Breaking boundaries

Manchester. In 1945, Bibha went to the University of Manchester to work under Patrick M.S. Blackett, a famous Nobel Prize winner. Her work was good enough for one of the best physicists in the world.

There she delved (dug) deeper into cosmic rays: high-energy particles that come from space. Her Ph.D. thesis was praised, and newspapers introduced her as 'India's New Woman Scientist — She has an eye for Cosmic Rays'.

Look at that headline. It praises her, but it also shows the times: she is a 'woman scientist', not just a scientist. The world was still sceptical (doubtful) about what a woman could do.

'Bibha was often on the cusp (edge) of greatness but remained in the shadows of her male counterparts.'

Her discovery. Her most notable (important) contribution was the discovery of pi-mesons, a subatomic particle (a particle smaller than an atom).

In 1950 she was nominated for a Nobel Prize by Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founders of quantum physics. The nomination did not succeed.

She never received any award in her lifetime, yet she kept working, quietly and tirelessly. She never chased awards.

Back in India. In 1949 she returned to India and became the first woman faculty member at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), chosen by Homi J. Bhabha.

Her research took her to:

• the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, under Vikram Sarabhai;
• the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata;
• the Kolar Gold Mines, for cosmic ray research deep underground.

Blackett, Schrödinger, Bhabha, Sarabhai: four of the greatest names in physics worked with her. And still she 'remained in the periphery (on the edge) of Indian scientific acclaim (praise). She passed away in 1991, her story untold, her name largely forgotten.'