Vulimiri Ramalingaswami

Who was Vulimiri Ramalingaswami?

Vulimiri Ramalingaswami was an Indian medical scientist.

He was born to an orthodox Brahmin family in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, South India to V. Gumpaswami and V. Sundaramma. His father was a government servant. The greatest single influence on Rama was that of his paternal grandfather, Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, after whom he was named. His grandfather carried the honorific title of ‘Pantulu Gaaru’ which in Telugu means ‘respected teacher’. He was a scholar of Sanskrit, Telugu, and English, and was a graduate in English literature from Madras University. A staunch nationalist who did not want to serve under an alien government, his grandfather chose to be headmaster of a high school started by the Raja of Bobbili, which he developed into the best school in the Andhra Pradesh of that time. He received his medical education from Andhra Medical College, Vishakapatnam and then went on a scholarship to Oxford. His pioneering research on nutrition got him elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of London. He was also the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences and later on director general of Indian Council of Medical Research and President of the Indian National Science Academy. He was regarded a teacher of international repute in the areas of nutritional deficiency.