Raman’s Nobel medal to make a comeback

Sir CV Raman’s Nobel prize medal, which has been hidden away from the public eye for the past seven years, will make a comeback next year on the occasion of the National Science Day.

Sir CV Raman won the coveted medal for his experiments on the scattering of light in 1930; his postulation was later called the Raman Effect.

Earlier, the medal used to be displayed for viewing once a year on the National Science Day, on February 28, at the Bangalore-based Raman Research Institute (RRI).

However, after Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize medal was stolen from Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan in 2004, Sir CV Raman’s medal has been kept at an undisclosed location by the RRI board of trustees to safeguard it from thieves.

Now, the institute is planning to make a replica of the medal so that it can be displayed for public viewing every National Science Day.

The institute’s administrative officer, K Krishnama Raju, said a few artists have commissioned to mint a replica of the medal and that a Kolkata-based science museum would be entrusted with this task.

“As it is not possible to display the original medal owing to various factors, we want to create a replica, which would be displayed at the institute’s museum,” said Raju.  

On the National Science Day, the RRI has invited students to visit the campus and a series of lectures were delivered by RRI members. This was followed by visits to laboratories and the museum.

“Now, the students see photographs of Sir CV Raman’s Nobel prize medal. We are hopeful that it should be ready by the next year’s National Science Day,” said Raju.