Homi J. Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear theoretical physicist who is widely credited as the "father of the Indian nuclear programme". He was the founding director and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), as well as the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) which was renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. TIFR and AEET served as the cornerstone to the Indian nuclear energy and weapons programme. He was the first chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). By supporting space science projects which initially derived their funding from the AEC, he played an important role in the birth of the Indian space programme.

Bhabha was awarded the Adams Prize (1942) and Padma Bhushan (1954), and nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 and 1953–1956. He died in the crash of Air India Flight 101 in 1966, at the age of 56.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on 30 October 1909 into a wealthy Parsi family comprising Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha, a well-known lawyer, and Meherbai Framji Panday, granddaughter of Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit. He was named Hormusji after his paternal grandfather, Hormusji Bhabha, who was Inspector-General of Education in Mysore. He received his early studies at Mumbai's Cathedral and John Connon School.