Yellapragada Subbarao

Born On: January 12, 1895
Born In: Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh
Died On: August 9, 1948
Career: Biochemist
Nationality: Indian

"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

Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar

Born - 21 February 1894
Died - 1 January 1955

Achievements - 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 hold the credit of building 12 national laboratories like Central Food Processing Technological Institute at Mysore, National Chemical Laboratory at Pune and so on. 

Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar was a distinguished Indian scientist. He was born on 21 February 1894 at Shahpur, which is located in Pakistan in present times. His father passed away sometime after the birth of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. As such, he spent his childhood days with his maternal grandfather who was an engineer and it was here that he developed an interest in science and engineering. Read on this biography to know more about the life and professional history of Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar. 

As a child, Bhatnagar loved to construct mechanical toys. In the home of his maternal family, he also developed an interest in writing poetry and his one act play in Urdu '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. 

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, which is still sung with great pride before any function in his university. 

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru himself was an advocate of scientific development. After India gained freedom from British rule in 1947, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was established under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhatnagar, who was appointed its first director-general. In the coming years, he set up 12 national laboratories like Central Food Processing Technological Institute at Mysore, National Chemical Laboratory at Pune, the National Metallurgical Laboratory at Jamshedpur and many others.

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C.V. Raman

Born: November 7, 1888
Died: November 21, 1970

Achievements: He was the first Indian scholar who studied wholly in India received the Nobel Prize. 

C.V. Raman is one of the most renowned scientists produced by India. His full name was Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. For his pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. 

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.

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 was offered the position of Sir Taraknath Palit Professorship of Physics at Calcutta University. He stayed there for the next fifteen years. During his tenure there, he received world wide recognition for his work in optics and scattering of light. He was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1924 and the British made him a knight of the British Empire in 1929. In 1930, Sir C.V. Raman was awarded with Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on scattering of light. The discovery was later christened as "Raman Effect".

In 1934, C.V. Raman became the director of the newly established Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore, where two years later he continued as a professor of physics. Other investigations carried out by Raman were: his experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light. 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.

Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla

 'Kalpana Chawla' ( July 1 , 1961 - February 1 , 2003 ) was an astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist of STS-107 ( Columbia ) who was killed when the craft disintegrated after reentry into the Earth's atmosphere .

Early Life

Chawla was born in Karnal , Haryana , India . Her interest in flight was inspired by J. R. D. Tata , India's first pilot. 

Education
Chawla studied aeronautical engineering at the Punjab Engineering College in 1982 where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. Thereafter she moved to the United States to obtain a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from University of Texas ( 1984 ). Dr. Chawla earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering fromUniversity of Colorado in 1988 . That same year she began working for NASA 's Ames Research Center . Kalpana Chawla became a naturalized USA citizen, and married Jean-Pierre Harrison, a freelance flying instructor. Chawla held a certified flight instructor's license with airplane and glider ratings, and has commercial pilot's licenses for single and multiengine land and seaplanes. 

NASA Career
Dr. Chawla entered NASA's astronaut program in 1994 and was selected for flight in 1996 . Chawla's first mission to space began on November 19 , 1997 as part of the 6 astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia Flight STS-87 . Chawla was the first Indian-born woman in space, as well as the first Indian-American in space. (She was the second person from India to fly into space, after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who went into space in 1984 in a Soviet spacecraft.) On her first mission Chawla travelled over 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 375 hours in space. During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned forcing two other astronauts to go on a spacewalk to capture the solar satellite. A five-month NASA investigation blamed the error on the flight crew and ground control. She was fully exonerated (although this did not stop some reporters from making direspectful comments about her involvement in the mishap in the days after her death in the explosion of the final Columbia mission). After being selected for a second flight, Chawla lived at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas , undergoing extensive training. Chawla's mission got delayed in July 2002 when NASA engineers identified three cracks on the shuttle's second engine's liquid hydrogen flow liner. Over six months later the shuttle was cleared and she returned to space in the ill-fated STS-107 mission. 
Chawla was dedicated to the scientific goals of SPACEHAB/FREESTAR microgravity research mission, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advance technology development, and astronaut health and safety. 

Personal Characteristics

Chawla was a strict vegetarian . On her mission, she carried a white silk banner as part of a worldwide campaign to honor teachers, as well as nearly two dozen CDs, including ones by Abida Parveen , Yehudi Menuhin , Ravi Shankar , and Deep Purple . She went to her first rock concert, a Deep Purple show, in 2001 with her husband. "Kalpana is not necessarily a rock music aficionado," her husband said of a Deep Purple show they went to in 2001. "But (she) nevertheless characterized the show as a 'spiritual experience.'" The administrator for the Hindu temple in Houstonwhere Chawla attended when her schedule permitted said "She was a nice lady ... and very pious." 

Memoria
Shortly after her last mission, India renamed its first weather satellite 'Kalpana-1' in her honor. She died a hero and a role-model for many young women, particularly those in her hometown of Karnal where she periodically returned to encourage young girls to follow in her footsteps. 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." 

Jagdish Chandra Bose Biography

Born: November 30, 1858
Died: November 23, 1937

Achievements: He was the first to prove that plants too have feelings. He invented wireless telegraphy a year before Marconi patented his invention.

Jagdish Chandra Bose was an eminent Indian scientist. He was the first to prove that plants and metals too have feelings.

Jagdish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). 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).

After his return Jagadish Chandra Bose, was offered lectureship at Presidency College, Calcutta on a salary half that of his English colleagues. He accepted the job but refused to draw his salary in protest. After three years the college ultimately conceded his demand and Jagdish Chandra Bose was paid full salary from the date he joined the college. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Although Jagdish Chandra Bose did invaluable work in Science, his work was recognized in the country only when the Western world recognized its importance. He founded the Bose Institute at Calcutta, devoted mainly to the study of plants. Today, the Institute carries research on other fields too. 

Jagdish Chandra Bose died on November 23, 1937.

M. Visvesvaraya Biography

Born: September 15, 1860
Died: April 14, 1962

Achievements: Architect of Krishnarajasagar Dam; devised steel doors to stop the wasteful flow of water in dams; honored with Bharat Ratna.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was an eminent engineer and statesman and played a key role in building of modern India.

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).

When Sir M. Visvesvaraya cleared his engineering, Government of Bombay offered him a job and appointed him Assistant Engineer at Nasik. As an engineer, he achieved some marvelous feats. He planned a way of supplying water from the river Sindhu to a town called Sukkur. He devised a new irrigation system called the Block System. He devised steel doors to stop the wasteful flow of water in dams. He was the architect of the Krishnaraja Sagara dam in Mysore. The list is endless.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya lead a very simple life. He was a strict vegetarian and a teetotaler. He was known for his honesty and integrity. In 1912, Maharaja of Mysore appointed Visvesvaraya as his Dewan. Before accepting the position of Dewan of Mysore, he invited all his relatives for dinner. He told them very clearly that he would accept the prestigious office on the condition that none of them would approach him for favours. As Dewan of Mysore, he worked tirelessly for educational and industrial development of the state. When he was the Dewan many new industries came up. The Sandal Oil Factory, the Soap Factory, the Metals Factory, the Chrome Tanning Factory , were some of them. Of the many factories he started the most important is the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya voluntarily retired as Dewan of Mysore in 1918. He worked actively even after his retirement. Sir M. Visvesvaraya was honored with Bharat Ratna in 1955 for his invaluable contribution to the nation. When he reached the age of 100, the Government of India brought out a stamp in his honor. Sir Visvesvaraya passed away on April 14, 1962 at the age of 101.

Some of the honours and laurels conferred on Sir M. Visvesvaraya

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 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 ' BHARATHA 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

Vikram Sarabhai Biography

Born: August 12, 1919
Died: December 31,1971

Achievements: Considered the Father of the Indian space program; instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in November 1947; was Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists played a major role in the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Vikram Sarabhai was one of the greatest scientists of India. He is considered as the Father of the Indian space program. Apart from being a scientist, he was a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary. 

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. Some of the great men of India such as Gurudev Rabindranath, J. Krishna Murthi, Motilal Nehru, V. S. Shrinivasa Shastri, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Maulana Azad, C. F. Andrews, C. V. Raman et al. used to stay with the Sarabhai family when they visited Ahmedabad. Mahatma Gandhi also once stayed at their house while recovering from an illness. Visits by such great men greatly influenced Vikram Sarabhai. 

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. 

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.

Vikram Sarabhai did research on the time variations of cosmic rays and concluded that meteorological effects could not entirely affect the observed daily variations of cosmic rays; further, the residual variations were wide and global and these were related to variations in solar activity. Vikram Sarabhai visualized a new field of research opening up in solar and interplanetary Physics.

The year 1957-1958 was designated as International Geo-physical year (IGY). The Indian program for the IGY had been one of the most significant ventures of Sarabhai. It exposed him to the new vistas of space science with the launching in 1957 of Sputnik-I. Subsequently, the Indian National Committee for Space Research was created, of which Vikram Sarabhai became Chairman.

With active support from Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, set up the first Rocket Launching station (TERLS) in the country at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the Arabian Coast, as Thumba is very close to the Equator. The first rocket with sodium vapour payload was launched on November 21, 1963. In 1965, the UN General Assembly gave recognition to TERLS as an international facility. 

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. 

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was awarded with Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal in 1962 and Padma Bhushan in 1966. Vikram Sarabhai passed away in his sleep on December 31,1971.

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