 |
| Above: Nigel Lockyer and Bikash Sinha after 5the signing of a partnership agreement between VECC and TRIUMF in 2008. |
Bikash Sinha was recently awarded the prestigious Dr. Homi J. Bhabha Chair Professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Sinha is the former director of Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata, India. He was also the pivotal player in establishing the momentous technology, research, and trade partnership in advanced materials, physics, and life sciences between VECC and TRIUMF in 2008.
The Dr. Homi J. Bhabha Chair is one of the most prestigious Chairs of the Indian Atomic Energy program. It is offered to an eminent scientist from India or abroad working in any of the areas of interest of the Institute and India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
The Chair is awarded in recognition of a sustained record of excellence and creative contribution to research, teaching, and leadership in areas of interest to the DAE. The Chair Professorship has been awarded to Sinha for a term of five years.
Known as the father of India's atomic energy program, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha (1909-1966) was a world-renowned Indian nuclear physicist. Educated in Mumbai and Cambridge, he conducted ground-breaking research in the field of cosmic radiation. He wrote many papers on this subject as well as quantum theory. Throughout his life he passionately sought to place India at the forefront of science. Among his many achievements, Dr. Bhabha is most well-known for founding the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, which continues to be a major centre for cosmic ray research. He was also the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission and the chairman of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva in 1955.
Like Dr. Bhabha, Sinha completed part of his university studies at Cambridge. After Cambridge, he began his postgraduate studies jointly at King's College London and the Rutherford High-energy Laboratory. Regarded as the pioneer in establishing quark gluon plasma research in India, his interests also lie in nuclear physics, cyclotrons, and radiation medicine. He began working at VECC in 1985 and became director in 1987. He also served as director of the adjoining Saha Institute for Nuclear Physics for 17 years.
An eminent nuclear physicist and key policy maker for many scientific activities in India, Sinha is ideally suited for the Dr. Homi J. Bhabha Chair and richly deserves it. TRIUMF congratulates Sinha on this momentous achievement and wishes him great success in this new role.
-- Meghan Magee, Communications Assistant