CHEMPHORE: Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray,The Father of Indian Chemistry

Born on 2nd August,1861,in the village of Raruli of the Khulna district of the undivided Bengal (now in Bangladesh), Prof. P.C Ray was a great scientist & humanist.

He started learning chemistry in the Presidency College.After that he sailed to Britain and took admission in the Edinburgh University.He was awarded D.Sc. degree for his thesis "Conjugated Sulphates of Copper Magnesium Group:A Study of Isomorphous Mixtures & Molecular Combinations".He returned to India in 1888 and started teaching at the Presidency College.He performed many interesting experiments before the students to illustrate certain points. Sometimes he would took a piece of bone,heat it in a Bunsen burner,and then suddenly drop it inside his mouth to show that it was just calcium phosphate,and that it did not matter from which animal the bone came! Prof. Ray worked on several types of compounds like double salts,nitrite compounds,sulphar containing organic compounds etc.He had done some remarkable research on indigenous medicine.After the retirement from the Presidency,he joined at newly established Calcutta University and built the chemistry department of the university.

He wrote several books on chemistry and literature as well. In his book"The History Of Hindu Chemistry",he described ancient scientific knowledge of acids,alkali metals and alloys of Indian people. Acharya Ray was a strong supporter of industrialization.He took initiatives to build up Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works (BCPW),India's first pharmaceutical company.The company initially made things like surgical instruments,talcum powder,toothpaste & glycerin soap.

He was not only a chemist but also a social worker.He used to help poor people.During the India's freedom movement he once said, addressing in a meeting "...There are occasions that demanded that I should leave the test tube to attend to the call of the country....Science can wait but Swaraj can not.."             

The Nature comments on P.C. Ray "A more remarkable career than that of P.C. Ray could not well be chronicled".