India's Oppenheimer : Homi J Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was the principal architect of India's Nuclear dreams. He was an elite nuclear physicist.

The credit of making India a Nuclear state at its early stages of freedom goes to Homi J Bhabha.

Here's what you need to know!

Early life

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born into a Parsi family on October 30, 1909. He received his early studies in Bombay.

He further went to Cambridge for higher studies. He went against his parents wish to pursue Physics. In 1933, he published his first paper - 'The Absorption of Cosmic Radiation' and received his doctorate in 1934.

Bhabha worked alongside Nobel laureate scientist Neils Bohr.

World War II forced him

In 1939, Bhabha was holidaying in India when World War II broke out, due to which he cut his plan to go back to Cambridge and stayed in India.

On the request of physicist CV Raman, the then- director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, he joined the institute as a reader in physics.

Working for Nuke ambition

In 1941, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. It was during these years at IISc Bangalore that Bhabha found his true mission In life.

As part of his vision, he first established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the Institute.
Bhabha started convincing senior leaders of the Congress Party to start an ambitious Nuclear program

Established Atomic Energy commission

Bhabha saw a lack of research facilities in India and established Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Bombay in 1945 with the financial help from JRD Tata.

In 1948, Bhabha proposed to establish the Atomic Energy Commission through a letter to PM Jawaharlal Nehru. His proposal was accepted and he was appointed as the first Chairman.

Peaceful use of Atomic energy

Though Bhabha worked towards developing Nuclear weapons, he always advocated peaceful use of Nuclear energy.

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

Homi Bhabha also founded Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment, which was later renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 1967 in his honour.

BARC was established to consolidate all the research and development activities for nuclear reactors and technology under the Atomic Energy Commission.

While the World used Uranium for Nuclear energy, he pushed for using Thorium which was in abundance in India. This approach was called India's Three Stage Nuclear Power Program.

Legacy

Homi Bhabha was honored with the Padma Bhushan in 1954 for his contributions to Nuclear science. He died on January 24, 1966 in a mysterious plane crash. He is one of the most prominent scientists that India has ever had.