Kolkata is a city known for many things, from being the capital of British India, to being the home of Cricket’s Mecca, the Eden Gardens. It is well-known for its iconic cantilevered Howrah bridge, and it is also known for being the only city in India that still runs trams.
Click here to read the full profile of the Nobel laureates
But one thing sets this city apart from others: it has, at one point or other, played a key role in the lives of six Nobel laureates, either by being their place of birth or being the place where they did some of their greatest work. Together, these six people have won a Nobel in five out of the awards’ six categories — Literature, Physics, Peace, Economics, Medicine and Chemistry — a feat perhaps no other city in the world can boast of.
1902 Medicine Nobel: Ronald Ross was awarded the Nobel for his discovery of the malarial parasite.
1979 Peace Nobel: Mother Teresa, the Albanian-born Christian missionary who worked among the poorest of the poor, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1913 Literature Nobel: Rabindranath Tagore, known as ‘Gurudev’ or “Kabiguru” is the first Indian to win a Nobel prize. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature for Gitanjali, a collection of poems.
1930 Physics Nobel: Sir CV Raman or Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman won the award for physics, becoming the first person from Asia to win a science Nobel for the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’.
1998 Economics Nobel: Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998 for his research in welfare economics.
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