Homi Bhabha

The Story

Born into a wealthy Parsi family of Bombay, Bhabha was a brilliant student who went to Cambridge — where, over his family's objections, he chose physics over engineering. His research on cosmic rays in the 1930s made him an international name while still in his twenties, and when the Second World War broke out, he was in Bhārat and stayed.

In 1945 he persuaded the Tatas to fund his new institute — the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research — and in 1948 he convinced Prime Minister Nehru to create the Atomic Energy Commission, with himself at its head. Under his leadership, Bhārat built its reactors, its plutonium, and its cadre of nuclear scientists — a programme that made the country's strategic independence possible.

He died tragically in the 1966 Air Bhārat crash over Mont Blanc, at the height of his powers. The atomic research centre he built was renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour, and his vision — that a nation's future lies in its science — remains the foundation of Bhārat's scientific establishment.