Sarabhai, Vikram

Vikram Sarabhai, in full Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai, (born August 12, 1919, Ahmadabad, India—died December 30, 1971, Kovalam), Indian physicist and industrialist who initiated space research and helped develop nuclear power in India.

Sarabhai was born into a family of industrialists. He attended Gujarat College, Ahmadabad, but later shifted to the University of Cambridge, England, where he took his tripos in natural sciences in 1940. World War II forced him to return to India, where he undertook research in cosmic rays under physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Bengaluru). In 1945 he returned to Cambridge to pursue a doctorate and wrote a thesis, “Cosmic Ray Investigations in Tropical Latitudes,” in 1947. He founded the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmadabad on his return to India.

The range and breadth of Sarabhai’s interests were remarkable. In spite of his intense involvement with scientific research, he took active interest in industry, business, and development issues. Sarabhai founded the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association in 1947 and looked after its affairs until 1956. Realizing the need for professional management education in India, Sarabhai was instrumental in setting up the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmadabad in 1962.

Establishing the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, which was later renamed the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Sarabhai also set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in southern India. After the death of physicist Homi Bhabha in 1966, Sarabhai was appointed chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India. Carrying forward Bhabha’s work in the field of nuclear research, Sarabhai was largely responsible for the establishment and development of India’s nuclear power plants. He laid the foundations for the indigenous development of nuclear technology for defense purposes.

Dedicated to the use of all aspects of science and technology in general and to space applications in particular as “levers of development,” Sarabhai initiated programs to take education to remote villages through satellite communication and called for the development of satellite-based remote sensing of natural resources.

Sarabhai was awarded two of India’s highest honours, the Padma Bhushan (1966) and the Padma Vibhushan (awarded posthumously in 1972).