SR 51(12) 28-31.Pdf

RTICLE A

EATURE F

In 1987, the Nobel Committee decided to make public all the nomination- related papers if they were fi fty years old. A look at C.V. Raman’s nomination-related papers reveals some interesting aspects.

BHUPATI CHAKRABARTI

The nominators can also be There was another Nobel Laureate C. permanent and assistant professors in Nicolle of France who had won the prize the sciences of physics at the universities in physiology and medicine did send a and institutes of technology of Sweden, nomination in favour of the physicist P. Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, Weiss hailing from the same country. All HANDRASEKHARA Venkata and Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, nominators are supposed to send the CRaman won the Nobel Prize in holders of corresponding chairs in at least names and other details of the nominee Physics in 1930 and in the process became six universities or university colleges who must be a living scientist. According the first Nobel laureate in science not only selected by the Academy of Sciences to the will of Alfred Nobel a prize may from India but from the continent of Asia. with a view to ensuring appropriate be shared by up to three scientists. It was the discovery of the Raman Effect distribution. The Swedish Academy may So, one single nominator can actually that brought him the Physics Nobel. We also invite any scientist. nominate more than one scientist for the all know this. But do you know how the Now, a scientist who has won prize. All these names must reach the Nobel winners are chosen? the Nobel Prize in physics becomes an Committee on or before 31st January of the concerned year for which the winners The process is an elaborate one and automatic future nominator for the prize would be identified. And this is a time- the minute details are kept confidential. in that subject. It appears the rule was a tested tradition being followed for over a Now let us consider the physics Nobel bit different during 1930 when possibly century now. Prizes only. The official website for Nobel the Noble Laureates from other science Prizes tells us that the persons who can disciplines could also send nominations. This however goes without saying send nominations for the prize are the Ernest Rutherford, the great physicist that the whole exercise is supposed to be Swedish and foreign members of the actually won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. a strictly confidential one not only before Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Though the physicists and students of the announcement of the award of the Members of the Nobel Committee for physics tend to forget this Rutherford prize but all the time after that. A winner Physics, and former Nobel Laureates of could send a nomination in favour of should not know who in his community physics. Raman. recommended his name and who did SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2014 28 FEATURE ARTICLE Since the great contender for the prize had not been included as the third winner while two of Effect came their co-workers had made the cut. to be known Finally, the Nobel Committee decided to make public all the nomination- by the name related papers if they were fifty years of Raman old. The argument was simple. They felt fifty years after the announcement of a for his role prize the nominators and the nominees would mostly leave this world and there in the work would not be much of embarrassment or and not as bitterness among the crucial players. Or for that matter some of the well nurtured Raman- anecdotes surrounding the prize could be debunked without hurting the people Krishnan who occupied the centrestage at the time Effect, there of the prize. was not However, the process of final selection, the discussion in the committee a single and the views of the individual members would continue to remain confidential. nomination The scientific community or for that in favour matter the general public would still be deprived of the exact reason or the of K.S. arguments that the members of the committee exchanged while deciding on Krishnan in a prize. People would also remain in the 1930 for the dark why in some cases the third slot was kept empty while awarding the prize to discovery of two others from the same group or for this effect. similar contribution. Yet it was a move that was reasonably satisfying to most people, particularly for the historians of science. It was in 1987 that the Nobel Committee made not. On the other hand the scientists who observed that the nominators were not the documents pertaining to the first 37 were very much in the contention of the always maintaining strict confidentiality. years of the prize (1901-1937) public. It prize but have missed it should not know Some expressed resentment in close circles was also decided that the next bunch of what sort of nominations they received or that their nominations were ignored while information would be published annually missed out or who sent the nominations some congratulated the actual winner after the relevant documents turn fifty in favour of the winner. mentioning that the award had gone to years old. them because of them. And there was no Not all former Nobel Laureates have way to check what happened in reality. Three historians of science, Elisabeth exercised their right to nominate as a look But it was felt that nominators were T. Crawford, J.L. Heilborn and Rebecca at the nominations of 1930 will reveal. possibly showing bias towards colleagues Hullrich incorporated all the details with There were only 12 Nobel Laureates who from same universities, may be the same excellent analysis in a book named The sent nominations though at that time country and occasionally scientists from Nobel Population 1901-1937: A Census of the number of living Nobel Laureates ‘friendly’ nations. And this may sound the Nominators and Nominees for the Prize was no less than 60. After winning the a bit frustrating but the truth is that the in Physics and Chemistry (Berkeley Papers Prize in 1930 Raman himself exercised highest level of scientific community was in History of Science). These documents this right very rarely. One should not really not free from this bias. revealed some astonishing and interesting forget, when it all started the world was The Nobel Committee began to feel information. not a ‘global village’ and the scope of the heat as different scientific bodies or Since C.V. Raman won the physics discussion among the nominators was various groups of scientists began to Nobel in 1930 his nomination related limited and that possibly ensured better demand that the process of nominations papers for the year 1930 came into light confidentiality. should be made public after the award immediately in 1987. Large number of After the Second World War, had been declared. This would enable surprises and interesting aspects also particularly from the 1950s when the Cold the scientific community to know who came to light but we shall first take War was on in full swing and the world nominated whom and who missed out a look at Raman’s nomination. The got broadly divided into two camps, it was the prize and who in spite of being a following table shows the names of the 29 SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2014 FEATURE ARTICLE

NAMES OF NOMINATORS OF THE 1930 PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE

Sl. Nominee Nationality Nominator Nationality of Remarks on No. the nominator the Nominator 1. Born, M German Pringsheim, P German Mathematician 2. Bowen, IS USA Millikan, RA USA Phys NL 1927 3. Bowen, IS USA Osborn, HF USA Geologist, 4. Cotton, A French Guillaume., CE Swiss Phys NL 1920 Three historians of science, 5. Cotton, A French Villat, H France Elisabeth T. Crawford, 6. Davisson, CJ USA Millikan, RA USA Phys NL 1927 J.L. Heilborn and Rebecca 7. Davisson, CJ USA Osborn HF USA Geologist, Hullrich incorporated all 8. Davisson, CJ USA Richardson, OW British Phys NL 1928 the details with excellent 9. Debye, P German Walther, A German analysis in a book named 10. Debye, P German Warburg, E German The Nobel Population 11. Ferrie, GA French Townscend, JSE British 1901-1937: A Census of the 12. Gerlach, W German Campbell, WW USA Nominators and Nominees 13. Heisenberg, W German Frenkel, Y Russian for the Prize in Physics and 14. Heisenberg, W German Nagaoka, H Japanese Chemistry. These documents 15. Heisenberg, W German Perrin, J French Phys NL 1926 revealed some astonishing 16. Heisenberg, W German Planck, M German Phys NL 1918 and interesting information. 17. Heisenberg, W German Pringsheim, P German Mathematician 18. Heisenberg, W German Svedberg, T Swedish Chem NL 1926, 19. Hilbert, D German Hadamard, J French Mathematician 20. Landsberg, GS Russian Khvol’son, O Russian nominees and the nominators and their nationalities. A few remarks about the 21. Langevin, P French Nicolle, C French nominators also have been included for 22. Mandel’shtam, L Russian Papaleski, N Russian sake of further discussion. 23. Mandel’shtam, L Russian Khvol’son, O Russian In 1930, Raman not only got the highest number of nominations but he 24. Paschen, P German Franck, J German Phys NL, 1925 received nominations from some of the 25. Raman, CV Indian Bloch, F German Phys NL 1952 stalwarts of physics at that time. They 26. Raman, CV Indian Bohr, N Danish Phys NL 1922 were highly appreciative of Raman’s discovery. In fact, out of those ten 27. Raman, CV Indian Broglie, L de French Phys NL 1929 nominations six came from persons who 28. Raman, CV Indian Broglie, M de French had already won the Noble Prize by then. Felix Bloch later won the Noble Prize in (Phys: Physics; Chem: Chemistry; Medicine: Physiology & Medicine) 1952. This list included physicists like Lord Rutherford, Louis de Broglie, J. others but not in favour of Raman. R.W. H. Nagaoka from Japan also sent two Perrin, Neils Bohr, Johannes Stark and Wood of USA got four nominations, and nominations in favour of other scientists CTR Wilson who had by then won the three of them were Noble Laureates and but not in favour of Raman. no nominator was from his own country. Nobel Prize. Incidentally Johannes Stark, If one takes a look at the nationality In 1930 very well known mathematician CTR Wilson, Louis de Broglie all Nobel of the nominators who favoured Raman David Hilbert also received a nomination Laureates at that time sent only one one would find it really diverse. They for the Physics prize. nomination for that year and each of them included scientists and Nobel laureates did so only in favour of Raman. On the There was no nomination from India from Germany, Russia, Britain, France, other hand, the physics Nobel Laureates or even from Asia in favour of Raman Scotland and Denmark. Two future like M. Planck, R. A. Millikan, James Frank, although two nominators, D.M. Bose and Physics Nobel Laureates W. Heisenberg Max von Laue sent nominations in favour S.K. Mitra from Kolkata (then Calcutta) (1931) and Erwin Schrodinger (1933) of other scientists like W. Heisenberg, E. sent nominations in favour of Meghnad received nine and six nominations Schrodinger, A. Sommerfeld, and a few Saha. The other scientist from Asia i.e. respectively in 1930. It is quite clear SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2014 30 FEATURE ARTICLE

29. Raman, CV Indian Khvol’son, O Russian 30. Raman, CV Indian Perrin, J French Phys NL, 1926 31. Raman, CV Indian Pfeiffer, R French 32. Raman, CV Indian Rutherford, E British/ Chem NL, 1908 New Zealander 33. Raman, CV Indian Stark, J German Phys NL 1919 34. Raman, CV Indian Wilson CTR Scottish Phys NL 1927 35. Russell, HN US Osborn, HF USA Geologist 36 Saha M Indian Bose, DM Indian 37. Saha M Indian Mitra, SK Indian 38. Schrödinger, E Austrian Campbell, WW USA 39. Schrödinger, E Austrian Cantone, M French 40. Schrödinger, E Austrian Frenkel, Y Russian 41. Schrödinger, E Austrian Khrutkov, Y Russian 42. Schrödinger, E Austrian Laue, M von German Phys NL 1914 43. Schrödinger, E Austrian Mirolubov, N Russian 44. Schrödinger, E Austrian Nagaoka, H Japanese Venkata Raman won the Nobel 45. Schrödinger, E Austrian Planck, M German P NL 1918 Prize in Physics in 1930 and 46. Schrödinger, E Austrian Plate, L German in the process became the fi rst 47. Sommerfeld, A German Franck, J German Phys NL, 1925 Nobel laureate in science not 48. Sommerfeld, A German Millikan, RA USA Phys NL 1927 only from India but from the 49. Sommerfeld, A German Osborn, HF USA Geologist, continent of Asia. 50. Sommerfeld, A German Plate, L German 51. Stern, O German Campbell, WW USA selection as the first lot in a way came late 52. Stern, O German Franck, J German Phys NL, 1925 in later part of 1987. 53. Weiss, P French Caberra, B Spanish But T.D Lee and C.N Yang, the Chinese duo who won the Physics Nobel 54. Weiss, P French Gley, E French prize in 1957 when they were barely 31 55. Weiss, P French Nicolle, C French Medicine NL 1928 and 35 years old, had the opportunity 56. Wood, RW US Bloch, F German Phys NL 1952 to know the nomination related details in 2007. James Watson the 1962 Nobel 57. Wood, RW US Bohr, N Danish Phys Nl 1922 Laureate of physiology and medicine also 58. Wood, RW US Franck, J German Phys NL, 1925 was lucky to have a look at his official 59. Wood, RW US Rozhdestvenski, D Russian nominations in 2012. This list cannot be very long as the average age of the Nobel Laureates from the list of nominations that in 1930 in 1930 for the discovery of this effect. So in physics and chemistry and also in Raman became so obvious a choice that Krishnan could not be considered for the physiology and medicine is on the rise. the Nobel committee for physics possibly sharing of the award. Very few scientists are getting this prize in their thirties and it is becoming more and could wind up the meeting before the first Some of the physics Nobel Laureates more improbable for them to see these coffee break. actually won the prize very young and documents fifty years after the prize. Raman’s paper reporting the went on to live long. After fifty years of discovery of a new effect was published winning the prize a small section of the in Nature on March 31, 1928. Raman’s laureates could know officially what sort Dr Bhupati Chakrabarti was an Associate Professor student and co-worker K.S. Krishnan was of nominations they actually received and Head in the Department of Physics, City the co-author of this paper. Since the Effect and who else were in contention. Louis College, Kolkata. He is now the General Secretary came to be known by the name of Raman de Broglie actually celebrated the golden of the Indian Association of Physics Teachers for his role in the work and not as Raman- jubilee of his Prize in 1979 and passed and is actively involved in the Physics Olympiad. Krishnan Effect, there was not a single away in March 1987 at 95. Yet he could Address: 23 Ibrahimpur Road, Kolkata-700032; nomination in favour of K.S. Krishnan not see the documents pertaining to his Email: [email protected]

31 SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2014