The Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was founded by Sir C V Raman in 1933, three years after he received his Nobel Prize for discovering a new manifestation of the interaction between light and matter that we know as the Raman Effect.
The Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was founded by Sir C V Raman in 1933, three years after he received his Nobel Prize for discovering a new manifestation of the interaction between light and matter that we know as the Raman Effect.
It soon became a center of excellence in Optics and Spectroscopy and later in Crystallography in the 1940s and 50s. In addition to hosting some of the most eminent Indian scientists, such as Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, R. S. Krishnan, G. N. Ramachandran, and S. Ramaseshan, the department has had a strong international presence as well. Max Born spent time in the Department from Nov 1935 to May 1936.
Many world-renowned physicists, including several Nobel laureates, have visited the department, given lectures and seminars, and participated in conferences hosted by the department.
In the relatively recent past, thanks to support from the Infosys Science Foundation and other philanthropic agencies, the department has been able to host several distinguished physicists of international renown as chaired visiting professors for extended periods of time and have them interact with our students and faculty, give courses or lectures, and take part in collaborative research.