Sarangapani Parthasarathy received DSc (1934) from University of Bombay. He became Assistant Director and Head, Division of Sound, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.

Academic and Research Achievements: Parthasarathy made extensive studies in the areas: classical scattering of light, Raman effect, and X-ray diffraction, physics of corrosion, and in ultrasonics in which he was considered an authority. He established a correlation between depolarization factor and chemical constitution after critically examining the scattering of light by gases and vapours. He propounded a molecular theory of scattering of light by binary liquid mixtures taking account of both optical anisotropy of the molecules and the anisotropy of the Lorentz polarization field which effectively diminishes the molecular optical anisotropy. His work on the equivalence of sonic and thermal energies opened up a new branch of ultrasonics: thermosonics.

Other contributions: Parthasarathy was the representative of the Government of India on the British Mission which was sent to Japan by the British Chiefs of Staff to report on the physical damage done by atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Learned and Professional Societies: Dr Parthasarathy was elected Fellow of the Institute of Physics, London, and Royal Institute of Chemistry (Great Britain and Ireland); Special Fellow, Nobel Institute, Stockholm; and President, Physics Section, Indian Science Congress (1960).