Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan: A national programme to ... - Vigyan Prasar

M K Vainu Bappu
Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu was born on 10 August 1927 in Madras
(now Chennai) to a senior astronomer in the Nizamiah Observatory,
Hyderabad, Manali Kukuzhi Bappu. M K Vainu Bappu is credited as the
man behind the creation of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. One
of the greatest astronomers of India, Vainu Bappu has contributed
much to the revival of optical astronomy in independent India. Vainu
Bappu joined the prestigious Harvard University on a scholarship after
receiving his MSc degree in physics from Madras University.
Within a few months of completing his studies, he discovered a
comet, which was then named Bappu- Bok-Newkirk after him and his
colleagues Bart Bok and Gordon Newkirk. He completed his PhD in 1952
and joined the Palomar University in the US. He and Colin Wilson made
an important observation about the luminosity of particular kind of
stars and it came to be known as the Bappu-Wilson effect. He returned
to India in 1953 and played a major role in building the Uttar Pradesh
State Observatory in Nainital. In 1960, he took over as the Director of
the Kodaikanal Observatory and contributed a lot in the modernisation
of it. In 1986, he established India’s largest optical observatory with a
powerful telescope in Kavalur, Tamil Nadu.