Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Vainu Bappu, M. K.
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1927 - 1982
History
Vainu Bappu was born on August 10, 1927, in Chennai, as the only child of Manali Kukuzhi Bappu and Kallat Sunanna Bappu. His ancestors are from Thalassery, Kerala. His father was an astronomer at the Nizamiah Observatory in Andhra Pradesh. He attended the Harvard Graduate School of Astronomy for his PhD after obtaining a postgraduate degree from Madras University. He was the Director of Kodaikanal Observatory during the period 1960 - 1982. Under Dr. Bappu, in 1971 Kodaikanal Observatory became the Indian Institute of Astrophysics an autonomous research institute.