Let’s discover the Nobel Laureates of India during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Sir Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross was born in India in 1857 at Almora district in present-day Uttarakhand. His father was a General in the British Army in India. Ross lived in India until he was eight. Then he was sent to a boarding school in England. He later studied medicine at St. Bartholomew Hospital in London.
When Ross was a small boy, he saw many people in India fall ill with malaria. At least a million people would die of malaria due to a lack of proper medication. While Ross was in India his father fell seriously ill with malaria, but unfortunately recovered. This deadly disease left an impression in his mind. When Ross returned to India as part of the British-Indian medical services he was sent to Madras where a large part of his work was treating malaria patients in the army.
Ronald
Ross proved in 1897 the long-suspected link between mosquitoes and malaria. In doing
so he confirmed the hypothesis previously put forward independently by
scientists Alphonse Laveran and Sir Patrick.
Till
that time it was believed that malaria was caused by breathing in bad air and
living in a hot, humid, and marshy environment. Ross studied malaria between
1882 and 1899.
While
posted in Ooty, he fell ill with malaria. After this, he was transferred to the
medical school at Osmania University, Secunderabad. He discovered the presence of
the malarial parasite within a specific species of mosquito, of the genus Anopheles.
He initially called them Dapple-wings.
Ross
made his crucial discovery while dissecting the stomach of a mosquito feeding on
the blood of a malaria victim. He found the previously observed parasite. Through
further study, he established the complete life cycle of this parasite. He
contributed majorly to the epidemiology of malaria and brought a method to its
survey and assessment. Most importantly he made mathematical models for further
study.
In
1902, Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his remarkable work on malaria
and was conferred Knighthood as a mark of his great contribution to the world of
medicine. In 1926, he became the Director of the Ross Institute and Hospital
for Tropical Diseases in London, which was founded in his honor. Ross
dedicatedly advocated the cause and prevention of malaria in different
countries by conducting surveys and initiating schemes in many places,
including West Africa, Greece, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, and many areas
affected by the First World War.
 |
In India, Ross is remembered with great respect and love. There are roads named after him in many Indian towns and cities. The Regional Infectious of Tropical Disease Hospital at Hyderabad was named after him as Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases in Recognition of his services. The building where he worked and actually discovered the malarial parasite, located in Secunderabad near the old Begumpet airport, is a heritage site, and the road leading up to the building is named Sir Ronald Ross Road.
(Excerpt from SCIENCE INDIA-The National Science Magazine, ISSN 0972-8287)
-> Read on Sir C V Raman - the discoverer of "The Raman Effect"
-> Read on Nobel Prize Winner in Physics- Sri. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
-> Read on Indian Nobel Laureate- Dr. HarGovind Khurana
-> Read on Nobel Laureate of India- Sri. Venkataraman Ramakrishnan
| Nobel Laureate of Indian | Nobelprize
Comments
Post a Comment
Comment here