U R Rao, currently Chairman of PRL Governing Council, started his career as a cosmic ray scientist under Vikram Sarabhai and continued his research in USA as a prime experimenter on Pioneer and Explorer Series of Spacecrafts. On his return, he started the satellite program in India resulting in the launch of over 18 satellites including Aryabhata, INSAT and IRS satellites. As Chairman of the Indian Space Program during 1984-1994, he accelerated rocket technology development, resulting in the successful launching of ASLV and PSLV rockets. He was also responsible for promotion of space technology application for communication, meteorological forecasting and management of natural resources.

Vikram Sarabhai, born on the evening of August 12, 1919 to a wealthy industrial family, had the best of education in science, mathematics and liberal arts from the most competent teachers arranged by his parents. Blessed at the age of seven by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, who had predicted that this bright boy would one day become a great celebrity, Sarabhai had developed an intense love for science from his childhood days. His interest in science became an obsession as it took an active shape in 1940, when he returned to India after graduation from Cambridge University on the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to carry out research on ‘Time variations of cosmic rays’ on the advice of C V Raman. Encouraged by the institute atmosphere created by C V Raman and Homi Bhaba, who were working on theories of mesons and cosmic ray showers, Sarabhai built an experimental set-up with Geiger Muller counters to carry out systematic continuous measurements of cosmic ray intensity at Bangalore and later at Apharwat (about 4 km above sea level) in the Kashmir Himalayas. His first scientific paper ‘Time distribution of cosmic rays’ was published in the Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1942, barely two years after he started his research. He went back to Cambridge University in 1945 to continue his investigations on cosmic rays and photo fission and returned to India in 1947 after receiving his PhD degree from Cambridge for his thesis on ‘Cosmic ray investigations in tropical latitudes’.

Read full article (174 Kb)

Address for Correspondence
U R Rao 
Chairman, PRL Council 
Department of Space 
Government of India 
Antariksh Bhavan New BEL Road 
Bangalore 560 094, India.