Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 12 (IANS): Former Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Director General Shekhar C Mande on Friday said the younger generation is not really aware of the contributions of eminent biophysicist G. N. Ramachandran (GNR) who was the one who truly deserved the Nobel prize.

"Dr Ramachandran's outstanding outputs are as profound, if not more, as Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman. The legacy of the rich developments happening in structural sciences in India traces to Raman, to whom GNR was one of the illustrious students. If you look at the breadth of GNR's contributions to biophysics, it is probably more than that of his mentor," Mande said

Ramachandran had discovered the triple helical structure of collagen, the most abundant protein in human body in 1955, Mande said while delivering Dr G N Ramachandran Memorial Lecture at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) here.

Mande said GNR was one of the foremost persons in structural sciences in the previous generation, besides being the founder of the field of molecular biophysics.

He said that GNR is also known for his work that led to his creation of the 'Ramachandran plot' for understanding peptide structure.