Venkatraman Radhakrishnan

Venkatraman Radhakrishnan (18 May 1929 – 3 March 2011) was an internationally renowned space scientist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was Professor Emeritus of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, India, where he had been Director from 1972 to 1994.

Professor Radhakrishnan was born in Tondaripet, a suburb of Madras to Nobel laureate physicist C.V.Raman and his wife Lokasundari Ammal . His earlier schooling was in Madras. He graduated from the Mysore University before joining the Department of Physics at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

He was married to Mrs. Francoise-Dominique Radhakrishnan. They have a son Vivek Radhakrishnan who studied design under the direction of Hella Jongerius, from the Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands. In 2004, Vivek and his wife Namrata returned home to Bangalore to set up Kynkyny. The company has two facets, Kynkyny Art, a gallery for contemporary Indian art, and Kynkyny Home, a boutique for exclusive home furniture and products.

Prof. Radhakrishnan served on various committees in various capacities. He was the Vice President of the International Astronomical Union during 1988-1994. He served as the Chairman of Commission J ( Radio Astronomy) of the International Union of Radio Sciences (1981–1984).

Radhakrishnan was one of the most respected Radio Astronomers in the world during his time, in that he was associated in one capacity or other with the world’s biggest radio telescopes. He was the member of the Foreign Advisory Committee for the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy, Steering Committee of the Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia, Advisory Committee for the Green Bank Radio Telescope, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA He was also the Member of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. During the period of 1973–1981 he was a member of the Indian National Committee for Astronomy.

Radhakrishnan was selected to various scientific bodies, both national and international. He was a Foreign Fellow of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Science Academy. He was an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore

He was an internationally acclaimed Astrophysicist and also renowned for his design and fabrication of ultralight aircraft and sailboats. Prof. V. Radhakrishnan had received his B.Sc.(Hon) from Mysore University. He started his research career as a research scholar at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and thereafter was in the research faculties of various world famous institutes. He worked in the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden as a Research Assistant during 1955-58. He was a Senior Research fellow of the California Institute of Technology, USA before joining the Radiophysics Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Sydney, Australia initially as the Senior Research Scientist and later as the Principal Research Scientist. He returned to India in 1972 and took up the task of rebuilding the Raman Research Institute as it’s Director. During his tenure as the Director of the Raman Research Institute between 1972–1994 he built up an international reputation for work in the areas of pulsar astronomy, liquid crystals and other areas of frontline research in Astronomy. The University of Amsterdam conferred the most prestigious Doctor Honoris Causa degree on Prof. Radhakrishnan in 1996.