Gopalasamudram Narayanan Ramachandran, or G. N. Ramachandran, FRS (8 October 1922 – 7 April 2001) was an Indian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who was known for his work that led to his creation of the

Ramachandran plot In biochemistry, a Ramachandran plot (also known as a Rama plot, a Ramachandran diagram or a �,ψplot), originally developed in 1963 by G. N. Ramachandran, C. Ramakrishnan, and V. Sasisekharan, is a way to visualize energetically allowed regio ...

for understanding

peptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty am ...

structure. He was the first to propose a triple-helical model for the structure of

collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix of the connective tissues of many animals. It is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up 25% to 35% of protein content. Amino acids are bound together to form a trip ...

. He subsequently went on to make other major contributions in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Early life and education

Ramachandran was born on 8 October 1922, in

Ernakulam Ernakulam () is the central business district of the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. It is the namesake of Ernakulam district. The eastern part of Kochi city is mainly known as Ernakulam, while the western part of it after the Venduruthy Bridge ...

Kingdom of Cochin The kingdom of Cochin or the Cochin State, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It originated in the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until i ...

, to

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

parents. He completed his BSc honours in Physics from

St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli (SJC) is a Catholic college in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1844 by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and is regarded as one of the most prestigious institutions in India. It is ...

in 1939. He joined the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

in 1942 in the Electrical Engineering Department. Quickly realising his interest in physics, he switched to the Department of Physics to complete his master's and doctoral thesis under the supervision of Nobel laureate C. V. Raman. In 1942, he received a master's degree in

from

Madras University The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

with his thesis submitted from Bangalore (he did not attend any Madras college at that time). He subsequently received his

D.Sc. A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

degree in 1947. Here he mostly studied crystal physics and

crystal optics Crystal optics is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''anisotropic media'', that is, media (such as crystals) in which light behaves differently depending on which direction the light is propagating. The index of refrac ...

. During his studies he created an X-ray focusing mirror for the

X-ray microscope An X-ray microscope uses electromagnetic radiation in the X-ray band to produce magnified images of objects. Since X-rays penetrate most objects, there is no need to specially prepare them for X-ray microscopy observations. Unlike visible light, ...

. The resulting field of crystal topography is used in studies involving

crystal growth Crystal growth is a major stage of a crystallization, crystallization process, and consists of the addition of new atoms, ions, or polymer strings into the characteristic arrangement of the crystalline lattice. The growth typically follows an ini ...

and solid-state reactivity. Ramachandran then spent two years (1947–1949) at the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, where he earned his PhD for 'studies on X-ray diffuse scattering and its application to determination of elastic constants' under the direction of William Alfred Wooster, a leading crystallography expert.

Research works

After completing his PhD, he returned to the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 1949 as an assistant professor of physics. In 1952, he moved to

as professor and head of the Department of Physics where he continued his work on crystal physics. His interest, however, shifted to the structure of biological

macromolecules A macromolecule is a "molecule of high relative molecular mass, the structure of which essentially comprises the multiple repetition of units derived, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass." Polymers are physi ...

. Using

X-ray diffraction X-ray diffraction is a generic term for phenomena associated with changes in the direction of X-ray beams due to interactions with the electrons around atoms. It occurs due to elastic scattering, when there is no change in the energy of the waves. ...

Ramachandran along with

Gopinath Kartha Gopinath Kartha (26 January 1927 – 18 June 1984) was a crystallographer of Indian origin. In 1967, he determined the molecular structure of the enzyme ribonuclease. Early life and education Gopinath Kartha was born in Cherthala, near Alappuz ...

proposed and published the triple helical structure of

in 1954 in the journal

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

, drawing worldwide scientific attention to the "Madras group". At Madras University, Professor Ramachandran was the favourite of the famous vice-chancellor and celebrated doctor and medical scientist, Sir Arcot Laksmanaswamy Mudaliar. Wanting to tackle problems at a more fundamental level, Ramachandran decided to use this information to examine the various

polypeptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty ...

conformations then known and also to develop a good 'yardstick' that could be used for examining and assessing any structure in general, but peptides in particular. The result which emerged from these calculations in 1962, – now commonly known as the

– was published in the

Journal of Molecular Biology The ''Journal of Molecular Biology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of molecular biology. It was established in 1959 by Academic Press in London. It is currently published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief was P ...

in 1963 and has become an essential tool in the field of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

conformation. When it was first calculated, crystal structures had barely been obtained for any protein. From the mid-1960s onward, Ramachandran continued studying crystallography, including the conformation of peptides including types of β-turns, conformation of prolyl residues, cis-peptide units, occurrence and need for non-planarity of the peptides,

NMR Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which atomic nucleus, nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are disturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near and far field, near field) and respond by producing ...

coupling constant In physics, a coupling constant or gauge coupling parameter (or, more simply, a coupling), is a number that determines the strength of the force exerted in an interaction. Originally, the coupling constant related the force acting between tw ...

s and peptides containing L and D residues, among other tops. He was awarded the prestigious

Jawarharlal Nehru Fellowship The Jawaharlal Nehru Trust Scholarship U.K. was founded by Admiral Lord Mountbatten of Burma in 1966 as a tribute to the India's first Prime Minister – Jawaharlal Nehru – after his death in 1964. The scholarship was funded by the Nehru ...

in 1968 for research on ''Protein and Polypeptide Conformation''; he was one of its first recipients. Ramachandran can be credited for bringing together into the one field of

molecular biophysics Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in ter ...

the then disparate fields of

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...

peptide synthesis In organic chemistry, peptide synthesis is the production of peptides, compounds where multiple amino acids are linked via amide bonds, also known as peptide bonds. Peptides are chemically synthesized by the condensation reaction of the carboxyl ...

, NMR and other optical studies, and physico-chemical experimentation. In 1970, he founded the Molecular Biophysics Unit at the

which was later known as the Centre of Advanced Study in Biophysics. Ramachandran and A.V. Lakshminarayanan developed convolution-backprojection algorithms which greatly improved the quality and practicality of results obtainable by x-ray tomography. Compared to previously used methods, their algorithms considerably reduced computer processing time for image reconstruction, as well as providing more numerically accurate images. As a result, commercial manufacturers of x-ray tomographic scanners started building systems capable of reconstructing high resolution images that were almost photographically perfect. In 1971, they published their research in

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of S ...

. In 1981, Ramachandran became a founding member of the

World Cultural Council The World Cultural Council is an international organization whose goals are to promote cultural values, goodwill and philanthropy among individuals. The organization founded in 1982 and based in Mexico, has held a yearly award ceremony since 198 ...

. Notable awards that Ramachandran received include the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of Bud ...

for Physics in India (1961) and the Fellowship of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

of London. In 1999, the

International Union of Crystallography The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) is an organisation devoted to the international promotion and coordination of the science of crystallography. The IUCr is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Objectives T ...

honoured him with the

Ewald Prize In 1986 the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) established the Ewald Prize for outstanding contributions to the science of crystallography. The Ewald Prize is considered the highest prize available to crystallographers apart from the Nob ...

for his 'outstanding contributions to crystallography'. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize as well for his fundamental contributions in protein structure and function.

Later life and legacy

Ramachandran was devastated by the death of his wife Rajalakshmi in 1998 and his health gradually deteriorated. During the last few years of his life, he suffered a stroke and was affected by

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

. Ramachandran died on 7 April 2001, aged 78, in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. Each year, the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...

(CSIR) awards the "G N Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology" in his memory for work in Biological Sciences & Technology.

References

External links

G. N. Ramachandran – A Jewel in the Crown of the Indian Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramachandran, Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer 1922 births 2001 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Indian biophysicists 20th-century Indian physicists Tamil scientists University of Madras alumni People from British India St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli alumni Scientists from Kochi Scientists from Kerala Indian Institute of Science alumni TWAS fellows Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows 20th-century Indian biologists Founding members of the World Cultural Council Indian expatriates in the United Kingdom

Early life and education

Research works

Later life and legacy

Further reading

References

External links