Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30.10 1909-24.01 1966) was an Indian physicist and public figure. He was born in Bombay. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1930). In 1940-45 he worked at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (from 1942 as professor). On his initiative the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was set up in Bombay in 1945 and the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay in 1957, and he was director of both. From 1947 he was chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
His research concerned quantum theory, nuclear physics, the physics of cosmic rays and elementary-particle physics. Together with W. Heitler he developed in 1937 the cascade theory of electron-photon showers in cosmic rays. He predicted the slowing of the rate of decay of mesons moving at high speeds, which was one of the best proofs of the conclusion of special relativity about “time dilation”. He studied the direct production of pairs in the Coulomb field of electrons. He obtained (1937) a formula for the cross-section for the scattering of a positron by an electron.
In 1960—63 he was president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and in 1955 chairman of the first Geneva conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
An honorary member of several academies of sciences.