chemistry

P. T. Narasimhan

P. T. Narasimhan is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand P. T. Narasimhan rather than just read about it. In short: Palliakaranai Thirumalai Narasimhan (28 July 1928 – 3 May 2013), popularly known as PTN or Jim, was an Indian theoretical chemist, one of the pioneers of computational chemistry in India and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was known for his studies on quantum-mechanical interpretation of magnetic resonance data and his contributions in developing IIT Kanpur into a Centre of Excellence i…

Key takeaways

P. T. Narasimhan belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect P. T. Narasimhan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of P. T. Narasimhan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Palliakaranai Thirumalai Narasimhan (28 July 1928 – 3 May 2013), popularly known as PTN or Jim, was an Indian theoretical chemist, one of the pioneers of computational chemistry in India and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was known for his studies on quantum-mechanical interpretation of magnetic resonance data and his contributions in developing IIT Kanpur into a Centre of Excellence in academic research in the basic sciences. He was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1970, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Biography

P. T. Narasimhan, born on 28 July 1928 in Cuddalore, a coastal town in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, did his graduate studies (BSc) at the Madras Christian College of the University of Madras and passed a master's degree from the same college. Subsequently, he joined the Indian Institute of Science and secured a PhD in physical chemistry in 1955 under his Ph.D. mentor R. S. Krishnan. His post-doctoral research was at the laboratory of Max T. Rogers of the Michigan State University from 1957 to 1959 and with Martin Karplus, the recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013 during 1959 to 1961; starting at University of Illinois and when Karplus moved to Columbia University, Narasimhan followed him. He returned to India to join the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1962 as an assistant professor where he became a professor in 1965 and stayed there till his superannuation in 1988. After retirement from academic service, he moved his base to Pasadena, California where he continued his research at the Huntington Medical Research Institutes and later, at the Beckman Institute of the California Institute of Technology. Narasimhan was married to Leena and the couple had two daughters, Nalini and Nandini, and a son, Vikram in between. The family lived in Sunnyvale and it was here he died on 3 May 2013, at the age of 84, survived by his wife, children and six grand children. Narasimhan was known to have been competent in carnatic music and performed at various stages as a flautist in the US and in India.

Legacy Narasimhan, who chose physical chemistry for his research for PhD, focused on the theory of nuclear spin coupling constants during his stint at Martin Karplus' laboratory; his mentor would go on to propound the Karplus equation which describes the correlation between coupling constants and dihedral angles in proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. His studies of the structure and properties of molecules were based on quantum-mechanical interpretation of magnetic resonance data and those studies assisted in widening the understanding of chemical bonding, conformation, chemical reactivity and electrical and magnetic properties of molecules. His contributions helped in the development of dynamic nuclear polarization at X-band in India, covering both the instrumentation and chemical applications. Some of the important contributions from Narasimhan were in the field of computational chemistry and the work of his research school at the IITK was reported to have pioneered the discipline in India. He and his colleagues developed indigenously-built phase locked super-regenerative oscillator-detectors and pulsed Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) double resonance system. They also investigated the high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance of small molecules dissolved in liquid crystalline, the alternating linewidth in Electron Spin Resonance, coupling constants in nuclear magnetic resonance, and Sternheimer shielding and anti-shielding factors employing the Hartree–Fock method. His expertise in the field prompted the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences to seek his assistance when they decided to establish one of the first magnetic resonance imaging facilities in the country which he successfully accomplished. He also worked on developing a magnetic resonance microscopy as an imaging tool for biological research. Narasimhan published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and mentored 20 doctoral researchers. His doctoral and masters students included Shridhar Ramachandra Gadre, K. D. Sen, N. Chandrakumar, S Shankar, and Manvendra Krishna Dubey (MS 1979) and he guided many researchers in their work. He organized an active research school at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur featuring scholars from physics and chemistry departments which worked on the theoretical and experimental aspects of magnetic resonance. As the head of the department of chemistry, he assisted the department to develop into a centre of excellence in chemical research. He was one of the founders of the Association of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopists of India and served as its secretary. He was associated with the International Society of Magnetic Resonance as a member of its council and chaired the national advisory committee of the IX International Symposium on Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance held in Kanpur in 1988. He also served as the general secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, India for four terms from 1977 to 1980.

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with P. T. Narasimhan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what P. T. Narasimhan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to P. T. Narasimhan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about P. T. Narasimhan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of P. T. Narasimhan

In research: P. T. Narasimhan appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses P. T. Narasimhan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: P. T. Narasimhan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1928 births, 2013 deaths, 20th-century Indian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for P. T. Narasimhan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study P. T. Narasimhan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what P. T. Narasimhan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain P. T. Narasimhan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is P. T. Narasimhan in simple terms?

Why does P. T. Narasimhan matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study P. T. Narasimhan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on P. T. Narasimhan.