A great Indian scientist who excited the minds of youngsters in several fields and played a leading role in India’s first Peaceful Nuclear Explosion (PNE) in May 1974 at Pokhran in Rajasthan, the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) whose name is associated with the PURNIMA reactor, commissioned in 1972 and Dhruv reactor, who received several awards including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award and Padma Bhushan died in Mumbai on December 21, 2011.