Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was a prominent Indian nuclear physicist who is widely credited as the "father of the Indian nuclear programme". He was the founding director and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), as well as the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) which was renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. TIFR and AEET served as the cornerstone of the Indian nuclear energy and weapons programme. He was the first chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy. By supporting space science projects which initially derived their funding from the AEC, he played an important role in the birth of the Indian space programme. He was awarded the Adams Prize (1942) and Padma Bhushan (1954), and nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 and 1953–1956. Bhabha was born on 30 October 1909 into a wealthy and influential Parsi family in Bombay. His father was a well-known lawyer and his mother was the granddaughter of Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, a prominent industrialist and philanthropist. Bhabha received his early education at Bombay's Cathedral and John Connon School, where he developed an interest in science, music, painting and gardening. He excelled in mathematics and physics and passed the Senior Cambridge Examination with honours at the age of 15. He then attended Elphinstone College and the Royal Institute of Science before moving to England to study engineering at Cambridge University as his father wished. However, Bhabha soon realized that his true passion was physics and persuaded his father to let him pursue a career in science. He completed his bachelor's degree in engineering and then switched to physics, earning his doctorate under Ralph H. Fowler in 1933. He also worked with Paul Dirac, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, and published several papers on cosmic rays and electron-positron scattering, a phenomenon now known as Bhabha scattering. He also predicted the existence of a new elementary particle, later called the muon. Bhabha continued his research at Cambridge until 1939, when he returned to India at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as a reader in physics and established a cosmic ray research unit there. In 1944, he founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay with the support of J.R.D. Tata, a visionary industrialist and philanthropist. He envisioned TIFR as a centre of excellence for research in physics, mathematics, biology and other disciplines. He also initiated the Indian nuclear programme by convincing Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, of the need to harness atomic energy for peaceful purposes. In 1948, Bhabha became the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and oversaw the development of India's first nuclear reactors at Trombay. He also advocated for international cooperation and control of nuclear weapons and participated in several conferences on atomic energy. He was elected as president of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva in 1955. He was also a member of India's Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet and played a key role in establishing India's space programme. Bhabha died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps while on his way to Vienna for a meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee on 24 January 1966. He was 56 years old. His death was mourned by the scientific community and the nation as a great loss. He was cremated in Geneva and his ashes were interred at Banaras Hindu University, where he had been the chancellor. He was honoured with several awards and recognitions, both in India and abroad, for his contributions to science and society. Several institutions, buildings, roads and scholarships have been named after him. He is widely regarded as one of the most eminent scientists and visionaries of India.