Venkataraman, Krishnasami

Born June 7, 1901, in Madras. Indian chemist. Member of the Indian National Academy of Sciences (1973).

Venkataraman graduated from the University of Madras in 1922, and from 1929 to 1934 he was a professor at Forman Christian College in Lahore. In 1935 he joined the staff of the University of Bombay; from 1938 to 1957 he was a professor at the university and the head of its subdepartment of chemical technology. From 1957 to 1966 he was the director of the National Chemical Laboratory in Poona.

Venkataraman’s principal works deal with the synthesis of dyes and the study of their physical and chemical properties. He wrote Volumes 1 and 2 of The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes and edited Volumes 3 through 6 of the multivolume work, which was published in Russian translation between 1956 and 1977.

Venkataraman became a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1976.