Affiliation:
1. Theory Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India
Abstract
"An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man" are perhaps the most appropriate words that can be said about Professor Meghnad Saha and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP). Prior to the independence of the country Prof. Saha was working very closely with Jawaharlal Nehru and Subash Chandra Bose in framing the national science and planning policy. He was probably the first person in the country to have foreseen the immense potential of nuclear science for the betterment of Indian society. So by 1940, he introduced nuclear physics as part of the university physics curriculum in the University of Calcutta. With supports from Nehru, he received a generous fund from the Dorabji Tata Trust for the procurement and construction of a cyclotron in 1941. After the World War II and followed by the independence of the country in 1947, Prof. Saha realised that nuclear physics had grown to such an extent that to take part in research a separate institution with a close link to the universities was necessary. Thus, the foundation stone of SINP (the then INP, the Institute of Nuclear Physics) was laid down in 1949 and the institute was formally inaugurated on 11 January 1950, by Madame Irene Joliot Curie. Right from its inception, Prof. Saha initiated research in various disciplines of science ranging from astrophysics, plasma physics, physics of materials and biophysics, in the newly born institute and realising the importance of education, he introduced a post-M.Sc. programme, a pre-Ph.D. course, the first of its kind in the country, to bridge the gap between the university curriculum and research. The institute was renamed as SINP after his untimely demise in 1956.
Publisher
World Scientific Pub Co Pte Lt