HomiBhabha.ppt

23 August 2023 Homi Bhabha: A Multifaceted
Personality
1
Homi Bhabha
A Multifaceted Personality
S. C. Agarkar

Personality
2
Homi Bhabha
A Fine Researcher
• Born in Mumbai in 1909 Bhabha was
educated at Mumbai and Cambridge.
• He was a student of a famous Kings College
in Cambridge where he worked for his
doctorate.
• He conducted research in Cosmic Ray
Physics. If he had continued his research
career he would have certainly reached to
the level of Nobel Prize.

Personality
3
Homi Bhabha
A Visionary
• The world knew about the power of Atomic energy in
1945. Since then he has been thinking of using this
energy for peaceful purposes.
• As India stood on its own feet he convinced then
Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to set up
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
• There was a great opposition to this idea. People said
let us worry about providing food and education to our
people rather than spending money in atomic research.
• Nevertheless, Bhabha went further as he could
visualize the utility of Atomic research in the
development of the country.

Personality
4
Homi Bhabha
A Visionary
• Bhabha visualized Department of Atomic Energy
as an umbrella for scientific and technological
development in India like Council of Scientific and
Technological Research (CSIR).
• DAE now has three wings: Research institutes like
BARC, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
(IGCAR), Industrial Units like Nuclear Power
Corporation Limited (NPCL) and Aided institutions
like TIFR Mumbai, Saha Institute of Nuclear
Physics Kolkata, Tata Memorial Mumbai, Institute
of Physics Bhubaneswar, etc.

Personality
5
Homi Bhabha
An Institution Builder
• After returning from Cambridge Homi Bhabha
took up a job in Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore. Realizing the meager research
facilities available there he had decided to leave.
• He had communicated his willingness to J.R.D.
Tata who pursued him to stay here and set up an
institution of international repute.
• With the help of Tata Trust, Govt. of Mumbai
State and Central Govt. he could set up the
famous Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
in 1945.

Personality
6
Homi Bhabha
An Institution Builder
• Using the S & T base created at TIFR he went
further to set up Atomic Energy Establishment
dedicated for conducting R & D work in Nuclear
Science.
• Realizing the growing importance of Space
Science he took initiative in starting space
related research in 1962.
• Both the Department Atomic Energy (DAE) and
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have
brought laurels to the country.

Personality
7
Homi Bhabha
A Genius Spotter
• TIFR and DAE needed people to undertake new
challenges. Homi Bhabha continued to spot
creative people all over the world, invited them to
India and gave all the facilities possible.
• Against the traditional method of setting up a
department and recruiting a person for it he
followed the method of identifying a person and
building a group around him/her.
• Bhabha often said “Let the group of innovative
people come together and start work, buildings
can come later”.

Personality
8
Homi Bhabha
A Caring Administrator
• In 1960s the work of setting up CIRUS reactor was
going on. He could see that people were working day
and night to meet the deadline. The place was away
from the city. With a view to providing dedicated
transport facility to the staff he wrote to Delhi for
the vehicle. Soon came the reply “There is no
precedence to giving vehicles to transport government
employees”.
• Bhabha wrote to Pandit Nehru pointing out that
“There was no precedence to Atomic Energy in India”.
Nehru intervened and provided the much needed
transport facility to DAE employees.

Personality
9
Homi Bhabha
A Concerned Leader
• DAE units are established in remote parts of the
country. Bhabha went to set up hospitals to
ensure that DAE staff members get best medical
facility at the site itself.
• He was also concerned that the children of DAE
employees get the best possible education. Hence
he came up with an idea of having a dedicated
education society namely Atomic Energy
Education Society (AEES) which runs schools and
junior colleges within the campus.

Personality
10
Homi Bhabha
A Nature Lover
• Anyone who has visited DAE units in the
country would appreciate good gardens and
lawns maintained there.
• This culture of maintaining closeness to
the nature has came from its leader Homi
Bhabha. He himself was nature lover and
ensured that the working place should be
pleasant enhancing creativity among the
researchers.

Personality
11
Homi Bhabha
An Artist
• Homi Bhabha loved music and paintings. His
busy schedule hardly permitted him to
spare time for his hobbies. Nevertheless,
he would squeeze some time to engage
himself in music and painting, the activities
that gave him pleasure.
• If you visit TIFR, located on the bank of
the Arabian sea in Colaba, you would be
able to see some of his paintings drawn by
Bhabha himself.

Personality
12
Homi Bhabha
A Socializing Scientist
• Homi Bhabha was not a loner. He liked
interacting with people from all walks of
life all over the world.
• He had god contacts with all the main
scientists working in first half of the 20th
century. Many of them gladly agreed to
visit and become honorary fellows of the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Reserch.

Personality
13
Bhabha’s Death
A Great Loss
• Bhabha died in 1966 in a plane crash that took
place on a foreign soil. It was a great loss to the
country. He is still remembered by the institution
he had set up.
• Atomic Energy Establishment in Trombay was
named after him. We now know it as Bhabha
Atomic Research (BARC).
• A section devoted to conducting research in
science and mathematics education established in
1974 was named after him. It is known as Homi
Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE).

Personality
14
Let me salute the great son of
mother India on the occasion of
his birth centenary
Thank you

HomiBhabha.ppt

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HomiBhabha.ppt