Homi J.

Bhabha


Homi Bhabha (19091966)
Notes
Bhabha was a close and personal friend of Prime
Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (Hindi:
; 30 October 1909 24 January 1966)
was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director,
and professor of physics at the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
Colloquially known as "father of Indian nuclear programme",
Bhabha was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites
were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as its director.
[2][4]

Career
Starting his scientific career in nuclear physics from Great Britain, Bhabha returned to India for his annual vacation
prior to start of the World War II in September 1939, prompting Bhabha to remain in India, and accepted a post of
reader in physics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, headed by Nobel laureate C.V. Raman.
[5]
During
this time, Bhabha played a key role in convincing the Congress Party's senior leaders, most notable Jawaharlal
Nehru who later served as India's first Prime Minister, to start the ambitious nuclear programme. As part of this
vision, Bhabha established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute, began to work on the theory of the
movement of point particles, while independently conduct research on nuclear weapons in 1944.
[4]
In 1945, he
established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948,
serving its first chairman.
[4]
In 1948, Nehru led the appointment of Bhabha as the director of the nuclear programme
and tasked Bhabha to develop the nuclear weapons soon after.
[4]
In the 1950s, Bhabha represented India in IAEA
conferences, and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in
Born
Homi Jehangir Bhabha
30 October 1909 Bombay, British
India (present-day India)
Died
24 January 1966 (aged 56)
Mont Blanc, France
Residence New Delhi, India
Citizenship India
Fields Nuclear Physics
Institutions
Atomic Energy Commission of
India
Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research
Cavendish Laboratory
Indian Institute of Science
Trombay Atomic Energy
Establishment
Alma mater
University of Mumbai
University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor Ralph H. Fowler
Other academic
advisors
Paul Dirac
Known for
Indian nuclear programme
Cosmic rays
point particles
Notable awards
Adams Prize (1942)
Padma Bhushan (1954)
Fellow of the Royal Society[1]

Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. During this time, he intensified his lobbying for developing the nuclear weapons, and
soon after the Sino-Indo war, Bhabha aggressively and publicly began to call for the nuclear weapons.
[5]

Bhabha gained international prominence after deriving a correct expression for the probability of scattering
positrons by electrons, a process now known as Bhabha scattering. His major contribution included his work on
Compton scattering, R-process, and furthermore the advancement of nuclear physics. He was awarded Padma
Bhushan by Government of India in 1954. He later served as the member of the Indian Cabinet's Scientific
Advisory Committee and provided the pivotal role to Vikram Sarabhai to set up the Indian National Committee for
Space Research. In January 1966, Bhabha died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc, while heading to Vienna, Austria
to attend a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.
[5]

Early life
Homi Jahangir Bhabha was born into a wealthy and prominent industrial Parsi family, through which he was related
to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, and Dorabji Tata. He was born on October 30, 1909, in an illustrious family with a long
tradition of learning and service to the country. His father was Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha, a well known lawyer and
his mother was Meheren (http://www.igcar.ernet.in/press_releases/press29.htm). He received his early education at
Bombay's Cathedral and John Connon School and entered Elphinstone College at age 15 after passing his Senior
Cambridge Examination with Honors. His name, Homi, is from Persian (), meaning "conqueror of the
world."
[6]

He then attended the Royal Institute of Science until 1927 before joining Caius College of Cambridge University.
This was due to the insistence of his father and his uncle Dorab Tata, who planned for Bhabha to obtain a degree in
Mechanical engineering from Cambridge and then return to India, where he would join the Tata Steel Mills in
Jamshedpur as a metallurgist.
Research in Nuclear physics
In January 1933, Bhabha received his doctorate in nuclear physics after publishing his first scientific paper, "The
Absorption of Cosmic radiation". In the publication, Bhabha offered an explanation of the absorption features and
electron shower production in cosmic rays. The paper helped him win the Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934, which
he held for the next three years. The following year, he completed his doctoral studies in theoretical physics under
Ralph H. Fowler. During his studentship, he split his time working at Cambridge and with Niels Bohr in
Copenhagen. In 1935, Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which
performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron
scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field.
[citation needed]

Return to India
In September 1939, Bhabha was in India for a brief holiday when World War II broke out, and he decided not to
return to England for the time being. He accepted an offer to serve as the Reader in the Physics Department of the
Indian Institute of Science, then headed by renowned physicist C. V. Raman. He received a special research grant
from the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, which he used to establish the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute. Bhabha
selected a few students, including Harish-Chandra, to work with him. Later, on 20 March 1941, he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society . With the help of J. R. D. Tata, he played an instrumental role in the establishment of
the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay.

Atomic Energy in India
When Bhabha was working at the Indian Institute of Science, there was no institute in India which had the
necessary facilities for original work in nuclear physics, cosmic rays, high energy physics, and other frontiers of
knowledge in physics. This prompted him to send a proposal in March 1944 to the Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata. Tata
Trust for establishing 'a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics'.
The trustees of Sir Dorabji Jamsetji. Tata Trust decided to accept Bhabha's proposal and financial responsibility for
starting the Institute in April 1944. Bombay was chosen as the location for the prosed Institute as the Government
of Bombay showed interest in becoming a joint founder of the proposed institute. The institute, named Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research, was inaugurated in 1945 in 540 square meters of hired space in an existing
building. In 1948 the Institute was moved into the old buildings of the Royal Yacht club. When Bhabha realized
that technology development for the atomic energy programme could no longer be carried out within TIFR he
proposed to the government to build a new laboratory entirely devoted to this purpose. For this purpose, 1200 acres
of land was acquired at Trombay from the Bombay Government. Thus the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay
(AEET) started functioning in 1954. The same year the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was also
established.
[9]
He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in
1958.
[10]
.
Death
He died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc on 24 January 1966.
[14]

Legacy

Bust of Homi Bhabha which is placed in the garden of Birla Industrial & Technological Museum.
After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment at Bombay was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
in his honour. In addition to being an able scientist and administrator, Bhabha was also a painter and a classical
music and opera enthusiast, besides being an amateur botanist. He is one of the most prominent scientists that India
has ever had. Bhabha also encouraged research in electronics, space science, radio astronomy and microbiology.
The famed radio telescope at Ooty, India was his initiative, and it became a reality in 1970. The Homi Bhabha
Fellowship Council has been giving the Homi Bhabha Fellowships since 1967 Other noted institutions in his name
are the Homi Bhabha National Institute, an Indian deemed university and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science
Education, Mumbai, India.
C. V. Raman
In this Indian name, the name Chandrasekhara is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be
referred to by the given name, Raman.
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman,
(7 November 1888 21 November 1970)
was an Indian physicist whose ground
breaking work in the field of
light scattering earned him the 1930
Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered
that, when light traverses a transparent
material, some of the deflected light
changes in wavelength. This phenomenon
is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect.
[3]
In 1954, he was honoured with the highest
civilian award in India, the Bharat Ratna.
[4][5]

Early years
Venkata Raman was born in Thiruvanaikaval, Trichinopoly, present-day Tiruchirapalli, Madras Presidency, in
British India to Parvati Amma he was self educated in the field of science
Ancestors
Raman's maternal grandfather, Saptarshi Sastri, was a Sanskrit scholar, who was learned in navya nyaya (modern
logic). Raman's father initially taught in a local school in Thiruvanaikaval and later became a lecturer of
mathematics and physics in Mrs. A.V. Narasimha Rao College, Vishakapatnam (then Vizagapatnam) in the Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh, and later joined Presidency College in Madras.
[6]


Born
7 November 1888
Thiruvanaikoil, Tiruchirappalli,
Madras Province, British India
Died
21 November 1970 (aged 82)
Bangalore, Mysore State, India
Nationality Indian
Fields Physics,
Institutions
Indian Finance Department, University
of Calcutta
Indian Association for the Cultivation
of Science, Indian Institute of Science,
Central College, Bangalore University
Raman Research Institute
Alma mater University of Madras
Doctoral
students
G. N. Ramachandran
Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai
Known for Raman effect
Notable
awards
Knight Bachelor (1929)
Hughes Medal (1930)
Nobel Prize in Physics (1930)
Bharat Ratna (1954)
Lenin Peace Prize (1957)
Fellow of the Royal Society
[2]

Spouse Lokasundari Ammal (19071970)

Early years
At an early age, Raman moved to the city of Visakhapatnam, and studied in St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High
School. Raman passed his matriculation examination at the age of 11 and he passed his F. A. examination
(equivalent to today's Intermediate exam) with a scholarship at the age of 13.
In 1902, Raman joined Presidency College in Madras where his father had become a lecturer in mathematics and
physics.
[7]
In 1904 he passed his B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) examination - he stood first and won the gold medal in
physics. In 1907 he gained his M.A. (Master of Arts) degree with the highest distinctions.
[1]

Career
In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service after he was appointed the first Palit Professor of Physics at
the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research at the Indian Association for the
Cultivation of Science (IACS), Calcutta, where he became the Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this
period as the golden era of his career. Many students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of
Calcutta.

Energy level diagram showing the states involved in Raman signal
On 28 February 1928, Raman led experiments at the IACS with collaborators, including K. S. Krishnan, on the
scattering of light, when he discovered what now is called the Raman effect.
[8]
A detailed account of this period is
reported in the biography by G. Venkatraman.
[9]
It was instantly clear that this discovery was of huge value. It gave
further proof of the quantum nature of light. Raman had a complicated professional relationship with K. S.
Krishnan, who surprisingly did not share the award, but is mentioned prominently even in the Nobel lecture.
[10]

Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred to it in his presidential
address to the Royal Society in 1929. Raman was president of the 16th session of the Indian Science Congress in
1929. He was conferred a knighthood, and medals and honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was
confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Owen
Richardson in 1928 and to Louis de Broglie in 1929. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he
booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's
newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win the
1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect". He
was the first Asian and first non-white to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before him Rabindranath Tagore
(also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
Raman and Suri Bhagavantam discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further confirmed the quantum
nature of light.
[11]

During his tenure at IISc, he recruited the then talented electrical engineering student, G. N. Ramachandran, who
later was a distinguished X-ray crystallographer.
Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory of transverse vibration of
bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also the first to investigate the harmonic nature of
the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the mridangam.
Raman and his student, Nagendra Nath, provided the correct theoretical explanation for the acousto-optic effect
(light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting in the celebrated RamanNath theory.
[12]

Modulators, and switching systems based on this effect have enabled optical communication components based on
laser systems.
Raman was succeeded by Debendra Mohan Bose as the Palit Professor in 1932. In 1933, Raman left IACS to join
Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as its first Indian director.
[13]
Other investigations carried out by Raman
were experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic
frequencies (published 19341942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals
exposed to ordinary light.
He also started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (now known as TCM Limited)
which manufactured potassium chlorate for the match industry
[14]
in 1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The
Company subsequently established four factories in Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National
Professor by the new government of Independent India.
[15]

In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a new manner
fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and
optical behaviour of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly feldspar, agate, opal, and pearls). Among
his other interests were the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human
vision.
[16]

Personal life
He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal (18921980
[17]
). They had two sons, Chandrasekhar and
Radhakrishnan.
Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman Research Institute in
Bangalore, Karnataka, a year later. He served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970, in
Bangalore, at the age of 82.
Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1983)
for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary
for stellar evolution.
Achievements
During a voyage to Europe in 1921, Raman noticed the blue colour of glaciers and the Mediterranean sea. He was
motivated to discover the reason for the blue colour. Raman carried out experiments regarding the scattering of
light by water and transparent blocks of ice which explained the phenomenon.
There is an event that served as the inspiration of the Raman effect. On a December evening in 1927, Raman's
student K. S. Krishnan (who later became the Director of the National Physical Laboratory) gave him the news that
Professor Compton had won the Nobel Prize for his studies of the scattering of X-rays. This led Raman to theorize
that if the Compton effect is applicable for X-rays, then it may be for light also, and to devise some experiments.
Raman employed monochromatic light from a mercury arc lamp which penetrated transparent material and was
allowed to fall on a spectrograph to record its spectrum. He detected lines in the spectrum which he later called
Raman lines. He presented his theory at a meeting of scientists in Bangalore on 16 March 1928, and won the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1930.
Honours and awards

Bust of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman which is placed in the garden of Birla Industrial & Technological
Museum.
Raman was honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific societies.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
[2]
early in his career (1924) and knighted in 1929.
In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin Medal.
In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.
[20]

He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957. In 1998, the American Chemical Society and Indian
Association for the Cultivation of Science recognised Raman's discovery as an International Historic
Chemical Landmark.
[21]

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman
effect in 1928.
[22]



Death
At the end of October he collapsed in his laboratory, the valves of his heart having given way. He was moved to
hospital and the doctors gave him four hours to live. He survived and after a few days refused to stay in the hospital
as he preferred to die in the gardens of his Institute surrounded by his flowers.
Two days before Raman died, he told one of his former students, "Do not allow the journals of the Academy to die,
for they are the sensitive indicators of the quality of science being done in the country and whether science is taking
root in it or not." That same evening, Raman met with the Board of Management of his Institute and discussed
(from his bed) with them any proceedings with regards to the Institutes management. Raman died from natural
causes early next morning on 21 November 1970.
Posthumous recognition and contemporary references
On 7 November 2013, A Google doodle honoured C. V. Raman on his 125th birthday
[24][25][26]

A road in India's capital (New Delhi) is named C. V. Raman marg
[27]

An area in Bangalore near 16th cross road is called C. V. Raman nagar
[28]

The road running north of the National seminar complex in Bangalore (India) is named C. V. Raman road
after the physicist
[29]

A building in the Indian Institute of Sciences (Bangalore) is named "Raman building".
Satyendra Nath Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose in 1925
Satyendra Nath Bose (Bengali: Shottendronath Bosh, IPA: [otend ronat bou]; 1 January 1894
4 February 1974) was a Bengali Indian physicist specialising in mathematical physics. He was born in Calcutta. He
is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for BoseEinstein
Born
1 January 1894
Calcutta, British India
Died
4 February 1974 (aged 80)
Calcutta, India
Residence India
Nationality Indian
Fields Physics and Mathematics
Institutions
University of Calcutta and
University of Dhaka
Alma mater University of Calcutta
Known for
BoseEinstein condensate
BoseEinstein statistics
Bose gas
Notable
awards
Padma Vibhushan
Fellow of the Royal Society
[1]

Spouse Ushabati Bose

statistics and the theory of the BoseEinstein condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, the Government of India
awarded him India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954.
[2][3][4]

The class of particles that obey BoseEinstein statistics, bosons, was named after him by Paul Dirac.
[5][6]

A self-taught scholar and a polyglot, he had a wide range of interests in varied fields including physics,
mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature and music. He served on many research
and development committees in independent India.
[7]

Early life
Bose was born in Calcutta, India (now Kolkata, West Bengal, India), the eldest of seven children. He was the only
son, with six sisters after him. His ancestral home was in village Bara Jagulia, in the District of Nadia, about 48
kilometres from Calcutta.
After completing his MSc, Bose joined the University of Calcutta as a research scholar in 1916 and started his
studies in the theory of relativity. It was an exciting era in the history of scientific progress. Quantum theory had
just appeared on the horizon and important results had started pouring in.
[8]

His father, Surendranath Bose, worked in the Engineering Department of the East Indian Railway Company.
Satyendra Nath Bose married Ushabati at the age of 20.
[9]
They had nine children. Two of them died in their early
childhood. When he died in 1974, he left behind his wife, two sons, and five daughters.
[8]

As a polyglot, he was well versed in several languages such as Bengali, English, French, German and Sanskrit as
well as the poetry of Lord Tennyson, Rabindranath Tagore and Kalidasa. He could also play the esraj, a musical
instrument similar to a violin. He was actively involved in running night schools that came to be known as the
Working Men's Institute.
[4][10]

Research career
Bose attended Hindu School in Calcutta, and later attended Presidency College, also in Calcutta, earning the highest
marks at each institution, while fellow student and future astrophysicist Meghnad Saha came second.
[4]
He came in
contact with teachers such as Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray and Naman Sharma who provided
inspiration to aim high in life. From 1916 to 1921, he was a lecturer in the physics department of the University of
Calcutta. Along with Saha, Bose prepared the first book in English based on German and French translations of
original papers on Einstein's special and general relativity in 1919. In 1921, he joined as Reader of the department
of Physics of the recently founded University of Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) by the Vice-Chancellor of University
of Calcutta Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, himself a distinguished mathematician, a high court judge, and with strong
interest in physics. Bose set up whole new departments, including laboratories, to teach advanced courses for MSc
and BSc honours and taught thermodynamics as well as James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism.
[11]

Satyendra Nath Bose, along with Saha, presented several papers in theoretical physics and pure mathematics from
1918 onwards. In 1924, while working as a Reader at the Physics Department of the University of Dhaka, Bose
wrote a paper deriving Planck's quantum radiation law without any reference to classical physics by using a novel
way of counting states with identical particles. This paper was seminal in creating the very important field of
quantum statistics. Though not accepted at once for publication, he sent the article directly to Albert Einstein in
Germany. Einstein, recognising the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself and submitted it on
Bose's behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift fr Physik. As a result of this recognition, Bose was able to work for two
years in European X-ray and crystallography laboratories, during which he worked with Louis de Broglie, Marie
Curie, and Einstein.
After his stay in Europe, Bose returned to Dhaka in 1926. He did not have a doctorate, and so ordinarily, under the
prevailing regulations, he would not be qualified for the post Of Professor he applied for, but Einstein
recommended him. He was made Head of the Department of Physics. He continued guiding and teaching at Dhaka
University. Bose designed equipment himself for a X-ray crystallography laboratory. He set up laboratories and
libraries to make the department a center of research in X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, magnetic properties
of matter, optical spectroscopy, wireless, and unified field theories. He also published an equation of state for real
gases with Meghnad Saha. He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Science at Dhaka University until 1945. When
the partition of India became imminent, he returned to Calcutta to take up the prestigious Khaira Chair and taught at
University of Calcutta until 1956. He insisted every student to design his own equipment using local materials and
local technicians. He was made professor emeritus on his retirement.
[12][15][4]
He then became Vice-Chancellor of
Visva-Bharati University in Shanti Niketan. He returned to the University of Calcutta to continue research in
nuclear physics and complete earlier works in organic chemistry. In subsequent years, he worked in applied
research such as extraction of helium in hot springs of Bakreshwar.
[16]

Apart from physics, he did some research in biotechnology and literature (Bengali and English). He made deep
studies in chemistry, geology, zoology, anthropology, engineering and other sciences. Being Bengali, he devoted a
lot of time to promoting Bengali as a teaching language, translating scientific papers into it, and promoting the
development of the region.
[13][17][3]

While presenting a lecture
[18]
at the University of Dhaka on the theory of radiation and the ultraviolet catastrophe,
Bose intended to show his students that the contemporary theory was inadequate, because it predicted results not in
accordance with experimental results. In the process of describing this discrepancy, Bose for the first time took the
position that the MaxwellBoltzmann distribution would not be true for microscopic particles, where fluctuations
due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle will be significant. Thus he stressed the probability of finding particles in
the phase space, each state having volume h
3
, and discarding the distinct position and momentum of the particles.
Bose adapted this lecture into a short article called "Planck's Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta" and sent it to
Albert Einstein with the following letter:
[19]

Respected Sir, I have ventured to send you the accompanying article for your perusal and opinion. I am anxious to
know what you think of it. You will see that I have tried to deduce the coefficient 8
2
/c
3
in Planck's Law
independent of classical electrodynamics, only assuming that the ultimate elementary region in the phase-space has
the content h
3
. I do not know sufficient German to translate the paper. If you think the paper worth publication I
shall be grateful if you arrange for its publication in Zeitschrift fr Physik. Though a complete stranger to you, I do
not feel any hesitation in making such a request. Because we are all your pupils though profiting only by your
teachings through your writings. I do not know whether you still remember that somebody from Calcutta asked
your permission to translate your papers on Relativity in English. You acceded to the request. The book has since
been published. I was the one who translated your paper on Generalised Relativity.
Einstein agreed with him, translated Bose's paper "Planck's Law and Hypothesis of Light Quanta" into German, and
had it published in Zeitschrift fr Physik under Bose's name, in 1924.
[20]

The reason Bose's interpretation produced accurate results was that since photons are indistinguishable from each
other, one cannot treat any two photons having equal energy as being two distinct identifiable photons. By analogy,
if in an alternate universe coins were to behave like photons and other bosons, the probability of producing two
heads would indeed be one-third (tail-head = head-tail). Bose's interpretation is now called BoseEinstein statistics.
This result derived by Bose laid the foundation of quantum statistics, as acknowledged by Einstein and Dirac.
[20]

When Einstein met Bose face-to-face, he asked him whether he had been aware that he had invented a new type of
statistics, and he very candidly said that no, he wasn't that familiar with Boltzmann's statistics and didn't realize that
he was doing the calculations differently. He was equally candid with anyone who asked. Einstein also did not at
first realize how radical Bose's departure was, and in his first paper after Bose he was guided, like Bose, by the fact
that the new method gave the right answer. But after Einstein's second paper using Bose's method in which he
predicted the Bose-Einstein condensate, he started to realize just how radical it was, and he compared it to
wave/particle duality, saying that some particles didn't behave exactly like particles. Bose's discovery almost
amounts to an extremely fortunate accident. Had he been more familiar with Boltzmann's statistics, this might have
been a missed opportunity. On the other hand, it is not unusual to use a method because it gives the right answer.
Bose had already submitted his article to the British Journal Philosophical Magazine, which rejected it, before he
sent it to Einstein. We don't know why it was rejected.
[21]


Velocity-distribution data of a gas of rubidium atoms, confirming the discovery of a new phase of matter, the Bose
Einstein condensate.
[22]
Left: just before the appearance of a BoseEinstein condensate. Center: just after the
appearance of the condensate. Right: after further evaporation, leaving a sample of nearly pure condensate.
Einstein adopted the idea and extended it to atoms. This led to the prediction of the existence of phenomena which
became known as BoseEinstein condensate, a dense collection of bosons (which are particles with integer spin,
named after Bose), which was demonstrated to exist by experiment in 1995.
Although several Nobel Prizes were awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, BoseEinstein
statistics and BoseEinstein condensate, Bose himself was not awarded a Nobel Prize.
In his book The Scientific Edge, physicist Jayant Narlikar observed:
SN Bose's work on particle statistics (c. 1922), which clarified the behaviour of photons (the particles of light in an
enclosure) and opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory,
was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science and could be considered in the Nobel Prize
class.
[23]

Honours

Bust of Satyendra Nath Bose which is placed in the garden of Birla Industrial & Technological Museum.
In 1937, Rabindranath Tagore dedicated his only book on science, VisvaParichay, to Satyendra Nath Bose. Bose
was honoured with title Padma Vibhushan by the Indian Government in 1954. In 1959, he was appointed as the
National Professor, the highest honour in the country for a scholar, a position he held for 15 years. In 1986, the S.N.
Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences was established by an act of Parliament, Government of India, in Salt
Lake, Calcutta.
[25][26]

Bose became an adviser to then newly formed Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He was the President
of Indian Physical Society and the National Institute of Science. He was elected General President of the Indian
Science Congress. He was the Vice-President and then the President of Indian Statistical Institute. In 1958, he
became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was nominated as member of Rajya Sabha.
Partha Ghose has stated that
[4]

Bose's work stood at the transition between the 'old quantum theory' of Planck, Bohr and Einstein and the new
quantum mechanics of Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Born, Dirac and others.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (
i
/bdl klm/; born 15 October 1931) usually referred to as Dr. A.
P. J. Abdul Kalam, is an Indian scientist and administrator who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to
2007. Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College,
Tiruchirappalli, and aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai.
Before his term as President, he worked as an Aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
[1]
Kalam is popularly known as the Missile
Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.
[2]
He played a
pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the
original nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man with no authority
over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.
[3]


11th President of India
Personal details
Born
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam
15 October 1931 (age 82)
Rameswaram, Ramanathapuram District,
Madras Presidency, British India
(now in Tamil Nadu, India)
Profession
Professor, author, scientist, president
Aerospace engineer
Website abdulkalam.com

Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020. He has received
several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his
motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India.
[5]
He launched his mission for the youth
of the nation in 2011 called the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption in India.
Early life and education
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in a Tamil Muslim family to Janubudeen, a boat owner and
Ashiamma, a housewife, at Rameswaram, located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
[6][7][8][9]
He came from a poor
background and started working at an early age to supplement his family's income.
[10]
After completing school,
Kalam distributed newspapers to financially contribute to his father's income.
[10][11]
In his school years, he had
average grades, but was described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend
hours on his studies, especially mathematics.
[11]
{{quote > }} After completing his school education at the
Ramanathapuram Schwartz Matriculation School, Kalam went on to attend Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli,
then affiliated with the University of Madras, from where he graduated in physics in 1954.
[12]
Towards the end of
the course, he was not enthusiastic about the subject and would later regret the four years he studied it. He then
moved to Madras in 1955 to study aerospace engineering.
[9]
While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the
Dean was dissatisfied with the lack of progress and threatened revoking his scholarship unless the project was
finished within the next three days. He worked tirelessly on his project and met the deadline, impressing the Dean
who later said, "I [Dean] was putting you [Kalam] under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline".
[13]
He
narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as he placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight
positions were available in the IAF.
[14]
Great
Career as scientist
This was my first stage, in which I learnt leadership from three great teachersDr. Vikram Sarabhai, Prof. Satish Dhawan and Dr.
Brahm Prakash. This was the time of learning and acquisition of knowledge for me.
After graduating from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT Chennai) in 1960, Kalam joined Aeronautical
Development Establishment of Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a scientist. Kalam
started his career by designing a small helicopter for the Indian Army, but remained unconvinced with the choice of
his job at DRDO.
[16]
Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram Sarabhai, the
renowned space scientist.
[9]
In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
where he was the project director of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully
deployed the Rohini satellite in near earth's orbit in July 1980. Joining ISRO was one of Kalam's biggest
achievements in life and he is said to have found himself when he started to work on the SLV project. Kalam first
started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965.
[1]
In 1969, Kalam received the
government's approval and expanded the program to include more engineers.
[15]

Kalam was invited by Raja Ramanna to witness the country's first nuclear test Smiling Buddha as the representative
of TBRL, even though he had not participated in the development, test site preparation and weapon designing. In
the 1970s, a landmark was achieved by ISRO when the locally built Rohini-1 was launched into space, using the
SLV rocket.
[18]
In the 1970s, Kalam also directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant , which
sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.
[18]
Despite the
disapproval of Union Cabinet, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these aerospace projects
through her discretionary powers under Kalam's directorship.
[18]
Kalam played an integral role convincing the
Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects.
[18]
His research and educational
leadership brought him great laurels and prestige in 1980s, which prompted the government to initiate an advanced
missile program under his directorship.
[18]
Kalam and Dr. V. S. Arunachalam, metallurgist and scientific adviser to
the Defense Minister, worked on the suggestion by the then Defense Minister, R. Venkataraman on a proposal for
simultaneous development of a quiver of missiles instead of taking planned missiles one after another.
[19]
R
Venkatraman was instrumental in getting the cabinet approval for allocating 3.88 billion rupees for the mission,
named Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P) and appointed Kalam as the chief
executive.
[19]
Kalam played a major part in developing many missiles under the mission including Agni, an
intermediate range ballistic missile and Prithvi, the tactical surface-to-surface missile, although the projects have
been criticised for mismanagement and cost and time overruns.
[19][20]
He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the
Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December
1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an intensive political and
technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R. Chidambaram during the testing
phase.
[7][21]
Photos and snapshots of him taken by the media elevated Kalam as the country's top nuclear scientist.
[22]

In 1998, along with cardiologist Dr.Soma Raju, Kalam developed a low cost Coronary stent. It was named as
"Kalam-Raju Stent" honouring them.
[23][24]
In 2012, the duo, designed a rugged tablet PC for health care in rural
areas, which was named as "Kalam-Raju Tablet".
[25]

Presidency
Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K. R. Narayanan. He won the 2002 presidential election
with an electoral vote of 922,884, surpassing 107,366 votes won by Lakshmi Sahgal. He served from 25 July 2002
to 25 July 2007.
On 10 June 2002, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was in power at the time, expressed to the leader
of opposition, Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi that they would propose Kalam for the post of
President.
[26]
The Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party backed his candidacy.
[27][28]
After the
Samajwadi Party announced its support for him, Narayanan chose not to seek a second term in office, leaving the
field clear for Kalam.
[29]


Kalam along with Vladimir Putin and Manmohan Singh during his presidency
Awards and honours
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Student's Day by United Nations.
[89]
He has also
received honorary doctorates from 40 universities.
[90][91]
The Government of India has honoured him with the
Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a
scientific advisor to the Government.
[92]
In 1997, Kalam received India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna,
for his immense and valuable contribution to the scientific research and modernisation of defence technology in
India.
[93]
In 2005, Switzerland declared 26 May as science day to commemorate Kalam's visit in the country.
[94]













Year of award or
honour
Name of award or honour Awarding organisation
2014 Doctor of Science Edinburgh University
[95]

2012 Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) Simon Fraser University
[96]

2011 IEEE Honorary Membership IEEE
[97]

2010 Doctor of Engineering University of Waterloo
[98]

2009 Honorary Doctorate Oakland University
[99]

2009 Hoover Medal ASME Foundation, USA
[100]

2009 International von Krmn Wings Award California Institute of Technology, USA
[101]

2008 Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa)
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore
[102]

2007 King Charles II Medal Royal Society, U.K
[103][104][105]

2007 Honorary Doctorate of Science University of Wolverhampton, U.K
[106]

2000 Ramanujan Award Alwars Research Centre, Chennai
[107]

1998 Veer Savarkar Award Government of India
[9]

1997
Indira Gandhi Award for National
Integration
Indian National Congress
[9][107]

1997 Bharat Ratna Government of India
[107][108]

1990 Padma Vibhushan Government of India
[107][109]

1981 Padma Bhushan Government of India
[107][109]

Vikram Sarabhai

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai
Born
12 August 1919
[1][2]

Ahmedabad, India
Died
30 December 1971 (aged 52)
Halcyon Castle, Kovalam in
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Residence India
Nationality Indian
Fields Physics
Institutions
Indian Space Research Organisation
Physical Research Laboratory
Alma mater University of Cambridge
Doctoral
advisor
Sir C. V. Raman
Known for
Indian space program
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad
Notable
awards
Padma Bhushan (1966)
Padma Vibhushan (posthumously)
(1972)
Spouse Mrinalini Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (Gujarati: ) (12 August 1919 30 December 1971) was an
Indian physicist. He is considered the father of India's space programme
Dr.Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 in the city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state in western India. The
Sarabhai family was an important and rich Jain business family. His father Ambalal Sarabhai was an affluent
industrialist and owned many textiles mills in Gujarat. Vikram Sarabhai was one of the eight children of Ambalal
and Sarla Devi.
Sarabhai matriculated from the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad after passing the Intermediate Science examination.
After that, he moved to England and joined the St. John's College, University of Cambridge. He received the Tripos
in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in 1940.
[3]

Physical Research Laboratory
Sarabhai returned to an independent India in 1947. Looking at the needs of the country, he persuaded charitable
trusts controlled by his family and friends to endow a research institution near his home in Ahmedabad. This led to
the creation of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947 .
Death
Sarabhai died on 31 December 1971 at Halcyon Castle, Kovalam, Kerala. He was visiting Thiruvananthapuram to
attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Thumba railway station being built to service the newly created
Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station.
Indian space programme
The establishment of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was one of his greatest achievements. He
successfully convinced the government of the importance of a space programme for a developing country like India
after the Russian Sputnik launch. Dr. Sarabhai emphasized the importance of a space programme in his quote:
Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear science program, supported Dr.
Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching station in India. This center was established at Thumba near
Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity to the equator. After a
remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication links, and launch pads, the inaugural
flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour payload.
As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)
was launched during July 1975 July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no more). Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the
fabrication and launch of an Indian satellite. As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in
1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome. Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a
Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the centre is called the Vikram A Sarabhai Community
Science Centre.
He led the Sarabhai family's diverse business conglomerate. His interests varied from science to sports to statistics.
He set up Operations Research Group (ORG), the first market research organization in the country
Sarabhai established many institutes which are of international repute. Most notable among them are the Nehru
Foundation for Development in Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), which is
considered a world class management institute. Also, he helped establish the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL),
which is doing a commendable job
[8][9]
in R&D in physics. Sarabhai set up Ahmedabad Textiles Industrial Research
Association (ATIRA), which helped the booming textiles business in Ahmedabad. He also set up the Center for
Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT). Not stopping with all these, he went ahead and set up the Blind
Men Association (BMA) which helps visually-challenged people with the necessary skills and support. Along with
his wife Mrinalini Sarabhai, he founded the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. Other well-known institutions
established by him include the Faster Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) in Kalpakkam, Variable Energy Cyclotron
Project in Calcutta, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad and Uranium Corporation of
India Limited (UCIL) in Jaduguda, Jharkhand.
Awards

Bust of Vikram Sarabhai which is placed in the garden of Birla Industrial & Technological Museum.
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1962)
Padma Bhushan (1966)
Padma Vibhushan, posthumous (after-death) (1972)
Distinguished Positions
President of the Physics section, Indian Science Congress (1962),
President of the General Conference of the I.A.E.A., Verna (1970),
Vice-President, Fourth U.N. Conference on 'Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy' (1971)
Honours
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC), which is the Indian Space Research Organization's lead facility for
launch vehicle development located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of Kerala state, is named in his
memory.
Along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists, he played a major role in setting up of the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad.
In 1973, the International Astronomical Union decided that a lunar crater Bessel A in the Sea of Serenity will be
known as the Sarabhai crater.