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Chintamani Nagesa
Ramachandra (CNR) Rao (born
June 30,
1934,
Bangalore,
India) is an
Indian
chemist.
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.
Rao is currently the
Linus Pauling Research
Professor and Honorary President
of the
Jawaharlal Nehru Center for
Advanced Scientific Research
in
Bangalore, India. He was
appointed chair of the Scientific
Advisory Council to the Indian
Prime Minister in
January 2005.
He was awarded the
Hughes Medal by the
Royal Society in
2000, and he became the first
recipient of the India Science
Award, for his contributions to
solid state chemistry and
materials science, awarded for the
year
2004.
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.
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.
