GREAT SCIENTISTS OF WORLD -HOMI JEHANGIR BHABHA

    India's nuclear programme can trace its origins to March 1944 and its three-stage efforts in technology were established by Homi Jehangir Bhabha when he founded the nuclear research centre, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

India's three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by Homi Bhabha

In the 1950s to secure the country's long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India. 

 Homi Jehangir Bhabha was an Indian born nuclear physicist who made important contributions to quantum theory and cosmic radiation. He is known as the “father of Indian nuclear program.” He was the first Chairman of The Atomic Energy Commission of India.

 Bhabha also led the first UN Conference held for the purpose of Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, 1955. It was then predicted by him that a limitless power of industries would be found through nuclear fusion's control. He promoted nuclear energy control and also prohibition of atomic bombs worldwide.

He made important contributions to quantum theory and cosmic radiation. He studied nuclear physics at Cambridge, where he published ground-breaking papers on cosmic rays and electron-positron scattering, a phenomenon now called Bhabha scattering.

With the enactment of the Atomic Energy Bill in 1948, India had planned to harness the atomic energy for peaceful purposes, almost fifty years ago. The Atomic Energy Commission was established on 10 August 1948 with Dr Homi J Bhabha as its chairman.

 

 Bhabha was awarded the Adams Prize (1942) and Padma Bhushan (1954). He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 and 1953–1956.

Besides , the IUPAP-TIFR Homi Bhabha Medal and Prize will be awarded to an active scientist who has made distinguished contributions in the field of cosmic ray physics over an extended academic career.

  Not just Science, Bhabha was a lover of arts too. He loved painting and listening to classical music and opera, besides being an amateur botanist.

  As a student, Homi worked with a Nobel Prize winner, Niels Bohr in Copenhagen and played a major role in the development of The Quantum Theory.

 He was the one who identified and named the Meson particle. He also worked with one of the German Physicists to develop the Cascade theory to understand cosmic radiations.

  He wanted atomic energy to be used to alleviate poverty and advocated the outlawing of nuclear weapons worldwide.

  He lived in a sprawling colonial bungalow in Malabar Hills named Mehrangir.

  On January 24, 1996, he died in a mysterious air crash near Mount Blanc. Some theories claim that he was killed by CIA to paralyze India’s nuclear programme.

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