Homi Jehangir Bhabha, was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born into a prominent wealthy Parsi family, through which he was related to businessmen Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, and Dorabji Tata.
In January 1933, Bhabha received his doctorate in nuclear physics after publishing his first scientific paper, "The Absorption of Cosmic radiation".
He was a researcher in Cambridge before he decided to stay in India and join CV Raman’s Indian Institute of Science.
Bhabha was also the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) which is now named the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour.
TIFR and AEET were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as director.
His major contribution included his work on Compton scattering, R-process, and furthermore the advancement of nuclear physics.
Homi Bhabha was awarded the Adams Prize (1942) and Padma Bhushan (1954). He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 and 1953–1956.
Bhabha died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc on 24 January 1966.