Homi Jahangir Bhabha, considered the father of India’s nuclear program, was born into a Parsi family in Bombay on October 30, 1909. In 1927, the 18-year-old young Homi went to Cambridge University to study mechanical engineering in accordance with his father’s last wish. He soon decided that his real interest lay in nuclear physics, a field then flourishing at the center of Cambridge.
Homi Jahangir Baba first envisioned a nuclear-powered India and dreamed of making India self-reliant through advancements in the field of nuclear energy. Thanks to his experiments and tireless efforts, India today is one of the largest nuclear powers in the world.
Interested in nuclear physics from the beginning
Interest in Nuclear Physics His keen interest in physics led him to stay at Cambridge University to complete a degree in physics. Here he earned his PhD in nuclear physics. While living in Europe, he met many of the great physicists of the time. He later played an important role in the wartime nuclear weapons programs of the United States and Britain.
They included Niels Bohr, James Franck and Enrico Fermi. Bhabha is highly respected in the international physics community and his name is associated with the phenomenon of Bhabha electron scattering.
Returned to India and started working on nuclear energy projects
While living abroad, Baba learned about the discovery of fission. In 1939 he returned to India. In April 1948, the then Prime Minister agreed to Baba’s request at the Constituent Assembly to pass the Atomic Energy Bill and established the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).
He was the founding director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 1945 and the director of the Trombay Institute of Atomic Energy. Later, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi renamed the center as Bhabha Atomic Research Center in his honor.
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Died in plane crash in 1966
Homi Bhabha died in the crash of Air India Flight 101 on January 24, 1966. The cause of the flight’s crash was a miscommunication between Geneva Airport and the pilot about the plane’s position near Mont Blanc.
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major events
On October 30, 1905, Tsar Nicholas II approved the first Russian constitution.
On October 30, 1922, Benito Mussolini became the youngest prime minister in Italian history.
On October 30, 1961, Joseph Stalin’s grave was removed from Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square and buried near the Kremlin Wall.
On October 30, 1973, the Bosporus Bridge connecting Europe and Asia was completed in Istanbul, Türkiye.
On October 30, 2008, explosions occurred in 13 places including Guwahati, the capital of Assam, killing more than 66 people.
