Rabindranath Tagore 1913 The first Indian to win a Nobel Prize was Rabindranath Tagore, for his collection of poems Gitanjali. He was given the prestigious award in 1913.
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman – 1930 Chandrasekhara Raman was born in the Indian city of Tiruchirappalli. In 1930, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of Raman scattering, often known as the Raman effect. His study on ‘Molecular Diffraction of Light,’ published in 1922, led to this final discovery on February 28, 1928.
Har Gobind Khorana 1968 Har Gobind Khorana, a Raipur native, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert W. Holley and Marshall W. Nirenberg in 1968 for their contributions to the field. Nucleotides, which are components of DNA and RNA, were Khorana’s major field of interest. While RNA controls the creation of proteins in the form of tissue and muscle, nucleotides are important components of DNA that determine which proteins make up which cells and tissues.
Mother Teresa - Mother Teresa came to India in 1948. She adopted Indian citizenship in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. The official rationale to award her Nobel Prize reads: “In recognition of [her] work in bringing help to suffering humanity.”
Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar – 1983 In 1983, the Nobel Prize in Physics was to this exceptional twentieth-century astronomer for his breakthrough theoretical investigations. This is on the underlying mechanisms involved in the construction and development of stars. According to Chandrashekar, a star with a mass more than 1.44 times that of the Sun does not create a white dwarf, which shrinks to around the size of the Earth due to its gravity.
Amartya Sen – 1998 In 1998, Amartya Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his groundbreaking contributions to welfare economics, economic and social justice, decision theory, social choice theory, public health, the division of important community resources, and extensive research on the causes and prevention of famine. Sen’s book Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, demonstrates his intense interest and approach to his study (1981).
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan - Ramakrishnan was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on the atomic structure and function of biological entities known as ribosomes. Ramakrishnan used neural scattering and X-Ray crystallography methods to understand the structure of ribosomes and other molecules like histones while working as a biophysicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
Kailash Satyarthi 2014 Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his contributions to social reform for children and youth, as well as the universal right to education for everyone. His fight for the eradication of the caste system and child marriages inspired Satyarthi to create his journal, ‘Sangharsh Jaari Rahega’. The journal focused on the lives of society’s marginalized and vulnerable citizens.
Abhijit Banerjee 2019 Abhijit Banerjee is the most recent Noble Prize winner of Indian origin. He completed his MA in economics from JNU in 1983 and did his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1988. He was awarded the Noble Prize in economics along with Esther Duflo (his wife) and Michael Kremer.