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Dr. C.S. Menon completed his M. Sc. programme from the Kerala University Study Centre which was functioning at the present Cochin University Campus. Stalwarts like Prof. R.P. Pisharody (who was a Ph D student under Sir. C.V. Raman), Prof. G. Aruldas etc were his teachers there.
After his M. Sc., he had a brief stint as a lecturer at the M.A. College, Kothamangalam. Then he joined the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras for research under the guidance of Prof. R. Srinivasan (another Ph. D. student of Sir. C.V. Raman, later became the chairman of DAE consortium, Indore and then the scientific advisor to the Prime Minister of India), and Prof. Ramji Rao. He worked on Lattice dynamics with a fellowship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and within a record time of two years he completed his Ph. D. work and became one of the first Keralites to finish Ph. D. from IIT, Madras.
He continued at IIT Madras as a Research Associate for some time and later joined Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as a visiting scientist and worked on neutron scattering under the supervision of another key personality of Indian scietific research, Dr. P.K. Ayyankar, who later became the Chairman of Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
Then he joined Regional research Laboratory (RRL) Trivandrum as a scientist and later diverted from active individual research to teaching and joined the University of Calicut as Reader in Physics. There he had his first Ph. D. student, Dr. K Pankajakshan and it was the beginning of another era in his life as a research supervisor.
He shifted to the Mahatma Gandhi University in 1983 and joined as Reader in Physics. Except for a brief period while he functioned as the Regional Director, School of Technology and Applied Science at Edappaly, he has been the backbone of teaching and research in the School of Pure and Applied Physics and from 2002 onwards he is the Director of the School. Dr. Menon is now the Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Applied Sciences and a member of the syndicate of the Mahatma Gandhi University.
More than a dozen students have been awarded Ph. D. under his supervision and many of them are working around the world in famous instituitons. Around 20 students are working towards their degree at present. His main areas of research interest are Lattice Dynamics, Organic Semiconductors and Thin Film Technology.
Having moulded in the class rooms and laboratories of pioneers of indian scientific research, Dr. Menon’s teaching and research skills are unparallel. His analytical and uncompromising approach when confronted with problems of intriguing nature has influenced my own intellect to a great extent.
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