HOMI J BABHA

• Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on October 30, 1909, to a wealthy Parsi family from Mumbai, His grandfather was the Inspector General of Education in the State of Mysore
• Bhabha’s father Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha was educated at Oxford and later qualified as a lawyer
• His mother Meherbai was the granddaughter of Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, a textile factory owner in Bombay who was known for his philanthropic efforts
• Bhabha attended schools in Mumbai, joining Elphinstone College and then the Royal Institute of Science in the city
• In 1927, Bhabha attended the Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge
• Both his uncle Sir Dorab J. Tata – the son of Tata group’s founder Jamsetji Tata – and his father wanted Bhabha to become an engineer and work at the Tata Iron and Steel Company at Jamshedpur.
• At Cambridge, he was taught by Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, a Mathematics professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 with Erwin Schrodinger for their work in quantum theory
• Bhabha went on to receive various scholarships. His work centred around cosmic rays and he earned a PhD in nuclear physics in 1934

• Bhabha came to India in 1939 for some time, but his plans to return to England for his academic work were halted because of the Second World War’s onset
•  In 1940, he joined the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore, where a Readership in Theoretical Physics was specially created for him
• Future Nobel laureate CV Raman was then the Director of the Institute, He was made a Professor in 1944
• Vikram Sarabhai also spent a short period at the Institute when Bhabha was there
• When Bhabha was working at the IISc, higher-level facilities for research on Physics were limited in India
• When Bhabha was working at the IISc, higher-level facilities for research on Physics were limited in India. In March 1944, he wrote to the Sir Dorab J. Tata Trust for establishing “a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics”
• The trustees accepted Bhabha’s proposal the Institute began work in April 1944.
• Mumbai was chosen as the location as the Government of Bombay showed interest in becoming a joint founder of the proposed institute. The institute, named Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), was inaugurated in 1945
• The present building of the Institute was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in January 1962. Nehru, with whom Bhabha also had a personal friendship, earlier laid its foundation stone in 1954
• The Institute received financial support from the Government of India from its second year, through the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Ministry of Natural Research and Scientific Research

• Bhabha was instrumental in picking the people associated with the institute and giving them opportunities to grow
• This was also seen in his passion for the development of nuclear energy in India as a field of study
• On April 26, 1948, he sent a note on a new ‘Organisation of Atomic Research in India’ to Nehru, writing: “The development of atomic energy should be entrusted to a very small and high-powered body composed of say, three people with executive power, and answerable directly to the Prime Minister without any intervening link.”
• He also detailed the structure of such a body and its functioning
• The Government of India accepted Bhabha’s proposal within a few months after its submission and with the promulgation of the Indian Atomic Energy Act 1948, the Atomic Energy Commission was formed in August 1948
• Later in 1954, he led efforts to establish the Atomic Energy Establishment (AEET) in Trombay, Maharashtra, for a multidisciplinary research program
• Throughout his life, Bhabha noted the importance of developing opportunities for science to flourish in India
• In an address to the Assembly of the Council of Scientific Unions in 1966, Bhabha said, “It is interesting to note that practically all the ancient civilizations of the world, Persia, Egypt, India, and China, were in countries which are today underdeveloped… The developed countries and the underdeveloped countries lack modern science and an economy based on modern technology.”
• Homi Bhabha died in a plane crash on the way to Geneva on January 24, 1966, and to date, theories surround its circumstances
• AEET was later renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to mark his role in spearheading the institution’s growth. Bhabha had also served as the head of India’s nuclear program until his death.