Nobel Prize winner in quantum physics Max Born once taught at IISc. His 6 months in India were bittersweet.

Bangalore: On the campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore sits a large house hidden behind a rusty white gate and surrounded by tall, dark green trees. This is the residence of the institute’s registrar, unremarkable except for the fact that it was here that the legendary physicist Max Born lived for six months while he taught 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 scholars from around the world who visited the country. In 1935, Born, known for his enormous role in the development of quantum mechanics, joined the Institute at the invitation of the Indian physicist K.V. Ramana. He had every intention of settling down and making the city his home, but this did not happen.

It started in 1933. When the Nazis came to power, Born was removed from his professorship at the University of Göttingen because he was Jewish. Despite his rich contributions to science and the mentorship of such famous physicists as Enrico Fermi and Robert J. Oppenheimer, he had to flee Germany. He moved to Cambridge, UK, where he worked as a temporary lecturer from 1933 to 1935.

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

First connection with India

While Bourne was in the UK, Raman invited him to IISc in Bangalore. Raman, who won the Nobel Prize in 1930 for the Raman effect, became director of the institute the same year that Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, and intended to transform the institute into a powerhouse of physics. He wanted the best physicists from all over 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 a lecturer in theoretical physics. According to IISc magazine, he was offered a fee of £15,000 for six months, a “king’s salary”. Unite.

In 1935, Bourne immediately accepted Raman’s invitation and moved to Bangalore along with his wife Hedy. He began his term there on Oct. 1, 1935, and lived on campus, the magazine notes.

According to Bourne’s autobiography My life: memories of a Nobel laureateHe lived in a two-story bungalow on campus.

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

There is little information about who lived in the bungalow before the Bourns. Today it is the residence of the university registrar. In the house next door to where Raman lived, also hidden among the trees behind a white gate, lives the director of the institute.

ThePrint is in touch with IISc archives and contacted the registrar over phone. The report will be updated as new information becomes available.

Bittersweet time in India

According to UniteBourne had a bittersweet time in India. Although he enjoyed the culture, food and lifestyle tremendously, he was greatly troubled by poverty. In his book, he admired the way Hindus and “Mohammedans” lived side by side, “without friction.” Although there are no physical objects reminiscent of his work, his legacy lives on at the institute as researchers build on his knowledge.

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

One of the biggest searches in physics even today is the search for the Grand Unified Theory. The laws of physics today apply on different scales, such as the atomic and gravitational. The laws of one do not apply to others, which requires a new set of laws. Grand Unified Theory aims to create a set of equations or laws that can unify all other laws of physics under one roof.

Researchers are far from achieving this goal, but not for lack of trying. Among many theoretical physicists, Born was also at the forefront of these studies. After he arrived in India, one of his most famous lectures took place. Unite said it is a fine structure constant, usually 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 the electron.

It was called “Mysterious Number 137”.

Bourne also had first-hand experience of politics and power struggles in Indian academia, including Raman’s strained relationship with the institute’s administrative council. According to IISc, Raman’s penchant for changing work culture has not been well received. Unite. The head of the Department of Chemistry, British Professor H.E. Watson, was especially irritated by his changes, which required large financial investments.

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

Total, according to UniteBorn gave 30 talks during his tenure as a lecturer in theoretical physics while working in the newly created IISc Physics Department, both inside and outside the institute. Raman was the only faculty member there at the time and wrote to a number of renowned international physicists of the time, including Erwin Schrödinger, who famously expressed regret at not settling in the “land of the Upanishads” because he had just accepted a position in Dublin, Ireland, the magazine reports.

Split with Raman

The German physicist’s legacy lives on both inside and outside academic circles. For example, according to a 2005 book The End of a Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born Nancy Greenspan, Bourne was a close friend of Albert Einstein. Not only did they discuss world peace in depth during World War I, but they also played music together—Born on the piano and Einstein on the violin.

After reading the book, historian Indira Chowdhury commented in her 2008 book: Noon In the article on how it looked, Bornu Raman seemed like a prince from “1001 Nights, young and slender, with a sparkling, intelligent face, dressed in a thin white muslin turban with a golden braid on his dark head.”

As for Raman’s relationship with Born, it continued for some time until the former began to disagree with Born’s work on lattice theory about how crystalline solids come together and vibrate in a structure. According to Raman, Born’s theories were at odds with his observations. Unite. Professional disagreements spilled over into personal life.

According to UniteBourne and his wife met Raman only twice after graduating from IISc. The first, he said, took place at the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the Raman effect in France, and the second at a meeting of Nobel laureates in Germany. Bourne commented on the loss of his friendship with Raman’s wife Lokasundari. “Hedy and I regret all this and especially the rift between us and Lady Raman, whom we loved dearly,” Bourne wrote in his book.

However, outside of academia, the nondescript bungalow tucked away on campus is testament to the fact that Bourne’s memories of his time on campus have largely faded. There is very little information available to the public and attempts by ThePrint to access the archives are still ongoing.

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

“I think he had very good students working with him, like Nagendra Nath, who later became famous for his work with Raman. But today little is known about Bourne’s time here, except for what is contained in his autobiography.”

(Editing by Sanya Mathur)