Kolkata is often called the city of ‘bhadralok’, or ‘noble people’ – a city that has been home to educational elites for more than a century. Remarkably, it is also the city that has bred five Nobel laureates. Sir Ronald Ross, an Indian-born British doctor, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902. While working…
The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious awards at the international level. The award honours academic, cultural and/or scientific advances. Literature was one of the five categories established according to the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish polymath, in 1895. The other four categories were physics, chemistry, peace and medicine. The first in the world to receive the…
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German physicist. In 1895 he was working with cathode rays when he discovered a different kind of electromagnetic radiation. Since the radiation was unknown at that time, he called it the X-rays. He received the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for this discovery.
20 August 1897 is officially considered to be the day when Ronald Ross identified the malaria parasite in the Anopheles mosquito. His finding had tremendous impact on the fight against the disease, for which he was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1902, and later knighted. It was indeed a remarkable achievement for…
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German physicist who discovered quantum physics. He was the founder of quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck’s life was dotted with tragic occurrences. His first wife died early. His younger son died in World War I. He had twin daughters, one…
Linus Pauling was a chemist who contributed immensely to the knowledge of chemistry and biological molecules. For his research on the chemical bonds and their application to find out the structure of complex molecules, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. Since 1946, Pauling had ceaselessly championed against the nuclear tests and all forms…
