Legendary Indian physicist, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, revered as ‘The Father of Indian Nuclear Program’, was known for his path-breaking contributions to Quantum Theory and Cosmic Radiation. October 30^th marks the birth anniversary of this scientist, who was also a renowned architect and a philanthropist, in addition to being the first Chairman of The Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Founding Director and Professor of Physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

Dr. Homi Bhabha dreamt of India gaining self-reliance through progress in the field of nuclear power. It is thanks to his experiments and diligent efforts, that our nation emerged as one of the most important nuclear powers of the contemporary world.

Born on 30th October, 1909, to an aristocratic family, Homi Bhabha’s parents were Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha and Meherbai Bhabha. His father was a known lawyer while his mother was the daughter of Bhikaji Framji Pandey and granddaughter of the renowned philanthropist, Dinshaw Petit. Named after his paternal grandfather, Hormusji Bhabha, Inspector General of Education in Mysore, Homi attended Mumbai’s Cathedral School and then Elphinstone College, at age fifteen. He passed the Senior Cambridge Examination within a year before heading off to Cambridge where he attained a degree in Mechanical Engineering, at Gonville and Caius College. Thus commenced his research, at Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge, with his first paper published in 1933. Two years later, he received his Ph.D. and stayed on in Cambridge till 1939.

Dr. Bhabha returned to India in 1939, with the onset of the second World War in Europe. This proved to be a turning point not just in his life but also in the nation’s trajectory in the development of science. He started his career with the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, as a Reader in Physics on the behest of Nobel laureate, C V Raman, who headed the Institute’s Physics Department at the time. In 1942, Bhabha was elected as a Member of the Royal Society, and later as a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. A year later he was appointed President of the Physics section of the Indian Science Congress.

He was instrumental in convincing many senior leaders of the Congress Party to start an ambitious nuclear programme. As part of his vision, he first established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the Institute and later, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), in Bombay, in 1945, with financial help from JRD Tata.

In 1948, he set up the Atomic Energy Commission, serving as its first Chairperson. The same year, he was appointed by Jawaharlal Nehru as Director of the Nuclear Program, and commissioned to develop nuclear weapons. In 1950, he represented India at the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) conferences and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1955. From 1960 to 1963, he served as the President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

He rose to global prominence after deriving a correct expression for the probability of scattering positrons by electrons, a process now known as ‘Bhabha Scattering’. Widely known as the ‘Father of the Indian Nuclear Programme’, Homi Bhabha formulated a strategy and focussed on extracting power from India’s vast thorium reserves rather than its uranium reserves. The theory proposed by him became India’s three-stage nuclear power programme.

Homi Bhabha received numerous national and global rewards from various Universities and was an associate of numerous societies of Science, including the American National Academy of Sciences. Homi Bhabha received the Adams Prize from the University of Cambridge in 1942, and the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award, from the Government of India, in 1954. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 and 1953-1956.

His passion and dedication to his work and his love for science didn’t leave much time or scope to accommodate a full personal life, and Bhabha chose to be a bachelor. When asked about marriage, he had answered, “I am married to creativity!” It was due to the excellent groundwork done by him and the right direction given in the field of science, that India was able to perform its first atomic explosion in May 1974, at Pokhran, Rajsthan, and join the galaxy of nuclear power nations, becoming the sixth in the series.

Dr. Bhabha established the BARC Training School to cater to the manpower needs of the expanding atomic energy research and development program. In Bhabha’s own words “When Nuclear Energy has been successfully applied for power production in, say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand“. Dr Bhabha emphasized on self-reliance in all the fields of nuclear science and engineering.

Dr. Bhabha was an astute scientist and committed engineer, a dedicated architect, a meticulous planner and a perfect executive. An ardent follower of fine arts and music, he was a philanthropist too. His hobbies included painting, classical music and opera, and botany. In the words of the great physicist, Sir C V Raman, Bhabha was a great lover of music, a gifted artist, a brilliant engineer and an outstanding scientist.

Dr. Homi Bhabha died in mysterious circumstances, aged 56, when Air India Flight 101 crashed on 24^th January, 1966, near Mont Blanc, Switzerland, where he was headed to attend an international conference. Many assassination theories surfaced post his death.

After his passing, the then Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi renamed the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (India’s premier nuclear center, and weapon development laboratory) as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in his honour, in January, 1967. A radio telescope in India’s Ooty was his initiative which became a reality in 1970. The Homi Bhabha National Institute, an Indian deemed university, and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, in Mumbai, are some of the eminent institutions named in his honour.