Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao

Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra (CNR) Rao ( Kannada:ಚಿಂತಾಮಣಿ ನಾಗೇಶ ರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ ರಾಯ ) (born June 30, 1934, Bangalore, India) is an Indian chemist.

Education

Rao obtained his bachelors degree at University of Mysore in 1951, obtaining a masters from Banaras Hindu University two years later, and obtained his PhD in 1958 from Purdue University. He was the director of the Indian Institute of Science from 1984 to 1994, and has been a visiting professor at Purdue, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the founding President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

Profession

Rao is currently the National Research Professor and Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India. He was appointed Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Indian Prime Minister in January 2005, a position which he had occupied earlier during 1985-89.

Prof. Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has contributed to the development of the field over five decadesFact|date=January 2008. His work on transition metal oxides has led to basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.

Prof. Rao was one of the earliest to synthesize two-dimensional oxide materials such as La₂CuO₄. His work has led to a systematic study of compositionally controlled metal-insulator transitions. Such studies have had a profound impact in application fields such as colossal magneto resistance and high temperature superconductivityFact|date=January 2008. Oxide semiconductors have unusual promise. He has made immense contributions to nanomaterials over the last two decades, besides his work on hybrid materials. He is the author of around 1400 research papers. He has authored and edited 42 books.

Awards

He was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society in 2000, and he became the first recipient of the India Science Award, instituted by the Government of India,for his contributions to solid state chemistry and materials science, awarded in 2004.

He has won several international prizes and is a member of most of the major science academies in the world including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society (London), French Academy, Japan Academy and the Pontifical Academy.

He was awarded Dan David Prize in 2005, by the Dan David Foundation, Tel Aviv University, which he shared with George Whitesides and Robert Langer [cite web |url=http://www.dandavidprize.com/index.html |title= Dan David Prize|accessdate=2008-05-06 |format= |work= ] . In 2005, he was conferred the title Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by France, awarded by the French Government. He had also been given the honours Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan by the Indian Government.

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