Bharat Ratna awarded to Prof CNR Rao

The conferment of Bharat Ratna, on Prof Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, is well deserved tribute to one of the finest minds of the country. It’s a befitting but belated recognition for this pioneering scientist. Prof Rao in a career spanning over five decades, has contirbuted immensely to the scientific realm of India. He is one of the rare breeds of scientists whose is equally felicitous both academic and policy domains.

That Prof. Rao, is an institution builder par excellence, is well known and documented. But what is not known outside the academic circle is his superhuman efforts at knowledge production. We at careers360 did a simple analysis of academic productivity of  Indian scientists. PUSHING 90, Prof. CNR Rao just doesn’t seem to slow down. The academic colossus left Indian Institute of Science over decade ago, but he still remains one of the three top individuals with 285  publications to his credit. Even in the next institution he set up, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research (JNCAR), he is   one of the top contributors. The IISc corridors still reverberates in hushed tones about his academic discipline and productivity. For details see the article.

Prof Rao is credited with most of the pioneering work done in solid state chemistry and nano materials in the country. Starting his career   in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1963, he moved to Indian Institute of Science  in 1976 and served as its director from 1984 to 1994. He also set up the JNCAR where he is currently the Linnaeous Pauling Research Professor at JNCAR.