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Homi Jehangir Bhabha Facts & Worksheets

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was an Indian nuclear physicist who is colloquially known as the "Father of the Indian nuclear program."

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Homi Jehangir Bhabha was an Indian nuclear physicist who is colloquially known as the “Father of the Indian nuclear program.” He made major contributions in cosmic radiation and nuclear physics.

See the fact file below for more information on the Homi Jehangir Bhabha or alternatively, you can download our 25-page Homi Jehangir Bhabha worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

  • Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on October 30, 1909 in Bombay, India (present-day Mumbai, India).
  • He was born into an influential and wealthy Parsi family.
  • Homi J. Bhabha’s father, Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha, was a well-known lawyer.
  • Bhabha received his early education at the Cathedral and John Connon School.
  • At 15 years old, he passed his Senior Cambridge Examination with honors then enrolled at Elphinstone College.
  • In 1927, he attended the Royal Institute of Science in Mumbai.
  • He then enrolled in Caius College of Cambridge University to study mechanical engineering according to his family’s wishes.
  • His father and his uncle wanted Bhabha to study engineering so he could obtain a senior position at the Tata Steel Mills in Jamshedpur.
  • Nonetheless, Bhabha eventually pursued theoretical physics instead, being influenced by English physicist Paul Dirac.
  • Bhabha gained the approval and support of his father upon passing the Mechanical Engineering Tripos exam with first class in 1932.
  • Bhabha remained at the University of Cambridge.
  • During the 1931-1932 Academic Year, Bhabha was awarded the Salomons Studentship in Engineering.
  • With his paper, “The Absorption of Cosmic Radiation”, he obtained his doctorate degree in nuclear physics from the University of Cambridge in 1934.
  • While studying for his doctorate degree, he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory.

SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES

  • Bhabha’s paper “The Absorption of Cosmic Radiation” earned him a three-year Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934.
  • During his Isaac Newton Studentship from 1934 to 1937, Bhabha worked alongside Niels Bohr in Copenhagen.
  • In 1935, Bhabha published a paper about the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering.
  • Electron-positron scattering was later named “Bhabha scattering” in his honor.
  • In 1936, Bhabha worked alongside Walter Heitler and together they described how primary cosmic rays from outer space interact with the upper atmosphere to produce particles visible at ground level, as published in their paper “The Passage of Fast Electrons and the Theory of Cosmic Showers”.
  • To support their theory, Bhabha and Heitler made estimates of the number of electrons in the cascade process at various altitudes for different electron initiation energies.
  • Their research was a breakthrough in the field of cosmic radiation.
  • In 1937, Bhabha was awarded the Senior Studentship of the 1851 exhibition, which contributed to his work at Cambridge until the onset of the Second World War in 1939.

RETURN TO INDIA

  • When the Second World War broke out, Bhabha was in India for a brief holiday and decided to stay in India instead of returning to England.
  • He accepted a position as the Reader in the Physics Department of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
  • With a received a special research grant from the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, Bhabha established the Cosmic Ray Research Institute at the Indian Institute of Science.
  • In 1941, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

PROMINENCE AND CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

  • He also established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, serving as its director in 1945.
  • Bhabha played a major role in convincing the Congress Party’s senior leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru who would later become India’s first Prime Minister, to establish the nuclear program.
  • In 1948, he became the first chairperson of Atomic Energy Commission of India.
  • In 1948, Nehru led the appointment of Bhabha as the director of the nuclear program.
  • Bhabha led the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955, where he promoted nuclear energy control.
  • Bhabha is generally recognized as the father of Indian nuclear power.
  • He is credited for realizing the potential of India’s large thorium reserves for nuclear power.
  • He was offered a post in Indian Cabinet but he rejected it.
  • Instead, he served as a scientific advisor to Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

HONORS AND PERSONAL LIFE

  • Bhabha received plenty of awards from universities in India and abroad.
  • He also became an associate of various societies of science.
  • In 1954, he played a major role in setting up the Atomic Energy Establishment in Trombay and the Department of Atomic Energy.
  • In 1954, he was awarded which is the third-highest civilian award in India.
  • In 1955, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Sciences.
  • He remained unmarried.
  • Some of his hobbies and interests outside of his research work were painting, classical music, the opera, and botany.
  • At 56 years old, he was killed when Air India Flight 101 crashed on January 24, 1966 near Mont Blanc in Switzerland.
  • There had been theories that his death was an assasination.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Homi Jehangir Bhabha across 25 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Homi Jehangir Bhabha worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Homi Jehangir Bhabha who was an Indian nuclear physicist who is colloquially known as the “Father of the Indian nuclear program.” He made major contributions in cosmic radiation and nuclear physics.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Homi Jehangir Bhabha Facts
  • Who’s Homi?
  • Life In Years
  • School Checklist
  • Modified True Or False
  • Quotes From Bhabha
  • Nuclear Scientists
  • Notable Indians
  • Keyword Crossword
  • Knowledge Recap
  • Letter To Dr. Bhabha

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