Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan: A national programme to ... - Vigyan Prasar

Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray
Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray was born on 2 August, 1861 in Khulna
district in present-day Bangladesh. His father Harish Chandra Ray was
a land proprietor. Up to the age of nine, Prafulla Chandra studied in a
school in his village. In 1870 his family migrated to Calcutta and Ray
and his elder brother were admitted to Hare School. When in the fourth
standard, he suffered from a severe attack of dysentery and had to
postpone his studies for a couple of years and return to his ancestral
home in the village. However, he utilised this time in reading literature.
A pioneer of chemical research in India, Prafulla Chandra Ray joined
the Presidency College as a lecturer in chemistry in 1889 after completing
higher education at the Edinburgh University in UK. With the help of
a renowned French chemist, Berthelot, he did commendable research
work in Ayurveda. His work History of Hindu Chemistry was published in
1902. In 1892, he founded Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works,
India’s first pharmaceutical company, which progressed phenomenally
under his guidance. He attended several international science congresses
and seminars as a representative of Indian universities. In 1920, he was
elected President of Indian Science Congress.
Prafulla Chandra Ray’s ultimate aim was to make use of the
wonders of science for the uplift of the masses. He wrote several articles