T
oday’s Google Doodle celebrates the 100th birthday of the award-winning Indian physicist, industrialist and innovator Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai.
Remembered as the Father of India’s Space Programme, Vikram Sarabhai was born in Ahmedabad on this day in 1919. He attended Gujarat College and then went on to England to do his doctorate at Cambridge.
When he returned back to India after earning his doctorate, 28-year-old Vikram founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947.
He also established the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, which was later renamed as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He also dreamed of having an Indian satellite in space was realized when the Aryabhata went into orbit in 1975.
He believed in the idea that science and technology can be used as the levers of development. He was also one of the key players in convincing the Indian government of the importance of having a space program.
Dr Vikram Sarabhai was also the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He is also responsible for setting up many institutions in India including the Physical Research Laboratory, the Indian Institute of Management, and the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology.
A crater on the moon was also named after him in his honour in 1973. Last month, ISRO launched its lunar mission with the Chandrayaan-2, in which the Vikram lander is scheduled to touch down on the lunar surface on September 7.