Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao

Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra (CNR) Rao (born June 30, 1934, Bangalore, India) is an Indian chemist.

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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 Latrobe University.

Profession

Rao is currently the 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.

Prof. Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has made prolific and sustained contributions to the development of the field over five decades. 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 transistions. Such studies have had a profound impact in application fields such as colossal magneto resistance and high temperature superconductivity. Oxide semiconductors have unusual promise.

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 for the year 2004.

He has won several international prizes and is a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Society (London).

He was awarded Dan David Prize in 2005, by the Dan David Foundation, Tel Aviv University, which he shared with Prof. George Whitesides and Prof. Robert Langer. [1]. In 2005, he was conferred the title Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by France, the highest civilian award given by the French Government.

He had also been given the the high honours Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Indian Govt.