JOIN USThe founder director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Dr Pushpa Mitra Bhargava passed away here on Tuesday. He was 89. He is survived by his daughter Vineeta and son Mohit.
Dr Bhargava’s pioneering vision and efforts led to the founding of CCMB in 1977 as an institution for research in basic biology and for seeking its application for the benefit of society. He belonged to the generation of nation building scientists who built the edifice of Indian science.
He was an internationally recognised molecular biologist, thinker and institution builder. His interests and engagements covered science as well as art and culture. Bhargava was a rationalist and campaigned against superstitions.
His formal education began at the age of 10 at Besant Theosophical School in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (UP) where he was directly admitted into Class IX. Till then, he was under the tutelage of his grandfather at home.
He completed intermediate from Queen’s College, one of the best institutions in UP at that time.