chemistry

R. Rajalakshmi (scientist)

R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) rather than just read about it. In short: R. Rajalakshmi (1926–2007) was an Indian biochemist and nutritionist.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

R. Rajalakshmi (1926–2007) was an Indian biochemist and nutritionist. She developed nutritious, economical diets for Indian families.

Biography Lakshmi Ramaswami was born in 1926 in Quilon, Kerala to Meenakshi and G.S. Ramaswami. She added Raja to her given name at the age of five and grew up in Madras, where her father was employed as a postal audit officer. Rajalakshmi attended Wadia College in Pune, earning a mathematics degree in 1945. She taught science in Kanchipuram from 1945 to 1948 and received her teaching certificate from Lady Willingdon Training College in 1949. Rajalakshmi married C. V. Ramakrishnan in 1951. She taught at Annamalai University and earned her MA in philosophy from Banaras Hindu University in 1953. Ramakrishnan became head of the University of Baroda's biochemistry department in 1955. Rajalakshmi earned a PhD in psychology from McGill University in Montreal in 1958. She was mentored by psychologist Donald O. Hebb and finished her PhD in under 18 months. Rajalakshmi was hired by the University of Baroda in 1964. She was part of the foods and nutrition department until 1967 when she joined the biochemistry department. She became a full professor in 1976 and headed the department from 1984 to 1986. In the early 1960s, Rajalakshmi managed and revised a UNICEF-sponsored nutrition program. At the time and courses in nutrition were based on Western textbooks that included foods that were either expensive or unavailable in India. With her husband, Rajalakshmi moved to Palo Alto, California in the 1990s to live near her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. She and her relatives moved to Seattle, Washington in 2001. She died there from renal failure in June 2007.

Personal life Rajalakshmi was married to C. V. Ramakrishnan. They had two children, Nobel Prize-winning structural biologist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Cambridge microbiologist Lalita Ramakrishnan.

References

Further reading Rajalakshmi, R. "Autobiography of an Unknown Woman." Women Scientists: The Road to Liberation, edited by Derek Richter, pp. 185–210. London: Macmillan, 1982.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with R. Rajalakshmi (scientist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist)

In research: R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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: R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1926 births, 2007 deaths, 20th-century Indian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) in simple terms?

R. Rajalakshmi (1926–2007) was an Indian biochemist and nutritionist.

Why does R. Rajalakshmi (scientist) 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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist)?

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 R. Rajalakshmi (scientist).