Homi Jehangir Bhabha (1909-1966)
Homi Jeahangir Bhabha is remembered as the most important exponent and visionary of the Indian nuclear programme. He is credited with designing the architecture of the Indian nuclear research programme. He was a physicist par excellence. Initially he had deeply studied cosmic rays while studying at Cambridge. Later he learned of the discovery of fission.
Bhabha's childhood and education
Bhabha was born to a wealthy Parsi family on 30 October 1909. His father Jehangir Babha was a well-known lawyer of his time in Bombay. Homi Bhabha was brought up in an atmosphere of academics and learning. He was initiated to literature, fine arts, music and painting during his formative years.
Homi's schooling was at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay. He later took admission into The Elphinstone College in Bombay. Later, he joined The Royal Institute of Science. Homi studied Mechanical Engineering in Cambridge.
He was interested in Mathematics and theoretical physics as subjects and thus had no heart to study engineering. He wrote a letter to his father to allow him to pursue theoretical physics. His father asked him to complete his engineering and then go for it. Eventually after completing his engineering course, Homi Bhabha did his Ph.D in theoretical physics from Cambridge. During his stay and research, Bhabha travelled extensively. During his travel, he met several great physicists and science luminaries of the time. The interactions with the who's who of the then leading scientific community lay a profound foundation of scientific learning in Homi. Most of the interactions were with the leading pysicists of the time and physics being very close to his heart, he became immensely interested in the study of atoms, quantum theory and nuclear physics. He received Ph.D from Cambridge in 1935 in theoretical physics.
Early days as scientist
Bhabha-Heitler Theory
In 1936, Bhabha met Walter Heitler, a German physicist. Their collaboration resulted in the celebrated 'cascade theory of electron showers'. They proposed that cosmic rays are composed of electrons, protons and gamma rays and they hit the earth from all directions.
Positron theory: Bhabha scattering
The major achievement of one of his papers was-- Bhabha's investigation of electron positron scattering known as "Bhabha Scattering".
Meson theory
Bhabha had predicted the 'meson' in 1937. Bhabha himself has proposed the name 'meson' instead of 'mesotron' as it was earlier called. Mesons are unstable sub-atomic particles which are made up of quarks and anti-quarks.
Bhabha Equation
In the area of theoretical physics, he worked principally on what came to be referred to as the 'Bhabha Equation'.
Homi bhabha played a very critical role in the early days of the development of quantum electrodynamics.
Return to India
Bangalore Days
In 1939 he came for a short holiday to India, but was unable to go back as the second World War broke out. In India he took up the position of Special Reader teaching theoretical physics in the Indian Institute of Science in charge of the cosmic ray units.
In Bangalore, his work was mainly focussed on cosmic and elementary particles. He extensively used powerful mathematical techniques, and took note of fluctuation from the mean. During this period he also did some experimental work and designed Geiger counter telescopes and flew them on American Air Force planes, ofcourse with due permission, to try measure the hard components of cosmic rays.
Bombay days
Bahbha came to realize the immense potential that science and technology had and the lasting role they alone could play to transform India from an unerdeveloped country to a developed one.
He contemplated deeply as to what was hindering the widespread development of India and propogation of science. He came to a firm conclusion that there was a lack of adequate support for scientific infrastructure in India and here were the short comings that were pulling India as a nation behind and not letting it advance. He then took steps in that direction.
Notable contributions and their impact
Bhbha founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental research (TIFR). It helped India produce its very own scientists and experts who steered India towards self-reliant nuclear power generation, and other scientific fields. He was eventually successful in persuading Jawaharlal Nehru enact in Parliament the Atomic Energy Bill, creating the Atomic energy Commission (AEC). Bhabha was made the first chairman. Nehru later established a seperate Ministry of Atomic Energy in August 1954. Bhabha was appointed secretery to this ministry directly responsible to the Prime Minister of India.
Bhabha was very foresighted in buildng up resources towards the Indian nuclear programme. He sent many scientists for trainng abroad in the initial stages
He was also instrumental in defining the three-stage programme in 1950 which formed the basis for India's nuclear development that we see today.
He was a pioneering geologist of India. He wanted to conduct thorough survey of natural resources, particularly minerals important for atomic energy programme such as uranium, thorium, beryllium, graphite etc.
He also wanted to develop strong research schools in basic sciences. He was keen to start a programme for instrumentation particularly in electronics.
Bhabha was all for the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purpose. He promoted nuclear energy control and also prohibition of atomic bombs worldwide. He was completely against India using nuclear energy for building atomic bombs even if the country had enough resources and capabilities to do so. His vision was to harness the vast amounts of nuclear and atomic energy to eradicate India's misery and poverty. In an incredibly short span of two decades, he was able to realize his visions, of an increasingly capable India to the area of nuclear power that he had formed in the mid-forties.
Homi Bhabha was the unanimous choice for the scientific advisory committee to the secretary general of the United nations for the post of President of the conference. He went on to become a Governor of the International Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna.
Achievements
Homi Bhabha achieved a lot in scientific research, discoveries, organisational construction and nation building through the use of science.
He was awarded honorary doctorate by several Indian and foreign universities for his stellar contributions.
In 1941, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. His name was proposed by none oher than C V Raman.
In 1948, he was felicitated with the Hopkins prize of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
He was elected the president of the Indian Science Congress in 1951.
He was conferred with the Padma Bhushan in 1954 for the advancement of nuclear energy in India.
Untimely Death
On 24 January 1966, while he was on his way to Vienna, the flight crashed on the Mount Blanc peak of the Alps mountains in Switzerland and Bhabha was no more.
At 56, he had left behind an organisation which would for years keep on doing the work he had started and contribute to the nation building through advancements in nuclear science and technology.
nicesuuu
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