Meghnad Saha - Tributes To Saha

Tributes To Saha

• "Meghnad Saha's ionization equation (c. 1920), which opened the door to stellar astrophysics" was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science could be considered in the Nobel Prize class." - Jayant Vishnu Narlikar

• "The impetus given to astrophysics by Saha's work can scarcely be overestimated, as nearly all later progress in this field has been influenced by it and much of the subsequent work has the character of refinements of Saha's ideas." - S. Rosseland

• "He (Saha) was extremely simple, almost austere, in his habits and personal needs. Outwardly, he sometimes gave an impression of being remote, matter of fact, and even harsh, but once the outer shell was broken, one invariably found in him a person of extreme warmth, deep humanity, sympathy and understanding; and though almost altogether unmindful of his own personal comforts, he was extremely solicitous in the case of others. It was not in his nature to placate others. He was a man of undaunted spirit, resolute determination, untiring energy and dedication." - D. S. Kothari

• "It is a pleasure to have the opportunity of congratulating you on the occasion of your sixtieth birthday for your outstanding achievements, especially in the field of thermodynamics. As you know, I at one time had the honour of nominating you for the Nobel Prize for your work in the area..." - Arthur Compton"

• "I still remember with great pleasure the inspiration that I received from reading Professor Meghnad Saha's fundamental contributions to the theory of gas ionization..." - Enrico Fermi"

• "I well remember how, on the publication of his early and important paper on ionisation in stellar atmosphere, the late Professor Alfred Fowler drew my attention to it and emphasized its fundamental importance. And so it proved, for this paper was the stimulus to the work of Milne, R.H.Fowler, and others in subsequent years. In fact almost all work on stellar atmosphere has been based on it, either directly or indirectly. The paper provided a new method of attack and opened the way to the solution of many problems that had been puzzling." - Harold Spencer Jones"

• "I have known and admired him for many years. Indeed, I shall never forget the intellectual thrill I derived from learning about "Saha's ionisation equation" in my early days as a graduate student...." - Ernest Lawrence"

• "The Harvard Observatory owes much to Professor Meghnad Saha. His pioneer work thirty years ago on temperature ionisations in sun and stars inspired the activities of British scientists who in turn inspired the work here at Harvard of Mrs. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Donald M. Menzel and Frank Hogg; their work established modern astrophysics in Harvard." - Harlow Shapley"

• "Many years ago when I was a graduate at California, I was working on some things in connection with the ionisation of the alkali metals - a problem which I never succeeded in finishing. In the course of this work I read with great interest your very important publication of that time on the ionisation as it affected the spectra of the star. It was in fact one of the first scientific papers which I read with very great care as a graduate student...I greatly admired this publication and it has been referred to over and over again in the years since..." - Harold Urey"