Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, known to all of us as Dr. C.N.R. Rao, born on 30th June 1934 at Bangalore, which was then a part of the Kingdom of Mysore in British India, is an Indian Chemist whose major field of work is Solid state and structural Chemistry. He currently serves as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.
Dr. Rao has been conferred with Honorary Doctorates from 60 Universities all across the world. He has as many as 1500 research papers and 45 scientific books to his name. to honour such a personality, the Indian Government decided to present him with the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India and he is the 3rd scientist to receive this honour.
Dr. C.N.R. Rao was born in a Kannada family. His parents were Hanumantha Nagesa Rao and Nagamma Nagesa Rao. He completed his graduation from the Mysore University in the year 1951, then completed his Masters from Banaras Hindu University in the year 1953. He then completed his Doctorate in 1958 from the Purdue University. He also obtained a DSc. from Mysore University.
He has worked at various institutions including : ISRO, IIT Kanpur, Indian Institute of Science, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of California and so on.
Dr. Rao is presently working as the National Research Professor, Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research,Bangalore which he founded in 1989.
He was appointed Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Indian
Prime Minister in January 2005. He is also the Director of the International
Centre for Materials Science also known as ICMS.
Dr. Rao has been presented with variable awards, like :
- Padma Shri in 1974
- Padma Vibhushan in 1985
- Hughes Medal in 2000
- India Science Award in 2004
- Dan David Prize in 2005
- Legion of Honor in 2005
- Abdus Salam Medal in 2008
