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see

you!" The more likely explanation was that Bell heard a noise over the wire and called to his assistant. In

any case, Watson heard Bell's voice through the wire and thus received the first telephone call.

To further promote the idea of the telephone, Bell conducted a series of public demonstrations, ever

increasing the distance between the two telephones. At the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, in

1876, Bell demonstrated the telephone to the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II, who exclaimed, "My

God, it talks!" Other demonstrations followed, each at a greater distance than the last. The Bell

Telephone Company was organized on July 9, 1877. With each new success, Alexander Graham Bell was

moving out of the shadow of his father.

On July 11, 1877, with his notoriety and financial potential increasing, Alexander Graham Bell married

Mabel Hubbard, his former student and the daughter of Gardiner Hubbard, his initial financial backer.

Over the course of the next year, Alexander's fame grew internationally and he and Mabel traveled to

Europe for more demonstrations. While there, the Bells' first child, Elsie May, was born. Upon their

return to the United States, Bell was summoned to Washington D.C. to defend his telephone patent

from lawsuits by others claiming they had invented the telephone or had conceived of the idea before

Bell.

Over the next 18 years, the Bell Telephone Company faced over 550 court challenges, including several

that went to the Supreme Court, but none was successful. Despite these patent battles, the company

continued to grow. Between the years 1877 and 1886, the number of people in the United States who

owned telephones grew to more than 150,000, and during this time, improvements were made on the

device, including the addition of a microphone, invented by Thomas Edison, which eliminated the need

to shout into the telephone to be heard.

Pursuing His Passion

Despite his success, Alexander Graham Bell was not a businessman. As he became more affluent, he

turned over business matters to Hubbard and turned his attention to a wide range of inventions and

intellectual pursuits. In 1880, he established the Volta Laboratory, an experimental facility devoted to

scientific discovery. There he developed a metal jacket to assist patients with lung problems,

conceptualized the process for producing methane gas from waste material, developed a metal detector

to locate bullets in bodies, and invented an audiometer to test a person's hearing. He also continued to

promote efforts to help the deaf, and in 1890, established the American Association to Promote the

Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.

In the last 30 years of his life, Bell was involved in a wide range of projects and pursued them at a

furious pace. He worked on inventions in flight (the tetrahedral kite), scientific publications

(Science magazine), and exploration of the earth (National Geographic magazine). Bell died peacefully,

with his wife by his side, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada, on August 2, 1922. The entire telephone

system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his life. Within a few months, Mabel also passed

away. Alexander Graham Bell's contribution to the modern world and its technologies was enormous.

Nikola Tesla

Born: July 10, 1856, Smiljan

Died: January 7, 1943, Manhattan

Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was born in July of 1856, in

what is now Croatia. He came to the United States in 1884, and

briefly worked with Thomas Edison before the two parted ways. He

sold several patent rights, including those to his alternating-current

machinery, to George Westinghouse. His 1891 invention, the "Tesla

coil,” is still used in radio technology today. Tesla died in New York

City on January 7, 1943.

Early Life

Famous Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in what is now Smiljan,

Croatia. Tesla's interest in electrical invention was likely spurred by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who

invented small household appliances in her spare time while her son was growing up. Tesla's father,

Milutin Tesla, was a priest. After studying in the 1870s at the Realschule, Karlstadt (later renamed the

Johann-Rudolph-Glauber Realschule Karlstadt); the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria; and the

University of Prague, Tesla began preparing for a trip to America.

Famed Inventor

Tesla came to the United States in 1884, and soon began working with famed inventor and business

mogul Thomas Edison. The two worked together for a brief periof before parting ways due to a

conflicting business-scientific relationship, attributed by historians to their incredibly different

personalities: While Edison was a power figure who focused on marketing and financial success, Tesla

was a commercially out-of-tune and somewhat vulnerable, yet extremely pivotal inventor, who

pioneered some of history's the most important inventions. His inventions include the "Tesla coil,"

developed in 1891, and an alternating-current electrical system of generators, motors and

transformers—both of which are still used widely today.

On the AC electrical system alone, Tesla held 40 basic U.S. patents, which he later sold to George

Westinghouse, an American engineer and business man who was determined to supply the nation with

the Tesla's AC system. He would succeed in doing just that, not long after purchasing Tesla's patents.

Around this time, conflict arose between Tesla and Edison, as Edison was determined to sell his direct-

current system to the nation. According to the Tesla Memorial Society of New York, Tesla-Westinghouse

ultimately won out because Tesla's system was "a superior technology," presenting greater "progress of

both America and the world" than Edison's DC system. Outside of his AC system patents, Tesla sold

several other patent rights to Westinghouse.

"Tesla coil,” Inventor

At the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, Tesla conducted demonstrations of his AC

system, which soon became the standard power system of the 20th century, and has remained the

worldwide standard ever since. Two years later, in 1895, Tesla designed the first hydroelectric

powerplant at Niagara Falls, a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world.

Around 1900—nearly a decade later after inventing the "Tesla coil"—Tesla began working on his boldest

project yet: Building a global communication system—through a large, electrical tower—for sharing

information and providing free electricity throughout the world. The system, however, never came to

fruition; it failed due to financial constraints, and Tesla had no choice but to abandon the Long Island,

New York laboratory that housed his work on the tower project, Wardenclyffe. In 1917, the

Wardenclyffe site was sold, and Tesla's tower was destroyed.

"It's a sad, sad story," Larry Page, Google's co-founder, said of Tesla in a 2008 interview

with Forbes magazine.

"[Tesla] couldn't commercialize anything. He could barely fund his own research."

In addition to his AC system, coil and tower project, throughout his career, Tesla discovered, designed

and developed ideas for a number of important inventions—most of which were officially patented by

other inventors—including dynamos (electrical generators similar to batteries) and the induction motor.

He also a pioneer in the discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology and the rotating magnetic

field—the basis of most AC machinery.

Death and Legacy

Poor and reclusive, Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86, in New York City—where he

had lived for nearly 60 years. His legacy, however, has been thriving for more than a century, and will

undoubtedly live on for decades to come.

Several books and films have highlighted Tesla's life and famous works, including Nikola Tesla, The

Genius Who Lit the World, a film created by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in

Belgrade, Serbia; and The Secret of Nikola Tesla, which stars Orson Welles as John Pierpont Morgan (J.P.

Morgan). In recent years, a street sign entitled "Nikola Tesla Corner" was installed in honor of the

famous inventor, near the 40th Street-6th Avenue intersection in New York City.

Wardenclyffe Project

Over the past several years, several nonprofit organizations, high-profile individuals, municipalities and

Tesla enthusiasts have been involved in a different kind of effort to uphold Tesla's legacy: A project to

preserve Tesla's still-standing, still-abandoned New York laboratory, Wardenclyffe, and turn it into a

museum of the famous inventor's work. For more than a decade, New York's Nikola Tesla Science Center

has been working to gain momentum and, subsequently, funding for preserving Wardenclyffe. Since

then, the lab's ownership has been passed through several hands, and public interest for the project has

slowly but steadly been growing.

Interest escalated in February 2009, when the Wardenclyffe site was posted for sale, for nearly $1.6

million. Since then, the Tesla Science Center has continued to diligently work to raise funds for the lab's

preservation. The state of New York recently acknowledged the center's efforts; awarding the center

with a $850,000 grant (the center can't officially receive the grant until it raises matching funds).

Benjamin Franklin

Born: January 17, 1706, Boston

Died: April 17, 1790, Philadelphia

Born in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin organized the Unit ed

States’ first lending library and volunteer fire department. His

scientific pursuits included investigations into electricity,

mathematics and mapmaking. He helped draft the Declaration of

Independence and the U.S Constitution, and negotiated the 1783

Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the Revolutionary War.

Early Life

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston in what was then known as the

Massachusetts Bay Colony. His father, Josiah Franklin, a soap and candle maker, had 17 children, seven

with first wife, Anne Child, and 10 with second wife Abiah Folger. Benjamin was his 15th child and the

last son.

Despite his success at the Boston Latin School, Ben was removed at 10 to work with his father at candle

making, but dipping wax and cutting wicks didn’t fire his imagination. Perhaps to dissuade him from

going to sea as one of his brothers had done, Josiah apprenticed Ben at 12 to his brother James at his

print shop. Ben took to this like a duck to water, despite his brother’s hard treatment. When James

refused to publish any of his brother’s writing, Ben adopted the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood, and

“her” 14 imaginative and witty letters were published in his brother’s newspaper, The New England

Courant, to the delight of the readership. But James was angry when it was discovered the letters were

his brother’s, and Ben abandoned his apprenticeship shortly afterward, escaping to New York, but

settling in Philadelphia, which was his home base for the rest of his life.

Franklin furthered his education in the printing trade in Philadelphia, lodging at the home of John Read

in 1723, where he met and courted Read’s daughter Deborah. Nevertheless, the following year, Franklin

left for London under the auspices of Pennsylvania Governor William Keith, but felt duped when letters

of introduction never arrived and he was forced to find work at print shops there. Once employed,

though, he was able to take full advantage of the city’s pleasures, attending theater, mingling with the

populace in coffee houses and continuing his lifelong passion for reading. He also managed to publish

his first pamphlet, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain."

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726 to find that Deborah Read had married. In the next few years

he held varied jobs such as bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter. He also fathered a son,

William, out of wedlock during this time. In late 1727, Franklin formed the “Junto,” a social and self-

improvement study group for young men, and early the next year was able to establish his own print

shop with a partner.

Prominent Citizen

After publishing another pamphlet, "The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," Franklin was able

to purchase The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss, and was elected the official

printer of Pennsylvania. He was also able to take Deborah Read as his common-law wife in 1730, after

her husband disappeared after stealing a slave. Their first son, Francis, was born in 1732 (although he

died four years later of smallpox).

Franklin’s prominence and success grew during the 1730s, especially with the publication of Poor

Richard’s Almanack at the end of 1732. Franklin amassed real estate and businesses, organized the

Union Fire Company to counteract dangerous fire hazards, established a lending library so others could

share his passion for reading, and was elected Grand Master of the Pennsylvania Masons, clerk of the

state assembly and postmaster of Philadelphia.

The 1740s saw Franklin expanding into entrepreneurship with invention of the Franklin stove, and also

into scientific pursuits. His pamphlet "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge" underscored his

interests. His beloved daughter Sarah was born in 1743. He became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia

at the age of 42, but his abiding interest in electricity was ignited at this time, too. He conducted the

famous kite-and-key experiment in 1752 after some of his theories on electricity were published in

England the previous year.

Public Service

Franklin was tapped as a foreign diplomat and represented the Pennsylvania Assembly, and

subsequently Massachusetts, Georgia and New Jersey, in England, but he continued to work toward

colonial union and in 1766 supported the repeal of the Stamp Act.

In 1775, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and as postmaster general for the

colonies, having mapped the postal routes in 1762. And in 1776, he was one of five men to draft the

Declaration of Independence. Franklin was also one of the 13 men who drafted the Articles of

Confederation.

Later Years

Much has been made of Franklin’s life in Paris as essentially the first U.S. ambassador to France, chiefly

his romantic life. Deborah, his wife of 44 years, died in 1774, two years before he accepted the post, and

Franklin had a rich romantic life in his nine years abroad. He even proposed marriage, to a widow named

Madame Helvetius, at the age of 74, but she rejected him.

Franklin was embraced in France as much, if not more, for his intellectual standing in the scientific

community and for his wit, as for his status as a political appointee from a fledging country. His

reputation facilitated respect and entrees into closed communities, including that of King Louis XVI. And

it was his adept diplomacy that led to the peace treaty with England in 1783 and other foreign alliances

and trade treaties.

After almost a decade in France, Franklin returned to America in 1785. He was elected to represent

Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention, which drafted and ratified the new U.S Constitution, and

participated in electing George Washington as the country’s first president, inaugurated in April 1789.

He also served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, wrote

many tracts urging the abolition of slavery and petitioned the U.S Congress for it in 1790.

Successes and Failures

With so many of America’s early heroes, successes take the spotlight, while failures are rarely

mentioned. But with any great entrepreneur the failures are just paving stones to the triumphs. Franklin

himself said, “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”

He took his own advice. Franklin mapped the Gulf Stream, invented swim fins, the lightning rod and

musical instruments, established colleges, and amassed scores of other accomplishments. His self-

education earned him honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oxford University in England, and the

University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

But he also began a magazine that failed, devised a new “scheme” for the alphabet that proposed to

eliminate the letters C, J, Q, W, X and Y as redundant, and made disastrous political decisions that

involved the leaking of letters, called the “Hutchinson Affair.” He also made an ill-advised

recommendation for Pennsylvania’s stamp distribution that caused the public to misconstrue where he

stood on American support. His own son William, whom he helped to achieve the governorship of New

Jersey, opposed him on the unification of the colonies, which stung Franklin to the point where he

mentioned it in his will almost 25 years later.

Franklin’s voracious capacity for knowledge, investigation and finding practical solutions to problems

was his primary focus, as was his commitment to “doing good,” which led to the concept of paying it

forward.

Death and Legacy

Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the home of his daughter,

Sarah Bache. He was 84, suffered from gout and had complained of ailments for some time, completing

the final codicil to his will a little more than a year and a half prior to his death. Franklin had actually

written his epitaph when he was 22: The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its

Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall

not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and

Corrected By the Author. In the end, however, the stone on the grave he shared with his wife read

simply, “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.”

The image of Benjamin Franklin that has come down through history, along with the image on the $100

bill, is something of a caricature—a bald man in a frock coat holding a kite string with a key attached.

But the scope of things he applied himself to was so broad it seems a shame. Founding universities and

libraries, the post office, shaping the foreign policy of the fledgling United States, drafting the

Declaration of Independence, publishing newspapers, warming us with the Franklin stove, pioneering

advances in science, letting us see with bifocals and, yes, lighting our way with electricity—all from a

man who never finished school but shaped his life through abundant reading and experience, a strong

moral compass and an unflagging commitment to civic duty, and an overall wit, good humor and

integrity. Franklin illumined corners of American life that still have the lingering glow of his attention. He

was a true polymath and entrepreneur, which is no doubt why he is often called the First American.

Perhaps it is a fitting image after all.

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."

– Benjamin Franklin

Leonardo da Vinci

Born: April 15, 1452, Vinci

Died: May 2, 1519, Clos Lucé

Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the lo ve child

of a landowner and a peasant girl. Raised by his father, he began

apprenticing at the age of 14 under the artist Verrocchio. Within six years,

he was a master artist and began taking commissions from wealthy clients.

His best-known works are two of the most famous paintings of all time, the

"Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper." Da Vinci's scientific inquiries fill 13,000

pages, ranging from anatomy to war machines.

Humble Beginnings

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy. Born out of wedlock, the love child of a

respected notary and a young peasant woman, he was raised by his father, Ser Piero, and his

stepmothers. At the age of 14, da Vinci began apprenticing with the artist Verrocchio. For six years, he

learned a wide breadth of technical skills, including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing and

sculpting. By the age of 20, he had qualified as a master artist in the Guild of Saint Luke and established

his own workshop.

Florentine court records show that da Vinci was charged with and acquitted of sodomy at the age of 22,

and for two years, his whereabouts went entirely undocumented.

'The Last Supper'

In 1482, Lorenzo de' Medici, a man from a

prominent Italian family, commissioned da Vinci

to create a silver lyre and bring it to Ludovico il

Moro, th e Duke of Milan, as a gesture of peace.

Da Vinci did so and then wrote Ludovico a letter

describing how his engineering and artistic

talents would be of great service to Ludovico's

court. His letter successfully endeared him to

Ludovico, and from 1482 until 1499, Leonardo was commissioned to work on a great many projects. It

was during this time that da Vinci painted "The Last Supper."

'Mona Lisa'

Da Vinci's most well-known painting, and arguably the most famous

painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa," was a privately commissioned work

and was co mpleted sometime between 1505 and 1507. Of the painting's

wide appeal, James Beck, an art historian at Columbia University, once

explained, "It is the inherent spirituality of the human creature that

Leonardo was able to ingenuine to the picture that raises the human figure

to some kind of majesty."

It's been said that the Mona Lisa had jaundice, that she was a pregnant

woman and that she wasn't actually a woman at all, but a man in drag.

Based on accounts from an early biographer, however, the "Mona Lisa" is a

picture of Lisa Gioconda, the real-life wife of a merchant, but that's far from certain. For da Vinci, the

"Mona Lisa" was forever a work in progress, as it was his attempt at perfection. The painting was never

delivered to its commissioner; da Vinci kept it with him until the end of his life. Today, the "Mona Lisa"

hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass, and is regarded as a

priceless national treasure.

Vitruvian Man

The Vitruvian Man is a drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa

1487. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the

architect Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper,

depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms

and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square.

The drawing and text are sometimes called theCanon of

Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is stored in the

Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and, like most works on

paper, is displayed only occasionally.

The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human

proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman

architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura.

Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source

of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture. Leonardo's

drawing is traditionally named in honor of the architect.

Renaissance Man

Da Vinci has been called a genius and the archetypal Renaissance man. His talents in arguably extended

far beyond his artistic works. Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, he did not see a divide

between science and art. His observations and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and

drawings, including designs for flying machines (some 400 years before the Wright brothers' first

success), plant studies, war machinery, anatomy and architecture. His ideas were mainly theoretical

explanations, laid out in exacting detail, but they were rarely experimental. His drawings of a fetus in

utero, the heart and vascular system, sex organs, and other bone and muscular structures, are some of

the first on human record.

One of da Vinci's last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to

reveal a bouquet of lilies. The famous artist died in Amboise, France, on May 2, 1519. Da Vinci's assistant

and perhaps his lover, Francesco Melzi, became the principal heir and executor of his estate.

"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of

what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else.

The trick is the doing something else."

– Leonardo da Vinci

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”


"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."


George Washington

Born: February 22, 1732, Westmoreland County

Died: December 14, 1799, Mount Vernon

George Washington was born on February 22 (February 11, according

to the Old Style calendar), 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Washington was an American general and commander-in-chief of the

colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–83) and,

subsequently, the first president of the United States (1789–97). He

died on December 14, 1799 in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Early Life and Family

George Washington could trace his family's presence in North America to his great-grandfather, John

Washington, who migrated from England to Virginia. The family held some distinction in England and

was granted land by Henry VIII. Much of the family’s wealth was lost during the Puritan revolution and

in 1657 George’s grandfather, Lawrence Washington, migrated to Virginia. Little information is available

about the family in North America until George’s father, Augustine, who was born in 1694.

Augustine Washington was an ambitious man who acquired land and slaves, built mills, and grew

tobacco. For a time, he had an interest in opening iron mines. He married his first wife, Jane Butler and

they had three children. Jane died in 1729 and Augustine married Mary Ball in 1731. George was the

eldest of Augustine and Mary’s six children, all of which survived into adulthood. The family lived on

Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia. They were moderately prosperous members of

Virginia's "middling class." Augustine moved the family up the Potomac River to another Washington

family home, Little Hunting Creek Plantation, (later renamed Mount Vernon) in 1735 and then moved

again in 1738 to Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, where

George Washington spent much of this youth.

Little is known about George Washington's childhood, which fostered many of the fables later

biographers manufactured to fill in the gap. Among these are the stories that Washington threw a silver

dollar across the Potomac and after chopping down his father's prize cherry tree, he openly confessed to

the crime. It is known that from age seven to fifteen, George was home schooled and studied with the

local church sexton and later a schoolmaster in practical math, geography, Latin and the English classics.

But much of the knowledge he would use the rest of his life was through his acquaintance with

backwoodsmen and the plantation foreman. By his early teens, he had mastered growing tobacco, stock

raising and surveying.

George Washington’s father died when he was 11 and he became the ward of his half-brother,

Lawrence, who gave him a good upbringing. Lawrence had inherited the family's Little Hunting Creek

Plantation and married Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax, patriarch of the well to do

Fairfax family. Under her tutorage, George was schooled in the finer aspects of colonial culture. In 1748,

when he was 16, George traveled with a surveying party plotting land in Virginia’s western territory. The

following year, aided by Lord Fairfax, Washington received an appointment as official surveyor of

Culpeper County.

For two years he was very busy surveying the land in Culpeper, Frederick and Augusta counties. The

experience made him resourceful and toughened his body and mind. It also piqued his interest in

western land holdings, an interest that endured throughout his life with speculative land purchases and

a belief that the future of the nation lay in colonizing the West.

In July, 1752, George Washington's brother, Lawrence, died of tuberculosis making him the heir

apparent of the Washington lands. Lawrence’s only child, Sarah, died two months later and Washington

became the head of one of Virginia's most prominent estates, Mount Vernon. He was 20 years old.

Throughout his life, he would hold farming as one of the most honorable professions and he was most

proud of Mount Vernon. He would gradually increase his landholdings there to about 8,000 acres.

Pre-Revolutionary Military Career

In the early 1750s, France and Britain were at peace. However, the French military had begun occupying

much of the Ohio Valley, protecting the King's land interests and fur trappers and French settlers. But

the border lands of this area were unclear and prone to dispute between the two countries. Washington

showed early signs of natural leadership and shortly after Lawrence's death, Virginia's Lieutenant

Governor, Robert Dinwiddie, appointed Washington adjutant with a rank of major in the Virginia militia.

On October 31, 1753, Dinwiddie sent Washington to Fort LeBoeuf, at what is now Waterford,

Pennsylvania, to warn the French to remove themselves from land claimed by Britain. The French

politely refused and Washington made a hasty ride back to Williamsburg, Virginia's colonial capitol.

Dinwiddie sent Washington back with troops and they set up a post at Great Meadows. Washington's

small force attacked a French post at Fort Duquesne killing the commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and

nine others and taking the rest prisoners. The French and Indian War had begun. The French counter

attacked and drove Washington and his men back to his post at Great Meadows (later named "Fort

Necessity.") After a full day siege, Washington surrendered and was soon released and returned to

Williamsburg, promising not to build another fort on the Ohio River. Though a little embarrassed at

being captured, he was grateful to receive the thanks from the House of Burgesses and see his name

mentioned in the London gazettes.

Washington was given the honorary rank of colonel and joined British General Edward Braddock's army

in Virginia in 1755. The British had devised a plan for a three-prong assault on French forces attacking

Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara and Crown Point. During the encounter, the French and their Indian allies

ambushed Braddock, who was mortally wounded. Washington escaped injury with four bullet holes in

his cloak and two horses shot out from under him. Though he fought bravely, he could do little to turn

back the rout and led the broken army back to safety. In August, 1755, Washington was made

commander of all Virginia troops at age 23. He was sent to the frontier to patrol and protect nearly 400

miles of border with some 700 ill-disciplined colonial troops and a Virginia colonial legislature unwilling

to support him.

It was a frustrating assignment. His health failed in the closing months of 1757 and he was sent home

with dysentery.

In 1758, Washington returned to duty on another expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. A friendly fire

incident took place killing fourteen and wounding 26 of Washington's men. However, the British were

able to score a major victory, capturing Fort Duquesne and control the Ohio Valley. Washington retired

from his Virginia regiment in December of 1758. His experience during the war was generally frustrating,

with decisions made excessively slow, poor support from the colonial legislature, and poorly trained

recruits. Washington applied for a commission with the British Army but was turned down. In December

1758, he resigned his commission and returned to Mount Vernon disillusioned.

A month after leaving the army, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow, who was only a

few months older than he. Martha brought to the marriage a considerable fortune: an 18,000-acre

estate, from which George personally acquired 6,000 acres. With this and land he was granted for his

military service, Washington became one of the more wealthy landowners in Virginia. The marriage also

brought Martha's two young children, John (Jacky) and Martha (Patsy), ages 6 and 4, respectively.

Washington lavished great affection on both of them, and was heartbroken when Patsy died just before

the Revolution. Jacky died during the Revolution, and George adopted two of his children.

From his retirement from the Virginia militia until the start of the Revolution, George Washington

devoted himself to the care and development of his land holdings, attending the rotation of crops,

managing livestock and keeping up with the latest scientific advances. He loved the landed gentry's life

of horseback riding, fox hunts, fishing, and cotillions. He worked six days a week, often taking off his coat

and performing manual labor with his workers. He was an innovative and responsible landowner,

breeding cattle and horses and tending to his fruit orchards. While he kept over 100 slaves, he was said

to dislike the institution, but accepted the fact that slavery was the law. He also entered politics and was

elected to Virginia's House of Burgesses in 1758.

Revolutionary leadership

Though the British Proclamation Act of 1763—prohibiting settlement beyond the Alleghenies—irritated

him and he opposed the Stamp Act of 1765, Washington did not take a leading role in the growing

colonial resistance against the British until the widespread protest of the Townshend Acts in 1767. His

letters of this period indicate he was totally opposed to the colonies declaring independence. However,

by 1767, he wasn't opposed to resisting what he believed were fundamental violations by the Crown of

the rights of Englishmen. In 1769, Washington introduced a resolution to the House of Burgesses calling

for Virginia to boycott British goods until the Acts were repealed. After the passage of the Intolerable

Acts in 1774, Washington chaired a meeting in which the Fairfax Resolves were adopted calling for the

convening of the Continental Congress and the use of armed resistance as a last resort.

He was selected a delegate to the First Continental Congress in March of 1775.

After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, the political dispute between Great Britain

and her North American colonies escalated into an armed conflict. In May, Washington traveled to the

Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia dressed in a military uniform, indicating that he was

prepared for war. On June 15, he was appointed Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the colonial

forces against Great Britain. As was his custom, he did not seek out the office of commander, but he

faced no serious competition.

Washington was the best choice for a number of reasons: he had the prestige, military experience and

charisma for the job and he had been advising Congress for months. Another factor was political. The

Revolution had started in New England and at the time, they were the only colonies that had directly felt

the blunt of British tyranny. Virginia was the largest British colony and deserved recognition and New

England needed Southern support.

Political considerations and force of personality aside, George Washington was not necessarily qualified

to wage war on the world's most powerful nation. Washington's training and experience were primarily

in frontier warfare involving small numbers of soldiers. He wasn't trained in the open-field style of battle

practiced by the commanding British generals. He had no practical experience maneuvering large

formations of infantry, commanding cavalry or artillery, or maintaining the flow of supplies for

thousands of men in the field. But he was courageous and determined and smart enough to keep one

step ahead of the enemy.

Washington and his small army did taste victory early in March of 1776 by placing artillery above

Boston, on Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to withdraw. Washington then moved his troops into

New York City. But in June, a new British commander, Sir William Howe, arrived in the Colonies with the

largest expeditionary force Britain had ever deployed to date. In August of 1776, the British army

launched an attack and quickly took New York City in the largest battle of the war. Washington's army

was routed and suffered the surrender of 2,800 men. He ordered the remains of his army to retreat

across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Confident the war would be over in a few months, General

Howe wintered his troops at Trenton and Princeton, leaving Washington free to attack at the time and

place of his choosing.

On Christmas night, 1776, Washington and his men crossed the Delaware River and attacked

unsuspecting Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, forcing their surrender. A few days later, evading a force

that had been sent to destroy his army, Washington attacked the British again, this time at Princeton,

dealing them a humiliating loss.

Winning Independence

General Howe's strategy was to capture colonial cities and stop the rebellion at key economic and

political centers.

He never abandoned the belief that once the Americans were deprived of their major cities, the

rebellion would wither. In the summer of 1777, he mounted an offensive against Philadelphia. George

Washington moved in his army to defend the city and was defeated at the Battle of Brandywine.

Philadelphia fell two weeks later.

In the late summer of 1777, the British army sent a major force, under the command of John Burgoyne,

south from Quebec to Saratoga, New York, to split off the rebellion in New England. But the strategy

backfired, as Burgoyne became trapped by the American armies led by Horatio Gates and Benedict

Arnold, at the Battle of Saratoga. Without support from Howe, who couldn't reach him in time, he was

forced to surrender his entire 6,200 man army. The victory was a major turning point in the war as it

encouraged France to openly ally itself with the American cause for independence.

Through all of this, Washington discovered an important lesson: The political nature of war was just as

important as the military one. Washington began to understand that military victories were not as

important as keeping the resistance alive. Americans began to believe that they could meet their

objective of independence without defeating the British army. On the other hand, British General Howe

clung to the strategy of capturing colonial cities in hopes of smothering the rebellion. He didn't realize

that capturing cities like Philadelphia and New York would not unseat colonial power. The Congress

would just pack up and meet elsewhere.

The darkest time for Washington and the Continental Army was during the winter of 1777 at Valley

Forge, Pennsylvania. The 11,000-man force went into winter quarters and over the next six months

suffered thousands of deaths, mostly from disease. But the army emerged from the winter still intact

and in relatively good order. Realizing their strategy of capturing Colonial cities had failed, the British

command replaced General Howe with Sir Henry Clinton. The British army evacuated Philadelphia to

return to New York City. Washington and his men delivered several quick blows to the moving army,

attacking the British flank near Monmouth Courthouse. Though a tactical standoff, the encounter

proved Washington's army capable of open field battle.

For the remainder of the war, George Washington was content to keep the British confined to New York,

although he never totally abandoned the idea of retaking the city. The alliance with France had brought

a large French army and a navy fleet. Washington and his French counterparts decided to let Clinton be

and attack British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Facing the combined French and

Colonial armies and the French fleet of 29 warships at his back, Cornwallis held out as long as he could,

but on October 19, 1781, he surrendered his forces.

George Washington had no way of knowing the Yorktown victory would bring the war to a close. The

British still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston, and Savannah and a large fleet of

warships in the Colonies.

By 1782, the French army and navy had departed, the Continental treasury was depleted, and most of

his soldiers hadn’t been paid for several years. A near mutiny was avoided when Washington convinced

Congress to grant a five-year bonus for soldiers in March of 1783. By November of 1783, the British had

evacuated New York City and other cities and the war was essentially over. The Americans had won their

independence. Washington formally bade his troops farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned is

commission as commander-in-chief of the army and returned to Mount Vernon.

For four years, George Washington attempted to fulfill his dream of resuming life as a gentleman farmer

and to give his much-neglected plantation the care and attention it deserved. The war had been costly

to the Washington family with lands neglected, no exports of goods, and the depreciation of paper

money. But Washington was able to repair his fortunes with a generous land grant from Congress for his

military service and become profitable once again.

Presidency

In 1787, Washington was again called to the duty of his country. Since independence, the young republic

had been struggling under the Articles of Confederation, a structure of government that centered power

with the states. But the states were not unified. They fought among themselves over boundaries and

navigation rights and refused to contribute to paying off the nation's war debt. In some instances, state

legislatures imposed tyrannical tax policies on their own citizens. Washington was intensely dismayed at

the state of affairs, but only slowly came to the realization that something should be done about it.

Perhaps he wasn't sure the time was right so soon after the Revolution to be making major adjustments

to the democratic experiment. Or perhaps because he hoped he would not be called upon to serve, he

remained noncommittal. But when Shays's rebellion erupted in Massachusetts, Washington knew

something needed to be done to improve the nation’s government. In 1786, Congress approved a

convention to be held in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation.

At the Constitution Convention, Washington was unanimously chosen as president. Among others, such

as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Washington had come to the conclusion that it wasn't

amendments that were needed, but a new constitution that would give the national government more

authority. He spoke but once during the proceedings, but he lobbied hard with his fellow delegates in

the afterhours for major changes in the structure of government. In the end, the Convention produced a

plan for government that not only would address the country's current problems, but would endure

through time. After the convention adjourned, Washington's reputation and support for the new

government were indispensable to the Constitution’s ratification. Opposition was strident, if not

organized, with many of America's leading political figures—such as Patrick Henry and Sam Adams—

condemning the proposed government as a grab for power.

Even in Washington's native Virginia, the Constitution was ratified by only one vote.

Still hoping to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon, Washington was once again called upon to serve this

country. During the presidential election of 1789, he received a vote from every elector to the Electoral

College, the only president in American history to be elected by unanimous approval. He took the oath

of office at Federal Hall in New York City, the capital of the United States at the time. As the first

president, Washington was astutely aware that his presidency would set a precedent for all that would

follow. He carefully attended to the responsibilities and duties of his office, remaining vigilante to not

emulate any European royal court. To that end, he preferred the title "Mr. President," instead of more

imposing names that were suggested. At first he declined the $25,000 salary Congress offered the office

of the presidency, for he was already wealthy and wanted to protect his image as a selfless public

servant. However, Congress persuaded him to accept the compensation to avoid giving the impression

that only wealthy men could serve as president.

George Washington proved to be an able administrator. He surrounded himself with some of the most

capable people in the country, appointing Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury and Thomas

Jefferson as Secretary of State. He delegated authority wisely and consulted regularly with his cabinet

listening to their advice before making a decision. Washington established broad-ranging presidential

authority, but always with the highest integrity, exercising power with restraint and honesty. In doing

so, he set a standard rarely met by his successors, but one that established an ideal by which all are

judged.

During his first term, Washington adopted a series of measures proposed by Treasury Secretary

Hamilton to reduce the nation's debt and place its finances on sound footing. His administration

established several peace treaties with Native American tribes and approved a bill establishing the

nation's capital in a permanent district along the Potomac River. In 1791, Washington signed a bill

authorizing Congress to place a tax on distilled spirits, which stirred protests in rural areas of

Pennsylvania. Quickly, the protests turned into a full-scale defiance of federal law known as the Whiskey

Rebellion. Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792, summoning local militias from several states to

put down the rebellion. Washington personally took command, marching the troops into the areas of

rebellion and demonstrating that the federal government would use force, when necessary, to enforce

the law.

In foreign affairs, Washington took a cautious approach, realizing that the weak, young nation could not

succumb to Europe's political intrigues. In 1793, France and Great Britain were once again at war. At the

urging of Alexander Hamilton, Washington disregarded the U.S. alliance with France and pursued a

course of neutrality.

In 1794, he sent John Jay to Britain to negotiate a treaty (known as the "Jay Treaty") to secure a peace

with Britain and clear up some issues held over from the Revolutionary War.

The action infuriated Thomas Jefferson, who supported the French and felt that the U.S. needed to

honor its treaty obligations. Washington was able to mobilize public support for the treaty, which

proved decisive in securing ratification in the Senate. Though controversial, the treaty proved beneficial

to the United States by removing British forts along the western frontier, establishing a clear boundary

between Canada and the United States, and most importantly, delaying a war with Britain and providing

over a decade of prosperous trade and development the fledgling country so desperately needed.

All through his two terms as president, Washington was dismayed at the growing partisanship within

government and the nation. The power bestowed on the federal government by the Constitution made

for important decisions, and people joined together to influence those decisions. The formation of

political parties at first were influenced more by personality than by issues.

As Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton pushed for a strong national government and an economy

built in industry. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson desired to keep government small and center

power more at the local level, where citizen's freedom could be better protected. He envisioned an

economy based on farming. Those who followed Hamilton's vision took the name Federalists and people

who opposed those ideas and tended to lean toward Jefferson’s view began calling themselves

Democratic-Republicans. Washington despised political partisanship, believing that ideological

differences should never become institutionalized. He strongly felt that political leaders should be free

to debate important issues without being bound by party loyalty. However, Washington could do little

to slow the development of political parties. The ideals promoted by Hamilton and Jefferson produced a

two-party system that proved remarkably durable. These opposing viewpoints represented a

continuation of the debate over the proper role of government, a debate that began with the

conception of the Constitution and continues today.

Washington's administration was not without its critics who questioned what they saw as extravagant

conventions in the office of the president. During his two terms, Washington rented the best houses

available and was driven in a coach drawn by four horses, with outriders and lackeys in rich uniforms.

After being overwhelmed by callers, he announced that except for the scheduled weekly reception open

to all, he would only see people by appointment. Washington entertained lavishly, but in private dinners

and receptions at invitation only. He was, by some, accused of conducting himself like a king. However,

ever mindful his presidency would set the precedent for those to follow, he was careful to avoid the

trappings of a monarchy.

At public ceremonies, he did not appear in a military uniform or the monarchical robes. Instead, he

dressed in a black velvet suit with gold buckles and powdered hair, as was the common custom. His

reserved manner was more due to inherent reticence than any excessive sense of dignity.

Retirement and Legacy

Desiring to return to Mount Vernon and his farming, and feeling the decline of his physical powers with

age, Washington refused to yield to the pressures to serve a third term, even though he would probably

not have faced any opposition. By doing this, he was again mindful of the precedent of being the "first

president," and chose to establish a peaceful transition of government.

In the last months of his presidency, Washington felt he needed to give his country one last measure of

himself. With the help of Alexander Hamilton, he composed his Farewell Address to the American

people, which urged his fellow citizens to cherish the Union and avoid partisanship and permanent

foreign alliances. In March 1797, he turned over the government to John Adams and returned to Mount

Vernon, determined to live his last years as a simple gentleman farmer. His last official act was to pardon

the participants in the Whiskey Rebellion.

Upon returning to Mount Vernon in the spring of 1797, Washington felt a reflective sense of relief and

accomplishment. He had left the government in capable hands, at peace, its debts well-managed, and

set on a course of prosperity. He devoted much of his time to tending the farm's operations and

management. Although he was perceived to be wealthy, his land holdings were only marginally

profitable. During his long absence, the plantation had not been productive, and there was much work

to be done. On a cold December day in 1799, Washington spent much of it inspecting the farm on

horseback in a driving snowstorm. When he returned home, he hastily ate his supper in his wet clothes

and then went to bed. The next morning, on December 13, he awoke with a severe sore throat and

became increasingly hoarse. He retired early, but awoke around 3 a.m. and told Martha that he felt sick.

The illness progressed until he died late in the evening of December 14, 1799. The news of his death

spread throughout the country, plunging the nation into a deep mourning. Many towns and cities held

mock funerals and presented hundreds of eulogies to honor their fallen hero. When the news of this

death reached Europe, the British fleet paid tribute to his memory, and Napoleon ordered ten days of

mourning.

Washington could have been a king. Instead, he chose to be a citizen. He set many precedents for the

national government and the presidency: The two-term limit in office, only broken once by Franklin

Roosevelt, and then later ensconced in the Constitution's 22nd Amendment. He crystallized the power

of the presidency as a part of the government’s three branches, able to exercise authority when

necessary, but also accept the balance of power inherent in the system. He was not only considered a

military and revolutionary hero, but a man of great personal integrity, with a deep sense of duty, honor,

and patriotism. For over 200 years, Washington has been acclaimed as indispensible to the success of

the Revolution and the birth of the nation. But his most important legacy may be that he insisted he was

dispensable, asserting that the cause of liberty was larger than any single individual.

"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that

honesty is the best policy."

– George Washington

"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable

stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions."

– George Washington

The Wright Brothers

Wilbur Wright

Born in Indiana in 1867, Wilbur Wright was the elder brother of Orville,

with whom he developed the world's first successful airplane. The

Wright brothers are considered the fathers of modern aviation.

Early Life

Flight pioneer, Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867, near Millville,

Indiana. He was the middle child in a family of five children. His father,

Milton Wright, was a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in

Christ. His mother was Susan Catherine Koerner. As a child Wilbur's

playmate was his younger brother, Orville, born in 1871.

Milton Wright's preaching took him on the road frequently, and he often brought back small toys for his

children. In 1878 he brought back a small model helicopter for his boys. Made of cork, bamboo and

paper, and powered by a rubber band to twirl its blades, the model was based on a design by the French

aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud. Fascinated by the toy and its mechanics, Wilbur and Orville

would develop a lifelong love of aeronautics and flying.

Wilbur was a bright and studious child, and excelled in school. His personality was outgoing and robust,

and he made plans to attend Yale University after high school. In the winter of 1885-86, an accident

changed the course of Wilbur's life. He was badly injured in an ice hockey game, when another player's

stick hit him in the face.

Though most of his injuries healed, the incident plunged Wilbur into a depression. He did not receive his

high school diploma, canceled plans for college, and retreated to his family’s home. Wilbur spent much

of this period at home, reading books in his family’s library, and caring for his ailing mother. Susan

Koerner died in 1889 of tuberculosis.

In 1889 the brothers started their own newspaper, the West Side News. Wilbur edited the paper, and

Orville was the publisher. The brothers also shared a passion for bicycles- a new craze that was

sweeping the country. In 1892 Wilbur and Orville opened a bike shop, fixing bicycles and selling their

own design.

Developing the Airplane

Always working on different mechanical projects and keeping up with scientific research, the Wright

brothers closely followed the research of German aviator Otto Lilienthal. When Lilienthal died in a glider

crash, the brothers decided to start their own experiments with flight. Determined to develop their own

successful design, Wilbur and Orville headed to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, known for its strong winds.

Wilbur and Orville set to work trying to figure out how to design wings for flight. They observed that

birds angled their wings for balance and control, and tried to emulate this, developing a concept called

"wing warping." When they added a moveable rudder, the Wright brothers found they had the magic

formula-on December 17, 1903, they succeeded in flying the first free, controlled flight of a power-

driven, heavier than air plane. Wilbur flew their plane for 59 seconds, at 852 feet, an extraordinary

achievement.

The Wright brothers soon found that their success was not appreciated by all. Many in the press, as well

as fellow flight experts, were reluctant to believe the brothers' claims at all. As a result, Wilbur set out

for Europe in 1908, where he hoped he would have more success convincing the public and selling

airplanes.

Fame

In France Wilbur found a much more receptive audience. He made many public flights, and gave rides to

officials, journalists and statesmen. In 1909 Orville joined his brother in Europe, as did their younger

sister Katharine. The Wrights became huge celebrities there, hosted by royals and heads of state, and

constantly featured in the press. The Wrights began to sell their airplanes in Europe, before returning to

the United States in 1909. The brothers became wealthy businessmen, filling contracts for airplanes in

Europe and the United States.

Wilbur and Orville always took shared credit for their innovations, and maintained a close relationship

throughout their lives. Behind the scenes, however, there was a division of labor. With his sharp

instincts, Wilbur was the business mind and executive of the operation, serving as president of the

Wright company.

Death and Legacy

Wilbur fell ill on a trip to Boston in April 1912. He was diagnosed with typhoid fever, and died on May 30

at his family home in Dayton, Ohio. Milton Wright wrote in his diary, "A short life, full of consequences.

An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right

clearly, pursuing it steadfastly, he lived and died."

Orville Wright

Born in Ohio in 1871, Orville Wright and his elder brother, Wilbur,

were the inventors of the world's first successful airplane. Orville

became famous as a father of modern aviation, a and developed

technology for the United States Army.

Early Life

Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, one of

five children of Susan Catherine Koerner, and Milton Wright, a bishop

in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

Orville's father was a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in

Christ. As a child Orville was a mischievous and curious boy, and his family encouraged his intellectual

development. "We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much

encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity,"

Orville wrote in his memoirs.

Milton Wright traveled often for his church work, and in 1878 he brought home a toy helicopter for his

boys. Based on an invention by French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud, it was made of cork,

bamboo and paper, and used a rubber band to twirl its twin blades. Orville and his brother were

fascinated by the toy, and a lifelong passion for aeronautics was born.

The Wright family moved to Richmond, Indiana, in 1881. In Richmond, Orville developed a love of kites,

and started making his own at home. By 1887 the family was back in Ohio, where Orville enrolled at

Dayton Central High School. Never especially studious, Orville was more interested in hobbies outside

the classroom. He dropped out in his junior year of high school, and opened a print shop. He had

worked in a print shop during the summer, and now designed his own printing press. In 1889 he began

publishing the West Side News, a weekly paper for West Dayton. Wilbur was the paper’s editor.

That same year, tragedy struck the Wright family. Orville's mother, Susan Catherine Koerner Wright,

died after a long bout of tuberculosis. With her mother gone, Orville's sister Katharine took on the

responsibilities of maintaining the household. The bond between Orville, Katharine, and Wilbur was a

strong one, and the siblings remained a close trio throughout their lives.

Inventing the Airplane

After their mother's death, Orville and his brother dedicated themselves to another shared interest,

bicycles. A new, safer design had set off a bicycle craze across the country. The brothers opened a

bicycle shop in 1892, selling and fixing bikes. In 1896 they started manufacturing their own design.

Orville invented a self-oiling wheel hub for their popular bikes.

Always curious about aeronautics, Orville and Wilbur followed the latest flying news. When the famous

German aviator Otto Lilienthal, whose research they had studied, died in a glider crash, the Wright

brothers were convinced that with better designs, human flight was possible. The brothers took their

work to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where heavy winds were more conducive to flying.

Orville and Wilbur started experimenting with wings. They observed that birds angled their wings to

balance and control their bodies during flight. Utilizing their concept of "wing warping" and the

moveable rudder, the brothers developed a design that had eluded all those who came before them.

On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers succeeded in flying the first free, controlled flight of a

power-driven, heavier than air plane. Of four flights they made that day, the longest was 59 seconds,

and reached a height of 852 feet.

Fame

News of the Wrights’ feat was met with early skepticism. After funding a number of failed flying

experiments, the United States government was reluctant to back their work. When Wilbur set sail for

Europe, Orville headed to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate their flying machine in the hope of winning

government and army contracts. In July 1909, Orville completed the demonstration flights for the U.S.

Army, who had demanded a passenger seat be built in the plane. The Wright brothers sold the plane for

$30,000.

Their extraordinary success led to contracts in Europe and the United States, and the Wright brothers

became wealthy business owners. They started building a grand family home in Dayton, where they

spent much of their childhood.

On May 25, 1910, Orville flew for six minutes-with Wilbur as his passenger. It was the first and only flight

the brothers would make together. The same day, Orville took his 82-year-old father out, for the first

and only flight of his life.

In 1912 Wilbur died of typhoid fever. Without his brother and business partner, Orville had to take on

the presidency of the Wright company. Unlike his brother, though, he cared little for the business side of

their work, and sold the company in 1915.

Later Life and Death

Orville spent the last three decades of his life serving on boards and committees related to aeronautics,

including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, predecessor to NASA. He cut off

communication with his sister, Katherine, when she married in 1926. Neither Orville nor Wilbur ever

married, and he was greatly upset by his sister’s choice. In 1929 he had to be persuaded to visit

Katharine at her deathbed.

On January 30, 1948, Orville died after a second heart attack. He is buried at the Wright family plot in

Dayton, Ohio.

Albert Einstein

Born: March 14, 1879, Ulm

Died: April 18, 1955, Princeton

Born in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany in 1879, Albert Einstein

developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he

won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of the

photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most

influential physicist of the 20th century. He died on April 18, 1955, in

Princeton, New Jersey.

Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and the

most influential physicist of the 20th century. While best known for

his mass–energy Equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed

"the world's most famous equation")

Early Life

Born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany, Albert Einstein grew up in a secular, middle-

class Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer who, with his brother,

founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment

in Munich, Germany. His mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. Einstein had one

sister, Maja, born two years after him.

Einstein attended elementary school at the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich, where he excelled in his

studies. He enjoyed classical music and played the violin. However, he felt alienated and struggled with

the rigid Prussian education he received there. He also experienced a speech difficulty, a slow cadence

in his speaking where he’d pause to consider what to say next. In later years, Einstein would write about

two events that had a marked effect on his childhood. One was an encounter with a compass at age five,

where he marveled at the invisible forces that turned the needle. The other was at age 12, when he

discovered a book of geometry which he read over and over.

In 1889, the Einstein family invited a poor medical Polish medical student, Max Talmud to come to their

house for Thursday evening meals. Talmud became an informal tutor to young Albert, introducing him

to higher mathematics and philosophy. One of the books Talmud shared with Albert was a children’s

science book in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity that was traveling inside a

telegraph wire. Einstein began to wonder what a light beam would look like if you could run alongside it

at the same speed. If light were a wave, then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen

wave. Yet, in reality, the light beam is moving. This paradox led him to write his first "scientific paper" at

age 16, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields." This question of the relative speed

to the stationary observer and the observer moving with the light was a question that would dominate

his thinking for the next 10 years.

In 1894, Hermann Einstein’s company failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich

and he was forced to move his family to Milan, Italy. Albert was left at a boarding house in Munich to

finish his education at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Alone, miserable, and repelled by the looming prospect

of military duty when he turned of age, Albert withdrew from school using a doctor’s note to excuse him

and made his way to Milan to join his parents. His parents sympathized with his feelings, but were

concerned about the enormous problems that he would face as a school dropout and draft dodger with

no employable skills.

Fortunately, Einstein was able to apply directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (Swiss

Federal Polytechnic School) in Zürich, Switzerland. Lacking the equivalent of a high school diploma, he

failed much of the entrance exam but got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics. Because of

this, he was admitted to the school provided he complete his formal schooling first. He went to a special

high school run by Jost Winteler in Aarau, Switzerland, and graduated in 1896 at age 17. He became

lifelong friends with the Winteler family, with whom he had been boarding, and fell in love with

Wintelers' daughter, Marie. At this time, Einstein renounced his German citizenship to avoid military

service and enrolled at the Zurich school.

Marriage and Family

Einstein would recall that his years in Zurich were some of the happiest of his life. He met many students

who would become loyal friends, such as Marcel Grossmann, a mathematician, and Michele Besso, with

whom he enjoyed lengthy conversations about space and time. He also met his future wife, Mileva

Maric, a fellow physics student from Serbia.

After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute, Albert Einstein faced a series of life crises over the next

few years. Because he liked to study on his own, he cut classes and earned the animosity of some of his

professors. One in particular, Heinrich Weber, wrote a letter of recommendation at Einstein’s request

that led to him being turned down for every academic position that he applied to after graduation.

Meanwhile, Einstein's relationship with Maric deepened, but his parents vehemently opposed the

relationship citing her Serbian background and Eastern Orthodox Christian religion. Einstein defied his

parents and continued to see Maric. In January, 1902, the couple had a daughter, Lieserl, who either

died of sickness or was given up for adoption—the facts are unkown.

At this point, Albert Einstein probably reached the lowest point in his life. He could not marry Maric and

support a family without a job, and his father's business had gone bankrupt. Desperate and

unemployed, Einstein took lowly jobs tutoring children, but he was unable to hold on to any of them. A

turning point came later in 1902, when the father of his lifelong friend, Marcel Grossman, recommended

him for a position as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern, Switzerland. About this time, Einstein’s

father became seriously ill and just before he died, gave his blessing for him to marry. With a small but

steady income, Einstein married Maric on Jan. 6, 1903. In May, 1904 they had their first son, Hans

Albert. Their second son, Eduard, were born in 1910.

Miracle Year

At the patent office, Albert Einstein evaluated patent applications for electromagnetic devices. He

quickly mastered the job, leaving him time to ponder on the transmission of electrical signals and

electrical-mechanical synchronization, an interest he had been cultivating for several years. While at the

polytechnic school he had studied Scottish physicist James Maxwell's electromagnetic theories which

describe the nature of light, and discovered a fact unknown to Maxwell himself, that the speed of light

remained constant. However, this violated Isaac Newton's laws of motion because there is no absolute

velocity in Newton's theory. This insight led Einstein to formulate the principle of relativity.

In 1905—often called Einstein's "miracle year"—he submitted a paper for his doctorate and had four

papers published in the Annalen der Physik, one of the best known physics journals. The four papers—

the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of matter and

energy—would alter the course of modern physics and bring him to the attention of the academic

world.

In his paper on matter and energy, Einstein deduced the well-known equation E=mc2, suggesting that

tiny particles of matter could be converted into huge amounts of energy, foreshadowing the

development of nuclear power. There have been claims that Einstein and his wife, Maric, collaborated

on his celebrated 1905 papers, but historians of physics who have studied the issue find no evidence

that she made any substantive contributions. In fact, in the papers, Einstein only credits his

conversations with Michele Besso in developing relativity.

At first Einstein's 1905 papers were ignored by the physics community. This began to change when he

received the attention of Max Planck, perhaps the most influential physicist of his generation and

founder of quantum theory. With Planck’s complimentary comments and his experiments that

confirmed his theories, Einstein was invited to lecture at international meetings and he rose rapidly in

the academic world. He was offered a series of positions at increasingly prestigious institutions,

including the University of Zürich, the University of Prague, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,

and finally the University of Berlin, where he served as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for

Physics from 1913 to 1933.

As his fame spread, Einstein's marriage fell apart. His constant travel and intense study of his work, the

arguments about their children and the family’s meager finances led Einstein to the conclusion that his

marriage was over. Einstein began an affair with a cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, whom he later married. He

finally divorced Mileva in 1919 and as a settlement agreed to give her the money he might receive if he

ever won a Nobel Prize.

Theory of Relativity

In November, 1915, Einstein completed the general theory of relativity, which he considered his

masterpiece. He was convinced that general relativity was correct because of its mathematical beauty

and because it accurately predicted the perihelion of Mercury's orbit around the sun, which fell short in

Newton’s theory. General relativity theory also predicted a measurable deflection of light around the

sun when a planet or another sun oribited near the sun. That prediction was confirmed in observations

by British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington during the solar eclipse of 1919. In 1921, Albert Einstein

received word that he had received the Nobel Prize for Physics. Because relativity was still considered

controversial, Einstein received the award for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.

In the 1920s, Einstein launched the new science of cosmology. His equations predicted that the universe

is dynamic, ever expanding or contracting. This contradicted the prevailing view that the universe was

static, a view that Einstein held earlier and was a guiding factor in his development of the general theory

of relativity. But his later calculations in the general theory indicated that the universe could be

expanding or contracting. In 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble found that the universe was indeed

expanding, thereby confirming Einstein's work.

In 1930, during a visit to the Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles, Einstein met with Hubble and

declared the cosmological constant, his original theory of the static size and shape of the universe, to be

his "greatest blunder."

While Einstein was touring much of the world speaking on his theories in the 1920s, the Nazis were

rising to power under the leadership of Adolph Hitler. Einstein’s theories on relativity became a

convenient target for Nazi propaganda. In 1931, the Nazi’s enlisted other physicists to denounce Einstein

and his theories as "Jewish physics." At this time, Einstein learned that the new German government,

now in full control by the Nazi party, had passed a law barring Jews from holding any official position,

including teaching at universities. Einstein also learned that his name was on a list of assassination

targets, and a Nazi organization published a magazine with Einstein's picture and the caption "Not Yet

Hanged" on the cover.

Move to the United States

In December, 1932, Einstein decided to leave Germany forever. He took a position a the newly formed

Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, which soon became a Mecca for physicists from

around the world. It was here that he would spend the rest of his career trying to develop a unified field

theory—an all-embracing theory that would unify the forces of the universe, and thereby the laws of

physics, into one framework—and refute the accepted interpretation of quantum physics. Other

European scientists also fled various countries threatened by Nazi takeover and came to the United

States. Some of these scientists knew of Nazi plans to develop an atomic weapon. For a time, their

warnings to Washington, D.C. went unheeded.

In the summer of 1939, Einstein, along with another scientist, Leo Szilard, was persuaded to write a

letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to alert him of the possibility of a Nazi bomb. President

Roosevelt could not risk the possibility that Germany might develop an atomic bomb first. The letter is

believed to be the key factor that motivated the United States to investigate the development of nuclear

weapons. Roosevelt invited Einstein to meet with him and soon after the United States initiated the

Manhattan Project.

Not long after he began his career at the Institute in New Jersey, Albert Einstein expressed an

appreciation for the "meritocracy" of the United States and the right people had to think what they

pleased—something he didn’t enjoy as a young man in Europe. In 1935, Albert Einstein was granted

permanent residency in the United States and became an American citizen in 1940. As the Manhattan

Project moved from drawing board to testing and development at Los Alamos, New Mexico, many of his

colleagues were asked to develop the first atomic bomb, but Eisenstein was not one of them. According

to several researchers who examined FBI files over the years, the reason was the U.S. government didn't

trust Einstein's lifelong association with peace and socialist organizations.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover went so far as to recommend that Einstein be kept out of America by the

Alien Exclusion Act, but he was overruled by the U.S. State Department. Instead, during the war, Einstein

helped the U.S. Navy evaluate designs for future weapons systems and contributed to the war effort by

auctioning off priceless personal manuscripts. One example was a handwritten copy of his 1905 paper

on special relativity which sold for $6.5 million, and is now located in the Library of Congress.

On August 6, 1945, while on vacation, Einstein heard the news that an atomic bomb had been dropped

on Hiroshima, Japan. He soon became involved in an international effort to try to bring the atomic bomb

under control, and in 1946, he formed the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists with physicist Leo

Szilard. In 1947, in an article that he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly, Einstein argued that the United

States should not try to monopolize the atomic bomb, but instead should supply the United Nations

with nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of maintaining a deterrent. At this time, Einstein also became

a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He corresponded with

civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and actively campaigned for the rights of African Americans.

After the war, Einstein continued to work on many key aspects of the theory of general relativity, such

as wormholes, the possibility of time travel, the existence of black holes, and the creation of the

universe. However, he became increasingly isolated from the rest of the physics community. With the

huge developments in unraveling the secrets of atoms and molecules, spurred on by the development

to the atomic bomb, the majority of scientists were working on the quantum theory, not relativity.

Another reason for Einstein's detachment from his colleagues was his obsession with discovering his

unified field theory. In the 1930s, Einstein engaged in a series of historic private debates with Niels Bohr,

the originator of the Bohr atomic model. In a series of "thought experiments," Einstein tried to find

logical inconsistencies in the quantum theory, but was unsuccessful. However, in his later years, he

stopped opposing quantum theory and tried to incorporate it, along with light and gravity, into the

larger unified field theory he was developing.

In the last decade of his life, Einstein withdrew from public life, rarely traveling far and confining himself

to long walks around Princeton with close associates, whom he engaged in deep conversations about

politics, religion, physics and his unified field theory.

In 1926, Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd co-invented (and in 1930, patented) the Einstein

refrigerator.

Einsteinium is a synthetic element with the symbol Es and atomic number 99 and it is named after

Einstein.

Final Years

On April 17, 1955, while working on a speech he was preparing to commemorate Israel's 17th

anniversary, Einstein suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and experienced internal bleeding.

He was taken to the University Medical Center at Princeton for treatment, but refused surgery, believing

that he had lived his life and was content to accept his fate. Einstein died at the university medical

center early the next morning—April 18, 1955—at the age of 76.

During the autopsy, Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein's brain, seemingly without the permission

of his family, for preservation and future study by doctors of neuroscience. His remains were cremated

and his ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location. After decades of study, Einstein's brain is now

located at the Princeton University Medical Center.

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,

but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

– Albert Einstein