WHEN RESEARCHING RENOWNED Indian physicists and their contributions, names such as Sir C.V. Raman, Satyendra Nath Bose, and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar are some of the most common names one comes across. However, there are many others whose names remain either hidden or who never received the limelight they deserved despite their immense contributions, especially in the field of physics. One such name is Bibha Chowdhuri. 

She is often regarded as one of the forgotten names in India’s history of remarkable physicists. However, history was not kind to the work of Bibha Chowdhuri, who never received the fame and recognition that physicists such as Raman or Chandrasekhar achieved for their work. But why was Bibha Chowdhuri not remembered as often as her contemporaries? Some say she was India’s first female particle physicist and one of the legendary names behind research on cosmic rays. Let’s learn more about her: 

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The Early Beginnings of Bibha Chowdhuri in a Brahmo Samaj Household

Bibha Chowdhuri was born in 1913 into a well-to-do family of zamindars in Kolkata, West Bengal. Her father, Banku Behari Chowdhuri, married her mother, Urmila Devi, a Brahmo Samaj practitioner. Indian social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj, the movement which also promoted equal education and other opportunities regardless of gender.

Bibha Chowdhuri grew up in a household that advocated for the Brahmo Samaj, due to which Bibha and her five siblings received equal education. She received a high-quality education at a time when this was not common practice, especially among women. Chowdhuri studied physics at the University of Calcutta and later completed her MSc degree in 1936.

The True Mind Behind the Discovery of Meson

After Bibha Chowdhuri completed her MSc, she did not remain static in her professional career and went on to continue her research by joining the Bose Institute in 1939. She and Indian physicist Debendra Mohan Bose are widely recognised for their joint contributions to the field of cosmic rays, particles from outer space that travel at nearly the speed of light across the universe.

The duo published their work in a series of three articles in Nature, a British weekly scientific journal. It was during World War II that Bose and Chowdhuri discovered the “pi meson (pion).” Bose and Chowdhuri took “special photographic plates” to a high-altitude region of Darjeeling, where they tried to detect tiny particles from space.

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They were successful in their attempts, as they found long, curved lines passing through the plates. Even though their work was published in Nature, both Bose and Chowdhuri had to discontinue their research due to a lack of the aforementioned emulsion plates.

Seven years later, British physicist Cecil Powell discovered pions and muons using a technique similar to that of Bose and Chowdhuri. Powell received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the mesons in 1950. 

The life of Bibha Chowdhuri received massive attention after authors Rajinder Singh and Suprakash C. Roy wrote A Jewel Unearthed: Bibha Chowdhuri: The Story of an Indian Woman Scientist in 2018. From being the only woman in her MSc batch to being described as a “forgotten legend”, Bibha Chowdhuri passed away in 1991. Thirty-five years later, Chowdhuri is remembered for her life journey, which continues to inspire many future female physicists to make their own space in a male-dominated world.

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(Edited by Harsh Pandey)

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