Bengaluru: On the campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, there is a large house hidden behind rusty white doors and nestled among tall dark green trees. It is the residence of the institute’s registrar, which is unremarkable except that it was here that the legendary physicist Max Born lived for six months while teaching at the university.

One of the lesser-known aspects of the development of Indian academia almost 100 years ago is the presence and contribution of a number of legendary international scientists who visited the country. In 1935, Born, known for his considerable role in the development of quantum mechanics, joined the IISc at the invitation of Indian physicist CV Raman. He had every intention of settling down and making the city his home, but that wasn’t to be.

It was there that Born worked on quantum mechanics, the study of the fundamental behavior of particles that make up the building blocks of nature and atoms. He made an important contribution to this field, called Born’s rule, and predicted the position of a particle. In 1954, the German physicist won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in this field.

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The first connection with India

While Born was in the UK, Raman invited him to IISc, Bengaluru. Raman, who had won the Nobel Prize in 1930 for the Raman effect, had become director of the institute the same year Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and intended to make the institute a powerhouse of physics . He wanted the best physicists in the world to join his institute.

In a letter to Born, Raman wrote that the IISc Council had invited him to accept a special appointment as reader in theoretical physics. He was offered an honorarium of ₹15,000 for six months, “a princely salary”, according to the IISc magazine. Connect.

In 1935, Born quickly accepted Raman’s invitation and moved to Bengaluru, with his wife, Hedi. He began his term there on October 1, 1935, and lived on campus, the magazine noted.

Based on Born’s autobiography My life: memories of a Nobel laureatehe lived in the two-story bungalow on campus.

“We had a large garden with beautiful trees and flowers,” he wrote, “and two tennis courts protected by wonderful bougainvillea. The Raman family lived in a similar house just across the road.

There is little information about who lived in the bungalow before the Borns. Today, it is the residence of the university registrar. The neighboring house that Raman lived in – also nestled in the trees, inside white doors – is home to the institute’s director.

ThePrint is in touch with IISc archives and has contacted the registrar through calls. The report will be updated when new information becomes available.

A bittersweet time in India

According to the ConnectBorn had a bittersweet time in India. Although he greatly appreciated the culture, food and lifestyle, he was greatly hampered by poverty. In his book he admired the way Hindus and “Mohammedans” lived side by side, without “any friction”. Although there is no physical object commemorating his passing, his legacy lives on at the institute as researchers build on his knowledge.

At IISc, Born lectured on topics that were the topic of the day.

One of the greatest quests in physics, even today, is that of the Grand Unified Theory. The laws of physics apply today at different scales, for example atomic or gravitational. One person’s laws do not apply to others, necessitating a new set of laws. The Grand Unified Theory aims to provide a set of equations or laws that can encompass all other laws of physics under one roof.

Researchers are far from achieving this, but it’s not for lack of trying. Among the many theoretical physicists, Born was also at the forefront of this research. After his arrival in India, one of his most famous lectures, Connect said, was that of the fine structure constant, commonly denoted by the Greek letter alpha (α), a “dimensionless entity” with a value of 137 which is calculated using the speed of light, Planck’s constant and the charge of an electron.

It was called The Mysterious Number 137.

Born also had first-hand experience of the politics and power struggles within Indian academia, including Raman’s strained relationship with the institute’s board of trustees. Raman’s propensity to change the work culture was not well received, according to the IISc. Connect. The head of the chemistry department, the British professor HE Watson, was particularly upset by his changes which required significant financial investments.

He rejected Raman’s proposal to give Born a permanent position, citing lack of funds. Né left six months after arriving in India.

In total, according to ConnectBorn has given 30 lectures as a reader in theoretical physics in the new Department of Physics at IISc, both inside and outside the institute. Raman was the only faculty member at the time and had written to a number of famous international physicists of the time, including Erwin Schrödinger, who expressed regret for not settling in the “land of the Upanishads” because that he had just accepted a position in Dublin, Ireland, the magazine said.

A break with the Ramans

The German physicist’s legacy endures both within and outside of academia. For example, according to the 2005 book The End of a Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born by Nancy Greenspan, Born was a close friend of Albert Einstein. Not only did they have deep discussions about world peace during World War I, but they also played music together – Born on piano and Einstein on violin.

After reading the book, historian Indira Chowdhury commented in her 2008 work Noon article how he looked, in Born, Raman looked like a prince from “1001 Nights, young and slim with a sparkling and intelligent face, wearing a fine white muslin turban with a golden braid on a dark head”.

As for Raman’s relationship with Born, it persisted for some time, until the former began to disagree with Born’s work on lattice theory of how crystalline solids come together and vibrate in a structure. Raman felt that Born’s theories were at odds with his observations, according to Connect. The professional disagreement seeped into their personal lives.

According to ConnectBorn and his wife met Raman only twice after leaving IISc. The first, it is specified, took place on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the Raman effect in France and the second, during a congregation of Nobel laureates in Germany. Born commented on their loss of friendship with Raman’s wife Lokasundari. “Hedi and I regret all this and especially the breakup between us and Lady Raman, whom we loved very much,” Born wrote in his book.

Beyond academia, however, the nondescript bungalow tucked away on campus is a testament to the fact that memories of Born’s time on the college campus have largely faded. There is very little information available to the public and ThePrint’s efforts to access the archives continue.

“I think he was very happy to be here in the physics department. He would have liked to continue, but it was not possible for various reasons,” said Professor Arnab Rai Choudhuri, astrophysicist at IISc.

“I think some very good students worked with him, like Nagendra Nath, who later became known for his work with Raman. But little is known today about Born’s time here, except mainly what is found in his autobiography.

(Edited by Sanya Mathur)

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