From adam to zeus ...through all men and gods.

[Visalakshi Ramani]

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# 58 . Simone de Beauvoir.(part 2)

Jean Paul Sartre was dazzlingly intelligent and was just under 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. During October 1929, the two became a couple and Sartre asked her to marry him.One day while they were sitting on a bench outside the Louvre, he said, "Let's sign a two-year lease".

Near the end of her life, Beauvoir said, "Marriage was impossible. I had no dowry" So they entered a life-long relationship. Beauvoir chose to never marry and did not set up a joint household with Sartre.

She never had children. This gave her time to earn an advanced academic degree, to join political causes and to travel, write, teach and have lovers both male and female.

Sartre and de Beauvoir always read one another's work. Debates rage on about the extent to which Sartre and de Beauvoir influenced one another in their existentialist works such as Sartre's Being and Nothingness and de Beauvoir's She Came to Stay.

School teaching

In Marseilles she started her teaching career at a secondary school in 1931 and moved to Rouen.

De Beauvoir was known to have a number of young female lovers who were underage, and the nature of some of these relationships, some of which she instigated while working as a school teacher, has led to a biographical controversy and debate over ephebophilia towards which de Beauvoir had inclinations.

A former student originally Bianca Bienenfeld, later wrote critically about her seduction by her teacher, Simone de Beauvoir, when she was a 17-year-old student in her book, Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée.

In 1943, de Beauvoir was suspended from her teaching job, due to an accusation that she had, in 1939, seduced her 17-year-old lycee pupil Nathalie Sorokine.

De Beauvoir would, along with other French intellectuals, later petition for an abolition of all age of consent laws in France[SUP].[/SUP]

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 58 . Simone de Beauvoir.(part 3)

Sexuality, existentialist feminism, and The Second Sex


Cover of a reissue of Parshley's translation of The Second Sex


Chapters of (The Second Sex) Le deuxième sexe were originally published in Les Temps modernes in June 1949. The second volume came a few months after the first in France.

It was very quickly translated by Howard Paeshley and published by Blanche Knopf in America as The Second Sex.

Because Parshley had only a basic familiarity with the French language, and a minimal understanding of philosophy (he was a professor of biology) much of Beauvoir's book was mistranslated or inappropriately cut, distorting her intended message.

For years Knopf prevented the introduction of a more accurate retranslation of Beauvoir's work, declining all proposals despite the efforts of existentialist scholars.

Only in 2009 was there a second translation, to mark the 60th anniversary of the original publication. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier produced the first integral translation, reinstating a third of the original work.

The long-awaited second translation of The Second Sex



In the chapter "Woman: Myth and Reality" of The Second Sex, Beauvoir argued that men had made women the "Other" in society by putting a false aura of "mystery" around them.

She argued that men used this as an excuse not to understand women or their problems and not to help them, and that this stereotyping was always done in societies by the group higher in the hierarchy to the group lower in the hierarchy.

She wrote that this also happened on the basis of other categories of identity, such as race, class, and religion.

But she said that it was nowhere more true than with sex in which men stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organize society into a patriarchy.

The Second Sex, published in French, sets out a feminist existentialism which prescribes a moral revolution. As an existentialist, Beauvoir believed that one is not born a woman, but becomes one.

Beauvoir argued that women have historically been considered deviant, abnormal. She said that man was considered to be the ideal toward which women should aspire.

Beauvoir said that this attitude limited women's success by maintaining the perception that they were a deviation from the normal, and were always outsiders attempting to emulate "normality".

She believed that for feminism to move forward, this assumption must be set aside.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 58 . Simone de Beauvoir.(part 4)

Beauvoir asserted that women are as capable of choice as men, and thus can choose to elevate themselves, moving beyond the position to which they were previously resigned and reaching a position in which one takes responsibility for oneself and the world, where one chooses one's freedom.

A new translation of The Second Sex for the first time gives access to the entire text in English, "The single most important advantage of this new translation is its completeness, combined with the translators' courage to transpose Beauvoir's existential language, thereby giving readers a sense of Beauvoir's channeling of Hegel, Marx and others."

Since her death, her reputation has grown. Especially in academia, she is considered the mother of post-1968 feminism.

There has also been a growing awareness of her as a major French thinker and an existentialist philosopher.

Contemporary discussion analyzes the influences of Beauvoir and Sartre on one another. She is seen as having influenced Being and Nothingness Sartre's masterpiece, while also having written much on philosophy that is independent of the existentialism of Sartre.

Some scholars have explored the influences of her earlier philosophical essays and treatises upon Sartre's later thought.

She is studied by many respected academics both within and outside philosophy circles, including Margaret A. Simons and Sally Scholtz. Beauvoir's life has also inspired numerous biographies.

In 2006, the city of Paris commissioned an architect to design a sophisticated footbridge across the River Seine. The bridge was named the in her honor.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Monday, 7 September 2009

# 59 (part 1)

Dr. H.SRINIVASAN MBBS., FRCS(Edin.), FRCS(Eng.)




Dr. H(ariharan) Srinivasan (born 1929) is an Indian orthopaedic surgeon who spent most of his working life in correcting the deformed hands and feet of leprosy-affected persons. During his active period he was highly regarded for his academic and research work in the management and prevention of deformities and disabilities in persons with insensitive and paralysed hands and feet in general and the leprosy-affected in particular. He retired from active work in 2008.

Dr.Srinivasan was born on September 7, 1929 (on the Ganesh Chaturthi day) at Vellore, South India, He was the grandson of S. Venkatarama Iyer (1871-1932) of Pilluvalasai (a village in Aranthangi taluk in Puthukottai district), who started his life as a lowly taluk office clerk with a monthly salary of about 12 rupees and rose to the position of Deputy Collector in the provincial administrative service, the highest position that a ‘native’ could reach in those days. Srinivasan’s father was Dr V Hariharan the eldest son of Venkatrama Iyer. He was a popular medical practitioner who practised at Arni, a small town near Vellore, famous for its handloom silk saris. Dr. Hariharan was well-known locally as he was the only practitioner of modern medicine for many years for many miles around, and also because of his activism in the nationalist politics of the time, as member of the Indian National Congress, for which he was imprisoned by the British Government for one year during 1932-’33. Srinivasan’s mother was Janaki, second daughter of K. Krishna Iyer of Vellore, a Tamil shorthand reporter of sub-inspector rank and a highly respected Tamil and Saiva Siddhanta scholar who had a personal library of over 10 000 Tamil books. Dr Hariharan and Janaki had eight children, six sons and two daughters, of whom Srinivasan was the eldest.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The above post is part 1 of a six part series from Mr. Brahmanyan's blog.

Everyone of us know this gentleman veteran with a good sense of humor

and world-wide touring experience.

Let us see what he has to say about himself!

About Me



Brahmanyan

An Octogenarian who believes in Love towards every living thing in the

border-less world.



Thank you sir for allowing me to post the Biography in this thread.

with warm regards,
Visalakshi Ramani.ray2:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Dr. H.SRINIVASAN MBBS., FRCS(Edin.), FRCS(Eng.)

# 59. Part (2).

Dr.Srinivasan had his Elementary and Middle School education at Vellore and completed his High School in the District Board High School at Arni. He was considered as an “above average” student, particularly in Tamil and science, throughout his school career. He completed SSLC in 1943, at the age of thirteen and a half and had to wait for a year to join the intermediate course in science, at Madras Christian College, Tambaram. Here Dr.Srinivasan got his first academic award "Chinnaswami Pillai Prize” for Proficiency in Tamil. He joined the Madras Medical College for his basic Medical Course and took his MBBS degree in 1952. He was a rank student throughout and got "Bradfield Memorial Prize" for combined proficiency in Anatomy and Surgery from the Madras University in 1952.

Dr.Srinivasan worked in Christian Medical College, Vellore during 1953-54 as tutor of Anatomy, mainly to learn Anatomy for the primary FRCS exams and also to save some money for his initial expenditure in UK.

Dr.Srinivasan proceeded to England in 1954 for further studies and to take his fellowship in Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons, London. He got his FRCS (Edinburgh) in 1957 and FRCS (England) in1958. He was in UK from 1954 to 1958 and worked in Hospitals in Birmingham, North Wales and London in different capacities such as House Surgeon, Senior House Surgeon, Registrar and Locum Consultant. During his stay in London he met Dr.M.N.Padma, a Pediatrician from Mysore, doing her post graduation in child health and they got married in 1957 in London. She was the youngest sister of Prof. M.N.Srinivas, one of the most distinguished Sociologists of India.

(From Mr. Brahmanyan's blog)

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Dr. H.SRINIVASAN MBBS., FRCS(Edin.), FRCS(Eng.)

# 59 part 3.

On his return to India in 1959, Dr.Srinivasan joined Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore as Reader in Orthopedic Surgery and worked as Hon. Surgeon (Orthopedic Surgery) in Government Wenlock Hospital, Mangalore, Karnataka.

He started operating on some leprosy patients while working there and got interested in the problem of deformities in leprosy. This combined with his interest in hand surgery and clinical research plus some idealism made him join as full-time orthopaedic surgeon in Central Leprosy Teaching and Research Institute (CLT&RI) at Chingleput, near Madras (now Chennai) , in 1962.

He spent the next twenty-two years there establishing and developing a highly reputed surgical department. It was here that Dr.Srinivasan carried out his research on various aspects of deformities occurring in leprosy patients and developed reconstructive surgical techniques and made a name as distinguished scientist in this field. Some of the surgical procedures introduced by him for the correction of these deformities are widely used in India and many Countries abroad.

He served CLT&RI, Chingleput for 22 years from 1962 to 1984 in various capacities such as Orthopedic Surgeon / Senior Orthopedic Surgeon / Deputy Director (Surgery) and Director-in-charge of the Institute.

After retirement from CLT&RI, He worked as Research Consultant, Portland Hand Surgery & Rehabilitation Centre, Portland (OR), USA for about two and a half years, from 1984 -1986, organizing a comprehensive research program on carpal tunnel syndrome.

Dr. Srinivasan joined in 1987 as Director, Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy (ICMR), Agra, India (1987-1990). During his tenure he opened up the Institute for PhD students and actively promoted academic interaction between the scientists of JALMA and those abroad. His dedication and sincerity has been a source of inspiration to many research scientists in that institution.

(From Mr. Brahmanyan's blog)

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Dr. H.SRINIVASAN MBBS., FRCS(Edin.), FRCS(Eng.)

# 59. Part 4.

Part (4).

Dr.Srinivasan is a staunch believer in free transfer of his knowledge and skills to other Surgeons to reach the benefits to Leprosy patients all over the Country and World. For him “.The goal of science is to add to knowledge, that is to improve our understanding of some aspect of the world around us and for that purpose, like money, knowledge must also be spread”. He has conducted a number of hands-on surgical workshops sponsored by the World Health Organization, on “Reconstructive Surgery in Leprosy” for Professors and Readers of Orthopedic / Plastic surgery from medical colleges in India, training in all about 100 surgeons.

Dr Srinivasan was selected to take over the Editorship of “Indian Journal of Leprosy” from Dr Dharmendra, the doyen among Indian leprologists, in 1990 and he continued to edit that journal for the next 12 years, till June 2001. He has been a member of the Panel of experts in Leprosy of the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1985 and was invited by the WHO to be a member of its Sixth Expert Committee Meeting in 1987 and the Seventh Expert Committee Meeting in 1997

He has presented papers / participated and chaired sessions in National and International conferences / seminars on subjects related to Leprosy and Hand Surgery. He was invited to give lectures in countries outside India as well, like Brazil, Ethiopia, South Africa and Myanmar. He has published more than 90 papers in Indian and foreign Medical Journals.

Dr Srinivasan has authored Three Books, two commissioned and the third sponsored by the WHO, which are considered bench-mark reference material for leprosy workers. He has also contributed chapters in over ten text books of Leprosy, General surgery, Dermatology, Hand Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery.

His talent as artist has been used in illustrating the books authored / co-authored by him, and also extensively used in some other medical text books. He has been President of the Indian Association of Leprologists, a founder member and President of the Indian Society for surgery of the Hand.

(From Mr. Brahmanyan's blog)

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Dr. H.SRINIVASAN MBBS., FRCS(Edin.), FRCS(Eng.)

# 59 (part 5).

Dr. Srinivasan is a voracious reader. His interests are varied and include, History (South India), history of science, especially of medicine, evolutionary biology, mind and brain, cosmology, materialist philosophy, application of philosophy and ethics in science and medicine, graphic arts and Carnatic music.

Tamil Literature has always been his passion. As mentioned earlier, his maternal grandfather, K. Krishna Iyer of Vellore, was a highly respected Tamil scholar and an acknowledged exponent of Saiva Sidhdhantha Philosophy. So also was his uncle Prof. Krishna Sivaraman who served as Professor of Saiva Sidhdhantha in Banaras Hindu University initially and MacMaster University, Canada, later. Dr. Srinivasan himself is a writer in Tamil and has written Novellas, Short stories and Poetry (in vers libre), which were published in Tamil literary magazines and some of them have been included in Anthologies of Tamil short stories (in Tamil, Hindi & English). One of his short stories was selected as “Best short story of the year” in 1971 by a Tamil Literary Forum. A collection of his short stories have been brought out in book form. In the Tamil literary field he is known by his pseudonym “Charvakan”.

Dr. Srinivasan has received numerous awards and honours during his career, including “Padma Shri” award from President of India (1984). He was honoured by the Indian Council of Medical Research with the “JALMA Trust Fund Oration Award” (1979) and the Indian Orthopaedic Association conferred on him the Honorary Fellowship of the Association in 2003. He received the “International Gandhi Award” in 2004 and was conferred “Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa)” by The Medical University of Tamil Nadu also in 2004. The International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand honoured Dr. Srinivasan with the award of “Pioneer of Hand Surgery” in 2007.

On retirement from Agra in 1990, Dr. Srinivasan moved to Chennai. He has two daughters, the elder daughter, Dr. S. Lata, is a foetal pathologist and wife of Dr.Murlidhar Rajagopalan, a dermatologist at Chennai; and the younger daughter Dr. Bharati Srinivasan is a special educator with special interest in autism and wife of Dr. Harpreet Kwatra, an IT engineer in Bangalore. After his wife passed away in 2006, Dr Srinivasan leads a quiet life sharing his time with his family at Chennai and Bangalore.

(From Mr. Brahmanyan's blog)

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Dr. H.SRINIVASAN MBBS., FRCS(Edin.), FRCS(Eng.)

# 59. ( part 6).

Awards, Honors and other Distinctions:

1946 “Chinnaswami Pillai Prize” for proficiency in Tamil, Madras Christian College,
Tambaram, Madras.

1952 “Bradfield Memorial Prize”, for combined proficiency in Anatomy and
Surgery , by University of Madras / Madras Medical College.

1973 Founder member of “Indian Society for Surgery of the Hand” (ISSH)

1975 Best Junior Speaker Medal of ISSH at its Annual Conference at Kolkata.

1978 “A.A.Mehta Memorial Gold Medal” of Indian Orthopaedic Association at its
Annual Conference, at Guwahati, December, 1978.

1979-1980. Pre4sident, Indian Society for Surgery of the Hand.

1979 “JALMA Trust Fund Oration Award”, by ICMR, First recipient.

1983 Member, Discussion Panel of IFSSH, at Boston, USA.

1984 “Padma Shri” by the President of India.

1987 Member, Panel of experts on Leprosy, WHO (till date).

1987 Member, Sixth WHO expert committee on Leprosy.

1988-1990 President Indian Association of Leprologists.

1992-1998 Vice Chairman, Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation.

1993 19th Kellersberger Memorial Lecturer , Ethiopian Medical Association,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1993 State-of-the-Art Lecturer, 14th International Congress of Leprosy, 1993 at
Orlando FL, USA.

1995-1998 Member, New York Academy of Sciences, New York, USA.

1997 Member, Seventh WHO Experts Committee on Leprosy.

1997, Guest Lecturer, 8th Annual Conference of Leprosy Associations of South
American Countries, at Foz de Iguazu, Brazil.

1999 Resource person (invited), along with Dr.Paul Brand, Workshop on
“Paralytic hand” Hong Kong Society for Surgery of the Hand.

2001 State-of-the-Art Lecturer, Golden Jubilee Conference of Indian
Association of Leprologists, at Patna, India.

2002 Chairperson, Session on “Social rehabilitation and Surgery” 16th
International Leprosy Congress, 4-9 August,2002, Salvador, Brazil.

2002 Member, Discussion Panel, on “Prevention of disability and rehabilitation
16th International Leprosy Congress, Salvador, Brazil.

2003 Nominated as Honorary Fellow of Indian Orthopaedic Association, at its
Annual Conference, at Ahmadabad.

2003 Delivered “Prof. R. Venkataswami Oration” at the 27th Annual Conference
Of The Indian Society for Surgery of the Hand, at Bangalore.

2004 International Gandhi Award – 2004 at the hand of the Vice-President of
India, on February 5, 2004.

2004 Doctor Science (Honoris Causa) conferred by the MGR Medical University
Of Tamil Nadu, Chennai on June,25,2004.

2005 State-of-the-Art Lecturer, on Prevention of Disability, at the First African
Leprosy Congress (January 31 – February 3, 2005) at Johannesburg
Republic of South Africa.

2005 Guest Lecturer, National Workshop on “Prevention of Disability in Leprosy”
At Yangon, Myanmar , March, 2005.

2007 “Pioneer of Hand Surgery”, by the International Federation of Societies for
Surgery of the Hand, at 10th Congress of IFSSH at Sydney, Australia. On
March,11, 2007.

2007 Delivered “Prof. Sam C. Bose Oration” at Madurai Medical College.


Books authored by Dr.H.Srinivasan and published by World Health Organization, Geneva:

Prevention of Disabilities in patients with Leprosy : A Practical Guide.

Essential Surgery in Leprosy – Techniques for District Hospitals – Dr. H.Srinivasan and
Dr.D.D.Palande.

Contributed chapters by Dr. H.Srinivasan in the following books and a few others.

1. Mahadevan’s Textbook of Surgery

2. Dharmendra’s Leprosy, Vol. 1

3. Hastings’ Leprosy, Edn.2

4. IADVL Textbook and Atlas of Dermatology .Edns. 1, 2 & 3

5. Textbook of Orthopaedics and Trauma published by Indian Orthopaedic Association, Edns 1 & 2

6. Apley’s System of Orthopaedics 10th Edn. Ed. By Louis Solomon

7. Schwartz & Brandsma’s Reconstructive Surgery in Leprosy

(From Mr. Brahmanyan's blog)

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

I thank Mr. Brahmanyan for allowing me to post the biography of this

great doctor and a grand human being in this thread, in a six part

series. ray2:

 

[Brahmanyan]

I thank Mr. Brahmanyan for allowing me to post the biography of this

great doctor and a grand human being in this thread, in a six part

series. ray2:

Dear Mrs. Visalakshi Ramani,

It is so kind of you to have taken the trouble of posting the Biography of Dr.H.Srinivasan from my Blog. He is a great doctor and a fine human being indeed, seldom we find a person dedicated his life to his profession to ameliorate the suffering of humanity to the extent possible. A simple man who avoided publicity and praise.When I prepared his Biography and shown the draft to Dr.Srinivasan, for approval, first thing he did was to strike off all the adjectives praising him from the draft.
I posted this Biography in my Blog as a mark of respect to him on his 80th Birthday.

I give below the link for his "Dr.Venkataswamy Oration ", which will give an idea about this grand human being:

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/2693/1/pl04002.pdf

Thanks again.

With Warm Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

dear Sir,
I firmly believe that
All great things are simple and
All great men are humble.
Now my faith is renewed.
Thanks for the link.
I am sure everyone will be benefited by that.
with warm regards, ray2:
Visalakshi Ramani.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

After featuring about the two scientists suggested by Nainagaaru,

this thread will be closed for the good of everyone starting with me! (WHEW!!

 

[Naina_Marbus]

After featuring about the two scientists suggested by Nainagaaru,

this thread will be closed for the good of everyone starting with me! (WHEW!!

Are you currently in India? More likely you are enjoying your visit to USA, since you are considering closing the thread?

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

I am in INDIA in my own flat. We will go to USA in July/Aug 2012. My son says he can hold the fort and manage the duties since he and his wife have 3 and 1/2 months vacation. We will be of more help when their classes are resumed in Sept.

I am trying to catch up with the pending stitching and also going back to my pre-forum routine slowly. So the available time has reduced.

I love the "D.D.I.Information" and "Do you know?" too much to be able to close them.

Reg the Poem thread, I HAVE to continue till the Kandapuram is completed. Three more Kaanadam are three. The Third Kaandam out of the six will get completed in about a week's time.

So giving up Adam to Zeus is easier than the other threads!
I hope you understand.

Are you currently in India? More likely you are enjoying your visit to USA, since you are considering closing the thread?

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Dear friends,

This thread will be resumed from tomorrow.

I have to feature on two great men born Tamilnadu - both named

Ramachandran - who have placed India in the world map of

Scientific discoveries, before I wind up my contributions to this

thread.

All of you are welcome to write about any person who has

impressed you. It may be your friend, your family member, your

guru, your neighbor or a favorite leader.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 60. G. N. Ramachandran (part #1)

Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran, or G.N. Ramachandran, (8 October 1922 – 7 April 2001) was a prominent Indian scientist, best known for his work that led to his creation of the famous Ramachandran Plot for understanding peptide structure.

He was the first to propose a triple-helical model for the structure of Collagen. Biology and Physics are the sciences he made other major contributions to.

Education

Ramachandran was born in a Tamil Family in a town Gopalasamudram in Tamil Nadu (India). He joined the Indian Institute of Science -Bangalore- in 1942 in the Electrical Engineering Department.

Quickly realizing his interest in physics, he switched to the Department of Physics to complete his master's and doctoral thesis under the supervision of Sir C. V. Raman, a Nobel laureate.

In 1942, he received M.Sc in Physics from Madras University. He subsequently received his D.Sc degree in 1947. Crystal Physics and Crystal optics were his branches of study.

During his studies he created an X-ray focusing mirror for the X Ray microscope. The resulting field of crystal topography is used extensively in studies involving crystal growth and solid-state activity.

Ramachandran then spent two years (1947–1949) at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where he earned his PhD. He studied X Ray diffuse scattering and its application to determination of elastic constants under the direction of Professor W.A. Wooster, a leading crystallography expert in the world.

 

[Naina_Marbus]

I am in INDIA in my own flat. We will go to USA in July/Aug 2012. My son says he can hold the fort and manage the duties since he and his wife have 3 and 1/2 months vacation. We will be of more help when their classes are resumed in Sept.

I am trying to catch up with the pending stitching and also going back to my pre-forum routine slowly. So the available time has reduced.

I love the "D.D.I.Information" and "Do you know?" too much to be able to close them.

Reg the Poem thread, I HAVE to continue till the Kandapuram is completed. Three more Kaanadam are three. The Third Kaandam out of the six will get completed in about a week's time.

So giving up Adam to Zeus is easier than the other threads!
I hope you understand.

You had undertaken a herculean task which would tax the energies of healthiest youngsters. I am amazed that you could come this far, and very determined to cover the two names that I had passed along.
This thread is more like the Vedas - no single author treatise. So your decision to wind up is perfectly justified. Let the others continue the efforts either here or as a different thread.
Godspeed.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Thank you for understanding.

With the US trip approaching fast, a lot of things have to taken care of.

So I will converge the number of posts and threads to the barest minimum until I will be able to spare more time to the forum.

VEDA is the right word. This thread does not get the attention it deserves. Neither does VEDA!

I have enough threads with MY own original writing. :typing:

So using Wikipedia for bulky info is not a crime I suppose.:nono:

Anyone can do what I am doing in this thread. Simplify the material and punctuate after dividing the bulk into small paras for easy reading and assimilation.

It is more of editing than of writing!!!

You had undertaken a herculean task which would tax the energies of healthiest youngsters. I am amazed that you could come this far, and very determined to cover the two names that I had passed along.
This thread is more like the Vedas - no single author treatise. So your decision to wind up is perfectly justified. Let the others continue the efforts either here or as a different thread.
Godspeed.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 60. G. N. Ramachandran (part #2)

Research

After completing his PhD, he became an assistant professor of Physics in The Indian Institute of science Bangalore in 1949. In 1952, he moved to Madras University as professor and head of the Department of Physics where he continued his work on crystal physics.

His interest shifted to the structure of biological macromolecules. Using X Ray diffraction Ramachandran along with Gopinath Kartha proposed and published the triple helical structure of collagen in 1954.

Wishing to tackle problems at a more fundamental level, Ramachandran decided to use this information to examine the various polypeptide conformations known then. He wished to develop a good 'yardstick' that could be used for examining and assessing any structure in general, but peptides in particular.


The result which emerged from these calculations in 1962, - now popularly known as the Ramachandran plot was published in the Journal of Molecular Biology in 1963. It has now become an essential tool in the field of confirmation of protein.


When it was first calculated, crystal structures had barely been obtained for any protein. From the mid 1960s onward, Ramachandran studied many topics relating to the conformation of peptides.


Ramachandran can be credited for bringing together X Ray crystallography, Peptide synthesis, NMR and other optical studies and Physics-Chemical experimentation into the one field of Molecular Biophysics.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 60. G. N. Ramachandran (part #3)

In 1970, he founded at the Indian Institute of Science the Molecular Biophysics Unit, which soon became the Center of Advanced Study in Biophysics.

In 1971, he moved to Bangalore. Ramachandran and A.V. Lakshminarayana developed convolution-back-projection algorithms which greatly improved the quality and practicality of results obtainable by X-Ray Tomography.

Compared to previously used methods, their algorithms considerably reduced computer processing time for image reconstruction, as well as providing more accurate images.

As a result, commercial manufacturers of X-Ray tomographic scanners started building systems capable of reconstructing high resolution images that were almost photographically perfect.

In 1971, they published their research in a paper “Three dimensional reconstructions from radio graphs and electron micro graphs"

Notable awards that Ramachandran received include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award for Physics in India (1961) and the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London. In 1999. The International Union of Crystallography honored him for his outstanding contributions to crystallography.

Ramachandran died in 2001 at age 78, and left behind him a legacy of scientific discoveries. Professors Linus Pauling and Francis Crick, leading scientists regarded Professor Ramachandran as a great scientist.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 61. V. S. Ramachandran.(part #1.)

Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 1951) is a super specialist in Neuroscience. He is famous for his work in the fields of Behavioral Neurology and Visual Psycho-physics.

He is the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego.

Ramachandran is noted for his use of experimental methods that rely little on complex technologies. Despite the apparent simplicity of his approach, Ramachandran has generated many new ideas about the human brain.

He has been called The Marco polo of neuroscience by Richard Dawkins. Newsweek named him in 1997 as a member of "The Century Club", one of the "hundred most prominent people to watch" in the 21st century.

In 2011 he was listed as one of "the most influential people in the world" on the "Time 100" list.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 61. V. S. Ramachandran.(part #2.)

[h=2]Early life and education
[/h]Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran was born in Tamil Nadu, India in 1951. His father,
V.M. Subramanian, was an engineer who worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and served as a diplomat in Bangkok, Thailand.[SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-11[/SUP]


Ramachandran spent much of his youth moving to several different parts in India and other parts of Asia.[SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-Colapinto-12[/SUP][SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-Observer-13[/SUP] As a young man he attended schools in Madras, Bangkok and England,[SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-14[/SUP] and pursued many scientific interests. [SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-Colapinto-12[/SUP]


Ramachandran obtained his M.B.B.S. from Stanley Medical college in Madras. Subsequently he obtained a PhD from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.


While a graduate student at Cambridge Ramachandran also collaborated on research projects with faculty at Oxford, including David Whitteridge of the Physiology Department.

He then spent two years at Cal-tech as a research fellow and worked with Jack Pettigrew.


He was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California San Diego in 1983 and has been a full professor there since 1998.

Ramachandran is the grandson of Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer Advocate General of Madras and co-architect of the Constitution Of India.[SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-Observer-13[/SUP][SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran#cite_note-15[/SUP] He is married to Diane Rogers and they have two sons.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 61. V. S. Ramachandran.(part #3.)

Scientific career.

Ramachandran has studied neurological syndromes to investigate neural mechanisms underlying human mental function. He is best known for his work on syndromes such as Phantom limbs, Body Integrity Disorder, delusion and Synesthesia.

More recently his work has focused on the theoretical implications of mirror neurons and the cause of Autism. He is known for the invention of the Mirror Box.

He has published over 180 papers in scientific journals. Twenty of these have appeared Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Perception and Vision Research.

Ramachandran's work in behavioral neurology has received wide media coverage. He has appeared in numerous famous T.V. channels.

He is author of Phantoms in the Brain. He is the editor of the Encyclopedia of the Human Brain (2002), and is co-author of the bi-monthly "Illusions" column in Scientific American Mind.

Ramachandran has recently lamented that science has become too professionalized. In a 2010 interview with the British Neuroscience Association he stated:

"But where I'd really like to go is back in time. I'd go to the Victorian age, before science had professionalized and become just another 9–5 job, with power-brokering and grants nightmares. Back then scientists just had fun. People like Darwin and Huxley; the whole world was their playground."