Today (August 21, 1995) is the Memorial Day of Nobel Prize-winning Indian physicist Subramanian Chandrasekhar
Today ( August 21, 1995 ) is the Memorial Day of Nobel Prize-winning Indian physicist Subramanian Chandrasekhar, who discovered that a small star could explode and form a bright 'supernova'. Chandra’s commitment to teaching was legendary. In the 1940s, he drove 200 miles round trip each week from Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisc., to the University to teach a class on stellar atmospheres. One day he insisted on driving from Yerkes to teach the class despite a heavy snowstorm. Chandra ended up teaching a class of only two that day. The two students––Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang––won the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics, obtaining the distinction even before their professor. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, Punjab, India (now Pakistan) to C. Subramanian Iyer and Sita Lakshmi Amma. His father worked as a government official. Subramanian Chandrasekhar's family moved to Chennai after spending five years in Lahore and two years in Luckno...