Ram Nath Chopra

{{Use Indian English|date=April 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Ram Nath Chopra

| image = Ram Nath Chopra 1983 stamp of India.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1882|8|17|df=y}}

| birth_place = Gujranwala, Punjab Province, British India (now Gujranwala, Pakistan)

| death_date = {{death date and age|1973|6|13|1882|8|17|df=y}}

| death_place = Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

| fields = Pharmacology

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| known_for = Father of Indian Pharmacology; Doyen of science and medicine{{cite web|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140107091320/http://www.pharmainfo.net/pharmapeople/sir-colonel-ram-nath-chopra|archive-date=7 January 2014|url-status=live|work=Roja Rani|url=http://www.pharmainfo.net/pharmapeople/sir-colonel-ram-nath-chopra|access-date=7 January 2014|title=Sir Colonel Ram Nath Chopra}}

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| awards = Knighthood (1941)
Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE; 1934)

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Sir Ram Nath Chopra CIE, IMS (17 August 1882 – 13 June 1973) was an Indian Medical Service officer and a doyen of science and medicine of India. He is considered the "Father of Indian Pharmacology" for his work on pharmaceuticals and his quest for self-sufficiency of India in drugs through the experimental evaluation of indigenous and traditional drugs. After service in the army, he established a research laboratory where he worked as a professor of Pharmacology at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine which was established in 1921. He also served as the director of this institute from the year 1935 to 1941. {{cite web |title=Past Directors |url=https://www.stmkolkata.org/past-directors |website=www.stmkolkata.org |access-date=31 January 2025}}

Chopra was born in Gujranwala. His father Raghu Nath was a government official. After school in Lahore he went to the Government College there and then went to England in 1903 and studied at the Downing College, Cambridge. In 1905 he qualified in the Natural Sciences Tripos and was admitted BA. He received a B.Chir. in 1908 and an MA in 1909. He worked under Walter E. Dixon professor of the newly established position in pharmacology. He was inspired by the experimental approaches in pharmacology.{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev.pa.05.040165.000245|author=Chopra, R.N. | title=Problems and Prospects of a Pharmacological Career in India|pages=1–8|journal=Annual Review of Pharmacology|year=1965|volume=5|doi-access=free}} While at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, Chopra wrote the examination for the Indian Medical Service and stood third in it. Chopra was commissioned a lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service on 1 August 1908 and promoted to captain on 1 August 1911. He saw active service in East Africa and in the Afghan War of 1919.{{London Gazette|issue=28230|page=1761|date=5 March 1909}}{{London Gazette|issue=28547|page=7960|date=3 November 1911}} He was promoted to the temporary rank of major on 7 May 1919 and confirmed in the substantive rank on 1 August 1920, (back-dated to 1 February 1920).{{London Gazette|issue=32098|page=10308|date=26 October 1920}}{{London Gazette|issue=32757|page=7378|date=20 October 1922}} In 1922 he was appointed Professor of Pharmacology at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine which had been established the year before. He took a special interest in indigenous drugs and noted that a key aim for India should be self-sufficiency in drug resources. He conducted pioneering studies on herbal remedies including Rauvolfia serpentina. He headed a Drugs Enquiry Committee of 1930–31 which examined the need for imports, control and legislation.{{cite journal|journal=Indian Journal of History of Science| volume=43| issue=2| year=2008| pages=231–264 |title=Ram Nath Chopra (1882–1973) – A visionary in Pharmaceutical science| url=http://www.insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol43_2_4_HSingh.pdf|author=Singh, Harkishan}}

Chopra took an interest in public health.{{cite journal|url=https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_010_02_0109_0116_0.pdf|title=Organization of public health and medical service in India|journal= Current Science| volume=10| issue=2| year=1941|pages= 109–116 |author=Chopra, R.N.}} He was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in the 1934 New Year Honours list and knighted in the 1941 New Year Honours list.{{London Gazette|issue=34010|supp=y|page=6|date=29 December 1933}}{{London Gazette|issue=35029|supp=y|page=2|date=31 December 1940}}{{cite web|title=RAMNATH CHOPRA|url=http://www.indianpost.com/viewstamp.php/Paper/Unwatermarked%20indigenous%20stamp%20paper/RAMNATH%20CHOPRA|publisher=Indian Post office|access-date=24 May 2013}}{{cite web|title=Sir Colonel Ram Nath Chopra|url=http://www.pharmainfo.net/pharmapeople/sir-colonel-ram-nath-chopra|publisher=pharmainfo.net|access-date=24 May 2013}} Government of India issued a postal stamp on his 101st birth anniversary with a denomination of Fifty paise{{cite journal|url=|title=Colonel R. N. Chopra (Postal Stamp)|journal= Indian Journal of Pharmacology| volume=34| issue=| year=2002|pages= 255 |author=Syed Ziaur Rahman}}