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Srinivasan Raman (1933-1994)

Srinivasan Raman died in Madras, India on October 12, 1994. As a graduate student at the University of Madras with G. N. Ramachandran in the early 1950s, Raman was one of the first to show that the technique of anomalous dispersion can be used to solve the structure of non-centrosymmetric crystals. He published papers on the theory of anomalous dispersion methods for determining the structures and the absolute configuration of non-centrosymmetric crystals. Raman received many awards including the C. V. Raman medal.

According to Dr  Ramachandran in a letter written in 1972, "Raman was one of the brightest of the young people that worked with me during the last twenty years. He showed considerable originality and ingenuity in building the necessary set-up for accurately measuring the small differences in the intensities of X-ray reflections due to anomalous dispersion. He took an active part in developing the theory underlying these phenomena and in the application of these for determining the phases of X-ray reflections." He worked with R. Pepinsky at the State College, Pennsylvania and W. N. Lipscomb at Harvard University. Dr Lipscomb writes "I remember him well as an intense, very hard-working, and successful scientist." Raman also worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory and later held a position at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Raman was well versed in all Indian scriptures and Indian classical music. In his book entitled "Physics of Life, Thought, and Death", Raman offered poetical reflections upon his science and personal beliefs. He is survived by his wife Susan and children Santi, Sheila and Luke. His truly inspirational devotion and love for science led me to take up a career in crystallography.

Sona Vasudevan
Ontario Cancer Institute