Work with Marie Curie

After refusing a scholarship grant from England, he went to Paris to complete his M.Sc. Degree from University of Paris in 1929. He later wrote to Marie Curie, Polish physicist and chemist based in Paris, famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity expressing his desire to work with her, and was accepted into the Sorbonne where he completed his Doctor of Science in 1933. Here he worked with Marie Curie of Radium Institute, Paris for his doctoral thesis for four years as a recipient of a Curie-Carnegie Research Fellowship. The thesis covered ionization curve of alpha rays in pure gases including Krypton and Xenon and Naidu published his first research papers in French in the Journal of Physics and Radium, Paris, in 1934. Upon Curie's death in 1934, Ramaiah Naidu was running her laboratory for a while.

Post doctoral work

Later, he moved to England to work under the English experimental physicist Prof. P. M. S. Patrick Blackett, in London University for his Ph.D. thesis which was awarded to him in 1936. In 1936, the Tata Trust, Mumbai offered Ramaish Naidu the post of Chief Physicist at Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, and sought his expertise to help establish India's first Radon production facility for treatment in Cancer Management. In 1936, Ramaiah Naidu spent another two years at New York's Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital, now known as Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center under G. Failla where he installed the Radium Extraction unit for radon production.

Radon production facility in India

During 1936, Tata Sons, Mumbai was keen to set up a Cancer Research Institute under Sir Dorabji Tata Trust in India and sought Ramaiah Naidu services to help establish India's first Radon production facility for treatment in Cancer Management.

In 1938 Ramaiah Naidu joined Tata Memorial Hospital (now Tata Memorial Centre), as its Chief Physicist and brought along with him the Radium Extraction unit and 2 g of Radium. He set up the country's first Radium Extraction unit well in time before the inauguration of the Tata Memorial Hospital on 28 February 1941. In 1957, the Indian Cancer Research Centre (later called the Cancer Research Institute), which was established in 1952 by the Government of India, took over the Tata Memorial Hospital and Cancer Research Institute and, in 1962, administrative control of the Tata Memorial Hospital was transferred to the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.

During the World War II years the process of decommissioning and re-commissioning the radon plant led to Naidu's bone marrow getting damaged and he developed artificial cancer due to his over exposure to radium. Essentially, he was advised to move away from radiation related jobs. In 1948, the Tata Trust sent Ramaiah Naidu and his family to Switzerland for treatment.

UNESCO years

Along with his family, Ramaiah Naidu recovered from the radium overexposure and bone marrow damage. Thereafter, he joined UNESCO in Paris as Programme Specialist in the Department of Natural Science where he initiated and implemented several projects for the improvement of science education. In 1955, on the request of Government of India Naidu transferred to India as Scientific director of UNESCO, South East Asia. During 1957 – 59, he worked with the All India Council for Secondary Education as Field Adviser.