Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Homi Bhabha was born on 30 October 1909 in Mumbai Son of a barrister, he grew up in a privileged environment In Mumbai he attended the Cathedral & John Connon School and then Elphinstone College, followed by the Royal Institute of Science After passing the Senior Cambridge Examination at the age of sixteen, he joined the Gonvile and Caius College in Cambridge with an intention to pursue mechanical engineering His mathematics tutor was Paul Dirac, and Bhabha became fascinated with mathematics and theoretical physics He earned his engineering degree in 1930 and PhD in 1934
In 1937, together with W Heitler, a German physicist, Bhabha solved the riddle about cosmic rays Cosmic rays are fast moving, extremely small particles coming from outer space When these particles enter the earths atmosphere, they collide with the atoms of air and create a shower of electrons Bhabhas discovery of the presence of nuclear particles (which he called mesons) in these showers was used to validate Einsteins theory of relativity making him world famous
When the war broke out in Europe, Bhabha was on a holiday in India In 1940, CV Raman, then head of the Physics Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, persuaded Bhabha to join the institute as a Reader in Physics and Bhabha decided to stay back in India In 1941, Homi Bhabha was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London, in recognition of his contributions to the field of cosmic rays, elementary particles and quantum mechanics Bhabha soon realized the need for an institute fully devoted to fundamental research, and wrote to JRD Tata for funding This resulted in the establishment of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai in 1945, with Bhabha as the Director, a position he held until his death In 1948, Homi Bhabha was appointed the Chairman of the International Atomic Energy Commission Under his guidance, nuclear reactors like the Apsara, Cirus and Zerlina were built He gained international recognition for his excellent work and served as the President of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, which was held in Geneva in 1955 He was the President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics from 1960 to 1963
A multifaceted personality, Bhabha was immensely fond of music, painting and writing Some of his paintings are displayed in the British Art Galleries and the TIFR art collection today is rated as one of the best collections of contemporary Indian art in the country
He is the recipient of the Adams Award, Padma Bhushan, an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States