NewsLetter

History was made on Dec 10, 2009 when V Ramakrishnan became the first person of Indian origin to receive the Nobel prize in Chemistry. So far no person of Indian origin has earned a Nobel in Chemistry. 

The Nobel medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace prizes were first awarded in 1901 after they were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite. The Nobel memorial prize in Economics was established later in 1968 by the Swedish central bank to commemorate its 300th anniversary. The prizes are presented to the winners on Dec 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.

Ramakrishnan’s work involves ribosomes, the microscopic ‘protein factories’ in the cells of every living organism. Ribosomes read the genetic code in genes to produce proteins. Antibiotics, when designed based on ribosome structures would be able to fight infectious disease.

Ramakrishnan was born in India, started his ribosome research work at University of Utah and is now working at Cambridge UK.

So how many people of Indian origin have been awarded a Nobel? The number ranges from two (Tagore and Raman) up to ten with two near misses (Bose and Gandhi).

Satendra Nath Bose had predicted in 1924 the existence of a state of matte near absolute zero temperature. Albert Einstein was so impressed with this paper that he sought out Bose in India to collaborate with him. Their theory is known as Bose-Einstein statistics. Bose died in 1974 where as experimental confirmation was made 20 years later in 1995, Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously. However, Bose is remembered in BOSONS, which are energy type things such as photons and gravitons.

Mahatma Gandhi died Jan 30, 1948 within five months of independence and so missed a Nobel. American Gandhi, Martin Luther king earned a Nobel. African Gandhi Nelson Mandela earned a Noble. But the original Gandhi, The Mahatma, never made it.