MUMBAI:
The grand plan
India recently had the opportunity to remember a great man as his bungalow ‘Meherangir’ was auctioned for a whopping sum of Rs 372 crore to the family of Jamshyd Godrej. Homi J Bhabha was a nuclear scientist, connoisseur of art and a great visionary, but it’s his role in setting up a scientific base for India that is most important, though often forgotten.
When he was working at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, as a nuclear scientist under the leadership of CV Raman during World War II, he lamented that there was no institute in India that had the necessary facilities for original work in fundamental physics. Already working with a special research grant from The Sir Dorab Tata Trust, he approached the trust to set up the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at IISc in 1945. The new campus was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 at Colaba.
In the words of Bhabha, “Fundamental research can only be judged by world standard. It is worthwhile only if one adds, in however small a way, to the sum total of human knowledge.” With the idea that science had the potential to transform lives and take India to a renowned level, he set out to develop our indigenous capabilities. There developed great synergy in his ideas and those of Jawaharlal Nehru, with respect to industrialisation and scientific research evolving on a complimentary basis.
Popularly known as the Father of the Indian Nuclear Programme, he was the founding director of TIFR and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment, now known as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The new campus was built in 1962 at Colaba, where the writer witnessed how far this visionary’s dream had come in 69 years.
While Bhabha realised that Advanced Physics, Mathematics and Astrophysics were viewed as particularly abstract subjects, research in which was unlikely to produce practical results within a reasonable period of time, he firmly believed advances in science and technology alone could lead the country. Bhabha passed away tragically in a plane crash at age 56 in 1966, but he left behind a legacy and a purpose.
How far they’ve come
Situated on a large campus with high-security in Navy Nagar, Colaba, the institute overlooks the ocean and is an old but well-maintained facility. A common sight is researchers and scientists of all age groups walking around the marbled corridors with a purpose, but their heads lost in contemplation of a puzzle.
The internationally renowned TIFR is now a National Centre of the Government of India, functioning under the umbrella of the Department of Atomic Energy, as well as a deemed University awarding degrees for Master’s and Doctoral programmes. Basic research in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science and Science Education is carried out at TIFR.
The current director of TIFR, Mustansir Barma, joined the institute in 1976 and speaks with pride when he says their School of Physics is comparable to the best anywhere. “Pure science is essential for technology to prosper in any country. Both have a symbiotic relationship. Science drives technology and technology in turn enables science. A part of Bhabha’s vision was to train young people and also bring in underprivileged but bright minds.”
“Here you can see the unification of pure and applied sciences, without sacrificing the rigours of each discipline. Fundamental and applied sciences do not oppose one another. Applications trigger the finest ideas in science. And we would be nowhere without the youth. Spark passion and drive comes from them,” says director Barma. With generous funding, they manage to support plenty of research projects and have a strong outreach programme.
At present, they have close to 200 academic faculty members conducting research at the various schools and around 500 full-time PhD scholars. The four centres are the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune, the National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bangalore, and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, which will also be set up in Bangalore.
The institute has several field stations and research facilities in different parts of the country, including a large equatorially mounted cylindrical radio telescope and high energy cosmic ray lab at Udhagamandalam, high-energy cosmic ray and gamma ray labs in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, and Hanle in Ladakh, a National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, to measure astronomical measurements, an extremely sensitive gravitational balance set up at Gauribidanur, Karnataka, and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope facility for radio astronomy research near Pune.
The Mumbai facility undoubtedly has cutting-edge facilities, and apart from these research labs, they have a large library with a central computing facility, a high speed communication network and much more.
Culture of TIFR
“I see the scientific culture of TIFR as the biggest achievement. Hierarchy doesn’t matter here. The scientists see work as fun, they are driven by questions. It also helps that there is no agenda from elsewhere. Some of the finest ideas come out of discussions in the canteen or work in the libraries.” The libraries are up-to-date with journals and research material and the food at the canteen is very satisfying and available at all hours.
The connoisseur of modern Indian art in Bhabha left behind around 250 pieces of art and installations which adorn the walls and corridors at TIFR. You will be treated to artworks of illustrious artists — from MF Hussain, VS Gaitonde, Ila Pal to KH Ara and Krishen Khanna.
Deepa Khushalani, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry who is currently working on areas of biosensors that can help in early detection of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc, explains why TIFR stands out. “When you have different disciplines under one umbrella, it has spectacular results. One can pursue radical ideas and try innovative methods without restrictions of rules or funding. Being surrounded by excellent researchers can sometimes give you some great ideas.”
Activities today
They have continually managed to diversify and open up new research centres in emerging areas of science — astronomy in an ultrabroad spectral region, terawatt optical lasers, growth of semiconductor quantum wells, wires and dots, electron and mid-infrared spectroscopies. TIFR has many well-known research groups in branches of Maths and Theoretical Physics. The institute also runs a Pelletron Accelerator Facility with a superconduction LINAC booster and the National Facility for High-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. It has been playing an important role in major national projects like the development of an astro-satellite and the India Neutrino Observatory. It participates actively in large-scale international projects like LHC in Cern, Geneva, and the Belle Experiment at KEK, Japan.
India’s first computer, TIFRAC, was built here and TIFR has seeded many new initiatives like building the electronic and software capabilities in this building.
TIFR’s Mumbai campus has the School of Mathematics, School of Natural Sciences — Departments of Theoretical Physics, High Energy Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Nuclear and Atomic Physics, Chemical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics and Biological Science — and the
School of Technology and Computer Science. A recent and much-awaited development is the upcoming 209-acre TIFR campus in Hyderabad.
Researcher Mandar Deshmukh from the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science appreciates that they get to explore possibilities for the sake of scientific curiosity. Working on the Quantum Hall effect in graphene with the focus on the non-equilibrium regime and electromechanics using grapheme, Electrical and spin transport in InAs Nanowires, Electromechanics in nanowires and Probe phase transition in nanostructures using electromechanical devices, he says, “I went to Harvard for post doctoral research and Cornell for my PhD, but TIFR offered me the opportunity to not have to compromise on anything.”
Challenges
The scientists at TIFR generally agree that the biggest challenges they face with science in India is attracting young people to the field. “Also, how to get the underprivileged in is something we constantly try to address,” says Prof Barma. He adds, “Science is not static, but research cannot be too driven by what’s in fashion. Individually and institutionally, we have to come to terms with it. We have been lucky to get generous funding, but sometimes bureaucracy tends to slow down many initiatives.”
Programmes at TIFR
The institute has had a deemed status since 2003 and has been offering its own courses since. TIFR runs a graduate programme leading to the award of PhD, Integrated MSc-PhD as well as MSc degree in certain subjects. The graduate programme at TIFR is offered in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer and Systems Sciences (including Communications and Applied Probability) and Science Education. It is conducted at the Mumbai campus and various National Centres of TIFR.
The Visiting Students Research Programme is a programme conducted every summer where students are introduced to research activities in Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology and Computer Science. First-year MSc, fourth-year integrated MS and MTech students and highly motivated third-year BTech students can apply.
The Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) is a National Centre of TIFR, Mumbai. The broad goals of the Centre are to promote equity and excellence in science and mathematics education from primary school to undergraduate college level, and encourage the growth of scientific literacy in the country. They conduct the research and development programmes, teacher education and science popularisation programmes, conduct annual science Olympiads across the country, and have a National Initiative on Undergraduate Science for tertiary science education in India.
Krithika Dota, 28-year-old researcher in the department of Nuclear and Atomic Physics under Prof Deepak Mathur, is currently engrossed in photographing step-by-step how atoms react with the high-tech machinery they have. The department also has a couple of students who are attending the summer internship programme from the University of Hyderabad and The National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar.
At the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, we were greeted by an enthusiastic KP Singh, who tells us about India’s first Astronomy satellite (Astrosat) which will be launched next year. “It is being built to dedicatedly gaze out at the universe in X-Ray, ultraviolet and visible light bands,” he says. The brilliant minds at TIFR are currently putting together three of the five instruments for the satellite.
Future plans
The last 69 years have ensured that TIFR gets the best of scientific minds under one roof to expand knowledge in various fields. New initiatives will include research labs for matter under extreme conditions, soft matter, human biology, model organisms, mesoscopic science, quantum phenomena and electron spectroscopies. If this isn’t enough, TIFR is tireless in their commitment to providing training to young scientists
in the country and wants to increase the number of students to 1000 and post doctoral fellows to 300 steadily. Collaborative science will always be encouraged, they say, based on research interests and complementarity of facilities. To recollect the words of Jawaharlal Nehru on the inauguration of TIFR, “It is in meeting (these scientists) and finding out what they have been doing, that I have felt so hopeful, so optimistic about the future of science in India.” TIFR has done us proud.
— preethi@newindianexpress.com