Vikram Sarabhai | Birth of the Physicist
Welcome to the Vikram Sarabhai Centenary Celebrations Series, learn about his story of becoming a Physicist by pursuing education from Cambridge University.
Welcome to the Vikram Sarabhai Centenary Celebrations Series, learn about his story of becoming a Physicist by pursuing education from Cambridge University.
Physics was in its prime during Vikram Sarabhai's childhood. The twentieth century had started with the discovery of the electron. Curie couple were producing artificial radioactivity. Germany was planning and building the V2 rockets under Dr Werner Von Braun. Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket engine. Vikram Sarabhai with all his resources surely read about these discoveries and inventions. And hence, started the journey of India's Father of Space Programme.
Vikram Sarabhai attended the Gujarat College for some time, but then in 1937, Vikram went to Cambridge to pursue higher studies. Family friend Rabindranath Tagore wrote him a letter of recommendation: ‘He is a young man with a keen interest in science... He comes from a wealthy cultured family... he is a fit and proper person for admission to the university.’
Interested in the field of cosmic rays, Vikram Sarbhai had completed his under graduation by the time war broke out in 1939. He returned and continued his post-graduation research under the supervision of novel laureate, Sir CV Raman, at IISc. While Professor Raman had shifted gears and was working on Sound Waves, he introduced Vikram to Professor Robert Millikan. It is here; another relationship boomed when Vikram met Professor Homi Bhabha. He presented his first paper, "Time distribution of cosmic rays" in the Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences just two years after starting research. He went back to Cambridge in 1945 and returned in 1947 after completing his PhD.