Google Doodle Celebrates S Chandrasekhar Birthday !!!!
Described as a
"child prodigy" and hailed as the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel
Prize for his theory on the evolution of stars, Diwali on Thursday
would have been Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's 107th birthday.
In his honour, Google is changing its logo in 28
countries to a doodle, or illustration, of him and the Chandrasekhar
Limit.
But in his lifetime, the Indian American astrophysicist was
not always recognised for his achievements. This is his story:
Intellectual family
- Born
in Lahore in 1910 to a Tamil family, Chandrasekhar was home tutored until
age 12.
- In
his autobiography, Chandrasekhar referred to his mother as "My
mother Sita was a woman of high intellectual attainments".
- His
uncle, Sir CV Raman, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.
- Also
in 1930, Chandrasekhar completed his bachelor's degree in physics at
the Presidency College in Madras, India (known today as Chennai).
- Chandrasekhar
was then awarded a scholarship by the government of India to pursue
graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in the UK. He completed
his PhD studies in 1933.
- Married
to Lalitha Doraiswamy in the southern Indian city of Madras, Chandrasekhar
praised his wife's "patient understanding, support, and
encouragement" and called those the "central facts of my
life".
Late recognition
- Working
as a researcher at Cambridge University, Chandrasekhar made his most
significant discovery, which became known as the Chandrasekhar Limit.
But his colleagues were sceptical of his discovery and sought to discredit
it.
- According
to the Open University, English astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington persuaded
Chandrasekhar to present his findings at the Royal Astronomical Society in
London on January 11, 1935.
- At
the astronomical society, Eddington then gave a lecture to
"demolish the young researcher’s calculations and theory, dismissing
it as mere mathematical game playing".
- More
than 30 years later, in 1966, scientific research with computers and the
hydrogen bomb gave credit to Chandrasekhar's calculations.
- Black
holes, central to Chandrasekhar's theory, were identified in
1972. His calculations contributed to the understanding of
supernovas, neutron stars and black holes.
Security clearance
- In
1937, Chandrasekhar immigrated to the US and started working at the
University of Chicago.
- During
World War II, he was invited to join the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos
to make a nuclear bomb, but delays in the processing of his security
clearance prevented him from joining.
- Still, Chandrasekhar contributed
to the war effort, working for the Ballistic Research Laboratory in
Maryland.
- In
1953, 16 years after he came to the US, Chandrasekhar was granted US
citizenship. He died in Chicago at the age of 85.
Quotes
- In
his book, Truth and Beauty, he offered his advice to aspiring scientists,
"What a scientist tries to do essentially is to select a certain
domain, a certain aspect, or a certain detail, and see if that takes its
appropriate place in a general scheme which has form and coherence; and,
if not, to seek further information which would help him to do that."
- In
his autobiographical sketch for the Nobel Prize ceremony, he described
what motivated his scientific quest, "When, after some years of
study, I feel that I have accumulated a sufficient body of knowledge and
achieved a view of my own, I have the urge to present my point of view, ab
initio, in a coherent account with order, form, and structure".
- In
an interview, Chandrasekhar praised the US, "I have one advantage
here in the United States. I have enormous freedom. I can do what I want.
Nobody bothers me".
Honours
- When
Chandrasekhar was 43, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal
Astronomical Society.
- At
the age of 56, he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his
numerous contributions to stellar astronomy, physics and applied
mathematics.
- At
the age of 61, he was honoured with the Draper Medal from the US National
Academy of Science for his leadership in, and major contributions to, the
field of astrophysics.
- In
1983, at 73 years of age, Chandrasekhar shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
with William Fowler for his theoretical studies of the physical processes
of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars.
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