Homi J. Bhabha

Homi Bhabha (1909–1966)

Notes Bhabha was a close and personal friend of Prime

Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (Hindi:

होमी भाभा; 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 (ریگناهج), 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 (1907–1970)

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 Raman–Nath 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 1934–1942), 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 (1892–1980[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 Institute’s 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: সত্যেন্দ্র নাথ বসু Shottendronath Boshū, IPA: [ʃot̪ːend̪ronat̪ʰ boʃu]; 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 Bose–Einstein

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

Bose–Einstein condensate

Bose–Einstein statistics

Bose gas

Notable

awards

Padma Vibhushan

Fellow of the Royal Society[1]

Spouse Ushabati Bose

statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein 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 Bose–Einstein 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 für 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 Maxwell–Boltzmann 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 h3, 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 8π ν2/c

3 in Planck's Law

independent of classical electrodynamics, only assuming that the ultimate elementary region in the phase-space has

the content h3. 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 für 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 für 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 Bose–Einstein 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 Bose–Einstein 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 Bose–Einstein 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, Bose–Einstein

statistics and Bose–Einstein 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, Visva–Parichay, 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/ˈæbdʊl kəˈlɑːm/; 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 teachers—Dr. 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 Kármán 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: વિક્રમ અંબાલાલ સારાભાઇ) (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., Verína (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.