While in Kolkata, he started working on his area of interest at Indian Association for Cultivation of Science founded by Dr. Mahendra Lal Sirkar, during his evening hours. His area of interest included vibrations, variety of musical instruments, ultrasonics, diffraction and so on.
In 1917 he was offered Professorship at Calcutta University. In 1924 he was elected ‘Fellow’ of the Royal Society of London and received Nobel prize in Physics in 1930 for his discovery, now known as Raman Effect.
The Raman Effect deals with scattering of light by molecules of a medium when they are excited to vibrational energy levels. This work opened totally new avenues for research for years to come. He spent his later years at Bangalore, first at Indian Institute of Science and then at Raman Research Institute. His work has inspired generation of young students.