Krishnasami Venkataraman
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Krishnaswami Venkataraman FNA, FASc, FNASc, FRSC (7 June 1901 – 12 May 1981), popularly known as KV, was an Indian organic chemist and the first Indian director at
National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was established in ...
(NCL Pune) and University Department of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (UDCT). He was known for the demonstration of an organic chemical reaction involving 2-acetoxyacetophenones which later came to be known as the Baker–Venkataraman rearrangement and for his contributions in developing NCL into one of the leading research centres in organic chemistry. He was an elected fellow of several science academies which included the
Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...
,
Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...
,
USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...
,
Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences () was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer. In the 18th century, when Frenc ...
,
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
,
Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...
, and the
Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...
. The
Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
awarded him the
Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...
, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 1961.


Biography

Krishnaswami Venkataraman was born on 7 June 1901 in Madras (present-day
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 ...
), Madras Presidency during the British Colonial rule, in a learned
Tamil Brahmin Tamil Brahmins are an ethnoreligious community of Tamil-speaking Hindu Brahmins, predominantly living in Tamil Nadu, though they number significantly in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana in addition to other regions of India. The ...
family, to P. S. Krishnaswami, a civil engineer,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
scholar and the translator of
Valmiki Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...
into
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 ...
, as the middle-born of his three sons. His brothers were K. Swaminathan, a professor of English who was the chief editor of the collected works of
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ru ...
and Krishnaswami Srinivas Sanjivi, a noted medical doctor who founded Voluntary Health Services and is considered by many to be the father of the primary health care movement in India.
Madhav Sharma Madhav Sharma (born 12 November 1939) is an Indian-British actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and first came to public attention playing a prisoner named Patel in the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who in 1973. Since the ...
, an actor of films and television, is his nephew. He studied chemistry at Presidency College, Madras and obtained his MA 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 ...
in 1923. Subsequently, he moved to England where he joined the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
on a scholarship from the
Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...
and obtained MSc (Tech) in colour chemistry. He remained in England for his doctoral research, along with another noted chemist, T. R. Seshadri, at the laboratory of Robert Robinson which earned him a PhD and later a DSc from the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
. On his return to India in 1927, he worked at 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 ...
as a research fellow for almost a year and in 1928, joined
Forman Christian College Forman Christian College is a private nonprofit Liberal arts college, liberal arts Universities in Pakistan, university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was founded in 1864 and is administered by the Presbyterian Church (USA), Presbyterian Church ...
,
Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
(then part of undivided India). He stayed in Lahore until 1934 when he joined the then newly formed University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT-present-day
Institute of Chemical Technology An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...
) of the
University of Bombay University of Mumbai is a public university, public List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, state university in Mumbai. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest univ ...
as a reader and became a full Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1936. In 1938, he was appointed as the head of the department and as the director in 1943, thus becoming the first Indian director of the Institute. After retiring from UDCT in 1957, he became the third director of the
National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was established in ...
(NCL),
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
, the first Indian director to hold the post. He served as the director of NCL until 1966, but continued his association with the laboratory eve after his retirement. Venkataraman married Shakunthala at the age of nineteen when his bride was only fourteen. The couple had one daughter, Dharma Kumar, who went on to become a noted
economic historian Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of ...
. Lovraj Kumar, an Indian civil servant and a former secretary of the ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas and
Steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
, was his son-in-law and
Radha Kumar Radha Kumar is an Indian feminist, academic and author. Her work focuses on ethnic conflicts and peace processes from a strongly feminist perspective. Early life Kumar is the daughter of Lovraj Kumar, a former bureaucrat and the economic histor ...
, a noted author, historian, feminist and academic was his granddaughter. Venkataraman died on 12 May 1981 at New Delhi, survived by his wife and daughter.


Scientific and professional contributions

One of the major scientific achievements of Venkataraman was his experiments with 2-acetoxyacetophenones when he demonstrated, along with
Wilson Baker Wilson Baker FRS (24 January 1900 – 3 June 2002) was a British organic chemist. He was born in Runcorn, the youngest of the four children of Harry and Mary Baker (née Eccles); his father was himself a chemist, having studied under Sir Henr ...
, and English organic chemist, that the compound transformed into o-hydroxydibenzoylmethanes and finally to
flavones Flavones (from Latin ''flavus'' "yellow") are a class of flavonoids based on the backbone of 2-phenylchromen-4-one (2-phenyl-1-benzopyran-4-one) (as shown in the first image of this article). Flavones are common in foods, mainly from spices, and ...
which later came to be known as Baker-Venkataraman transformation. This process, a variant of Allan–Robinson reaction, is in use for the synthesis of flavones and
chromones Chromone (or 1,4-benzopyrone) is a derivative of benzopyran 4H-1-Benzopyran is an organic compound with the formula . It is one of two isomers of benzopyran, the other being 2H-1-Benzopyran, 2H-1-benzopyran, which is more prevalent. It can be ...
. Through his experiments with
Artocarpus heterophyllus The jackfruit or ''nangka'' (''Artocarpus heterophyllus'') is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family ( Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as in weight, in length, and in diameter. ...
, commonly known as Jackfruit, he was able to isolate artocarpanone, a
tyrosinase Tyrosinase is an oxidase that is the rate-limiting enzyme for controlling the production of melanin. The enzyme is mainly involved in two distinct reactions of melanin synthesis otherwise known as the Raper–Mason pathway. Firstly, the hydroxy ...
inhibitor, as well as eight flavones and later, he isolated similar flavones from
Morus alba Morus may refer to: People * Alexander Morus (1616–1670), Franco-Scottish Protestant preacher * Henryk Moruś (1943–2013), Polish serial killer * Huw Morus (1622–1709), Welsh poet * Thomas More or Morus (1478–1535), English philosopher * M ...
(White Mulberry). These experiments helped establish the
taxonomical In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given ...
relationship between the two species. Shortly after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Venkataraman was invited for a visit
IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...
, a German dyestuff manufacturing company, and this gave him an opportunity to study the international dyestuff industry. He collected data which was later copied and published as an 8-volume book, ''The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes'', which is considered by many as a seminal work on dye chemistry. He also submitted a report to the Government of India for the development of dyestuff and intermediaries industry in India, known as the ''Pai/Venkataraman report'' which paved way for the development of the industry in the country, earning him the moniker, the ''father of the Indian dyestuff industry''. Another of Venkataraman's contributions was his work on lac pigments. He focused his research on the chemistry of laccaic acid and later on other anthraquinonoid insect pigments. With the help of his findings, he ''proposed revised structures for kermesic acid and ceroalbolinic acid''. He was the first scientist in India to use X-ray crystallographers for finding solutions to problems of organic structure. During his tenure at UDCT, Venkataraman was instrumental in starting several courses chemical technology, combining pure science and technology. He guided around 85 students in their doctoral research which included such notable chemists as B. D. Tilak, B. S. Joshi, Nitya Anand and A. V. Rama Rao. His contributions are reported in the development of National Chemical Laboratory into one of World's leading research centre in dyestuff chemistry. He sat in the editorial boards of many journals, which included ''Tetrahedron'', ''
Tetrahedron Letters ''Tetrahedron Letters'' is a weekly international journal for rapid publication of full original research papers in the field of organic chemistry. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2022 impact factor of 1.8 Indexing ...
'' and ''Indian Journal of Chemistry''. Besides ''The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes'', he also edited another 612-page book, ''The Analytical Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes'' and these nine books remain reference texts in the discipline. Besides, he also published 271 scientific articles. Venkataraman served as the president of the
Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...
for three terms (1943–46, 1949–55, 1965–67) and as the vice president from 1952 to 1955. He also served as the vice president of the
Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...
.


Awards

Venkataraman was elected a fellow of the
Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...
(FCS) in 1932, which became the
Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...
in 1980. He was elected a founding fellow of the
Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...
(FASc) in 1934, and as a Fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (FNI, now the
Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...
in 1939. He was also a fellow of the
National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows * Suddhasatwa Bas ...
(FNASc). In 1960,
Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...
elected him as a member. He was also a fellow of the
Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences () was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer. In the 18th century, when Frenc ...
,
USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...
, and the
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
. The Government of India awarded Venkataraman the third highest civilian award of the
Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...
in 1961. He received the Professor T. R. Seshadri 60th birthday commemoration medal in 1973. He was also a recipient of the Acharya P.C. Ray Medal of the Indian Chemical Society.


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *


See also

* Subramania Ranganathan * T. R. Govindachari


Notes


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venkataraman, Krishnaswami 1901 births 1981 deaths Indian organic chemists Tamil scientists Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences 20th-century Indian chemists Scientists from Chennai Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences University of Madras alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia alumni Academic staff of the Forman Christian College Academic staff of the University of Mumbai Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences