In 1924, Dr. K. Rangadhama Rao joined Dr. A.L.Narayan as a research scholar in University of Madras. Both of them worked tenaciously to build up a first rate spectroscopic laboratory second to none in the country. They had then with them a constant deviation spectrograph, a small quartz spectrograph and a medium quartz spectrograph. All these were of low dispersion and low resolving power. At this stage of their work, they required an instrument of high dispersion and high resolving power, which they could not afford. So, K.R.Rao went to Calcutta, where a ten-foot concave grating was available in the
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science of which
C. V. Raman was Director and with the facilities provided there, they further extended their work on analysis of spectra in the visible and ultraviolet regions. He was guided in his research career by Prof. A.Fowler at the
Imperial College of Science and Technology,
London in 1930 in
Atomic Spectra for two years for which he was awarded the D.Sc. Degree from
London University. In 1930, he had the opportunity of working under
Prof. F.Paschen at the
Physikalische Technische Reichsanstalt in
Berlin for six months and under
Prof. Manne Siegbahn in
Upsala,
Sweden on
Vacuum Spectroscopy for another six months. His interest in the field of Spectroscopy was so much that he built a Vacuum Spectrograph of his design with his own expenses at
Potsdam,
Germany. Prof. K.R.Rao's contribution towards physics has placed him in a high position even in his times. His contributions include development of Diatomic and Polyatomic Molecular Spectroscopy laboratory dealing with High Resolution Vibrational structure in electronic transitions,
U.V.Absorption,
Infrared Absorption,
Raman scattering,
Fluorescence and
Phosphorescence and
Crystal Spectra. He also reached the level of construction of microwave test benches and using these techniques he created different lines of investigations in
dielectrics. He contributed to the development of
Radio Frequency Spectroscopy which branched into
Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR),
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and
Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. In India, work on NQR was first initiated by Prof. K. Rangadhama Rao in the Physics laboratories of Andhra University. Kotcherlakota Rangdhama Rao was the Principal of Andhra University Colleges from 1949 to 1957. He was appointed as
Emeritus Professor of Physics at Andhra University (1966–72) and was special officer for the establishment of
Sri Venkateswara University,
Tirupathi (1954). ==Contributions==