Established in 1945 at the initiative of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has grown into a premier institution in the country, facilitating seminal research in fields ranging from mathematics, biology, chemistry, computer science, physics and science education as well as some aspects of public health.
The 400 odd scientists working in various disciplines are grouped into three major schools - the School of Mathematics, the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Technology and Computer Science. The Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education at Deonar, Mumbai, The National Center for Radio Astrophysics at
Pune and The National Center for Biological Sciences at Bangalore are other institutes that form a part of the TIFR activities.
TIFR also has several field stations and research facilities in different parts of the country. A giant meter wave radio telescope, the largest of its kind in the world, situated at Khodad near
Narayangaon, an equatorially mounted cylindrical radio telescope and a high energy cosmic ray laboratory at Ooty and National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad are among the best in the world.
Other facilities in the institute include a library housing more than 100,000 books and journals, a powerful central computing facility, liquid helium facility for very low temperature experimental studies, and a large workshop and glass blowing section for manufacturing high precision instruments.
