Raja Ramanna

Raja Ramanna (1925 to 2004) was an Indian nuclear physicist who directed India's nuclear programme in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period that ended with the Smiling Buddha nuclear test of 18 May 1974. Born in Tiptur in the princely state of Mysore, he took his doctorate in nuclear physics at King's College London in 1949 and then joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and later the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre under Homi Jehangir Bhabha. He worked on the Apsara research reactor, which began operating in 1957, and on the Purnima plutonium fuelled reactor at Trombay. Later he chaired the Atomic Energy Commission from 1983 to 1987, led the Defence Research and Development Organisation, and in his last years argued against nuclear proliferation and further testing. He was also a trained pianist and founded the National Institute of Advanced Studies.