Homi Jehangir Bhabha (redirected from Homi J. Bhabha)

Bhabha, Homi Jehangir 

Born Oct. 30, 1909; died Jan. 24, 1966. Indian physicist; organizer of atomic science and technology in India. Graduated from Cambridge University in 1930.

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was established in Bombay in 1945 on Bhabha’s initiative. He was chairman of the Indian Committee on Atomic Energy (1947) and director of the Trombay Atomic Center (1957), which he founded. Bhabha did research on the physics of cosmic rays and the theory of mesons and high-spin particles. In 1937, with W. Heitler, he worked out the cascade theory of cosmic-ray showers. Bhabha was the first to show that the lifetime of a moving meson is longer than that of a resting meson.

Bhabha was a major public figure. He was chairman of the first conference on the peaceful use of atomic energy held in Geneva in 1955. For several years he headed the Presidium of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). He was an honorary member of foreign academies of sciences and scientific societies.

REFERENCE

Blokhintsev, D. I. “Khomi Dzhikhangir Baba.” U spekhifizicheskikh nauk, 1966, vol. 89, issue 1. (Contains a bibliography of his works.)