Background
Rango Asundi was born on August 14, 1895, in Asundi, a village in Belgaum district in the southern state of Karnataka in India.
Rango Asundi was born on August 14, 1895, in Asundi, a village in Belgaum district in the southern state of Karnataka in India.
Rango Krishna Asundi studied at Bombay University, where he obtaibed B.A. in 1917 ; B.Sc. in 1919 ; M.Sc. in 1924.He obtained his PhD degree (1929) from the University of London, UK. His specialization was in physics particularly, in spectroscopy.
Rango was Reader and Chairman, Physics Department, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU); Professor of Physics (1939-1949), Professor of Spectroscopy (1949-1950) and Head (1953-1956), Department of Spectroscopy, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi; and Physicist, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Bombay (1957-1982).
Asundi was one of the pioneers in India in molecular spectroscopy. The very first piece of work that he took up was on the molecular spectrum of carbon monoxide. In his attempts to systematize the spectrum, he discovered an electronic band system, which has since been named after him. The first detailed analysis of the high-pressure carbon bands followed immediately, identifying the emitter of the bands to be C2 having the same final level as the Swan system. Another important contribution of Asundi was the discovery of the diffuse emission bands of halogens.
