Dr.N. Ramanthan

Only a short period before his retirement, Dr. Ramanathan, Deputy Director of CLRI was appointed as the Director of the Institute, though he had, on several occasions held the post of acting director. Very few scientists surpass the academic qualifications of Dr. Ramanathan. He took his M.Sc., degree with distinction and had two Ph.Ds to his credit; one from Bombay University and another from Leeds University, U.K. During his service with CLRI for over thirty years he had two hundred research papers to his credit and did extensive work on footwear, collagen and electron microscopy. His work on collagen is internationally well known. He edited a book on the subject which was published by John Wiley of New York. He had the distinction of evolving a shoe-sizing system which was acclaimed as a significant contribution to the footwear industry.

Dr. Ramanathan had travelled widely on various assignments. Unassuming by nature and much devoted to his research activity he did not care much for publicity or limelight. He was a scholar in Tamil and a strict disciplinarian in his administration.

After becoming director of CLRI too he loved to work on his research projects. Dr. Ramanathan died on 6th August, 1980 after a brief illness.