Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: first astrophysicist to succeed in getting the Nobel Prize

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born in a Tamil family of Lahore. He studied at his home till the age of 12. He was the first astrophysicist who succeeded to achieve the Nobel Prize for a theory of the development of stars. His 107th birthday is celebrated on Wednesday, 19th October, 2017. But unfortunately, he got lower popularity for what he achieved in his lifetime.

Image credit Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

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In 1930, his uncle Sir CV Raman succeeded to earn the Nobel Prize in Physics. And in the same year, Chandrasekhar also did graduation in physics at the Presidency College located in Chennai, India (formerly known as Madras). Government of India then granted Chandrasekhar a scholarship so that he could complete his higher studies at Cambridge University in the UK. Finally he finished his PhD in 1933. He then married to a South Indian girl named Lalitha Doraiswamy. 

Chandrasekhar did valuable invention while doing research at Cambridge University, which everyone knows as the Chandrasekhar Limit. But the problem was that his colleagues didn’t trust his invention and demanded not to credit him for the discovery which he made. Sir Arthur, an english astronomer, convinced Chandrasekhar to produce his discoveries in front of the Royal Astronomical Society located in London on 11th January, 1935.

Eddington then presented his lecture at the astronomical society in which he just pulled down Chandrasekhar’s discovery and eliminated it saying that it was just a mathematical game and nothing else. 

In 1966, his mathematical calculations and theory were recognized while doing research on computers and the hydrogen bomb and also helped scientists in learning of black holes, neutron stars and supernovas. 

Chandrasekhar then fled to United States in 1937 and joined Chicago University. He was offered to participate in the Manhattan Project during Second World War, but unfortunately some security approval issue occurred he failed to join the project. However, he joined the Ballistic Research Laboratory in Maryland to support the war. Finally, Chandrasekhar acquired US citizenship in 1953. He passed away when he was 85.

Quotes

• In his book, Truth and Beauty, he offered his advice to aspiring scientists, "What a scientist tries to do essentially is to select a certain domain ... and see if that takes its appropriate place in a general scheme which has form and coherence; and, if not, to seek further information which would help him to do that."
• In his autobiographical sketch for the Nobel Prize ceremony, he described what motivated his scientific quest, "When, after some years of study, I feel that I have accumulated a sufficient body of knowledge and achieved a view of my own, I have the urge to present my point of view, ab initio, in a coherent account with order, form, and structure."
• In an interview, Chandrasekhar praised the US, "I have one advantage here in the United States. I have enormous freedom. I can do what I want. Nobody bothers me".

Achievements

1. When Chandrasekhar was 43, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
2. At the age of 56, he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his numerous contributions to stellar astronomy, physics and applied mathematics.
3. At the age of 61, he was honoured with the Draper Medal from the US National Academy of Science for his leadership in, and major contributions to, the field of astrophysics.
4. In 1983, at 73 years of age, Chandrasekhar shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with William Fowler for his "theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars". That is, how shining stars eventually become "black holes" or "white dwarfs".

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